Little Hands Bakery

Joe--

I thought you may be able to help with this. I recently graduated from Salisbury University 2 years ago with a BSN-RN degree. I am now working as an Emergency room RN at Duke University hospital in Durham, NC. I am contacting you in regards to a non-profit organization that is getting on its feet called "Little Hands Bakery". It is being started by one of our fantastic residents and his wife. Having met her, as well as tasted her cookies, I know that her heart is in this for the best! I have copied and pasted the e-mail below. While all of this is going on in North Carolina, it reminded me so much of the community I left behind in Salisbury. I know that the family would appreciate any donations!

"Little Hands Bakery-- we need your help!

I need your help with an exciting project that our family is starting. The mission of Habitat for Humanity has always been very close to my heart. In fact, it was in high school that I really fell in love with Tommy while we were fundraising for our school's Habitat campus chapter. As parents we have enjoyed teaching the important values of gratitude and service to Grace through delivering cookies to support a retirement group of Habitat volunteers on Thursdays. While we bake, we talk about our own family's blessings and the important job that these volunteers are doing. Grace and I have both been so inspired by this group of senior citizens and many of them have become very attached to Grace-- they just light up when she visits the work site and enjoy a nice cookie break. They call her the "cookie girl", show her their progress on the houses they are building and tell her about the importance of helping families who, like us all, deserve a safe home in which to lay their head at night.

It's difficult to find ways for preschoolers and stay-at-home parents to be involved in the community but it's my mission to extend this opportunity to other children. We've started an initiative with Trinity Episcopal Church, Habitat for Humanity Youth United and Duke University to do just that. I am teaching an energizing Parent-and-me baking class in the church's kitchen for young children in which they will learn to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies. We'll also talk about Habitat's mission, their own ability to help others, and do a little taste testing. Duke University parents will be pre-ordering a cookie package to be delivered to their student's dorm rooms during exam week. All the cookies we bake will be delivered by Duke campus chapter members and all proceeds will benefit Habitat. The back of each package will have a blue handprint of the child who helped bake their cookies. We're calling our bakery "Little Hands Bakery" and I hope that the children will learn that even the littlest of hands are capable of great things. My goal is to raise $1000 this year on a trial run and expand our endeavors outside the university and to include many other sweet options in the future.

We've hit the ground running and Duke, Habitat and I have put a lot of energy into advertising and organizing the details of collecting baking ingredients and supplies and gathering volunteers. We're also working with a middle school in collecting many of the supplies. However, because this is being taught as a class we need each "student" to have their own set of bowls, spoons, etc. and thus we need a very large number of duplicates. Would you be willing to open your cabinets and see if you have any extra of the following that could be donated? I would appreciate it SO much. Also, if you would like to help spread the word by forwarding this email I would be very grateful! Our first baking session is scheduled for Dec 3. and you can either call me or ask my sweet, loving, adorable and patient husband who puts up with all my crazy projects to take home your donation. Of course, I'd send him back with some treats to say thank you for your generosity. If you or your children would like to be involved as well, please let me know. Thanks!
Here's what we need:

These could be used or new:
large mixing bowls-- preferably not glass since we don't want any little hands to get cut if one breaks (we need 18)
tupperware containers of all sizes (we need as much as possible for each station to store ingredients as well as to freeze any extra dough)
mixing spoons (need 18)
clear measuring cups-- preferably plastic (need 9)
teaspoons (9)
tablespoons (9)
cookie sheets (6)
cookie cooling racks (the more the merrier:)
spatulas (4)
stools (at least 8)
potholders/oven mitts (6)
cookie dough scoopers (3)

These would have to be new:
Antibacterial hand soap
paper towels
trash bags
parchment paper
dish washing detergent
all purpose cleaner
hair nets
large rubbermade storage container for above materials
large rubbermade containers with removable drawers for a total of 8 drawers
gallon sized ziploc bags