Allan Thorp is on a mission. He wants to make friends and influence people in the nicest way.
He, on any given day, will walk around town with a giant cookie hanging from a ribbon round his neck.
Thorp uses the cookie dough offered by the annual Elder Citizens Recreation Association fundraiser to make the cookies he shares with others.
Thorp, a member of the Elder Citizens Recreation Association, claims that just the other day he walked into the bank and assisted his damsel-in-distress teller.
"Her stomach was growling very loudly from hunger and I offered her a piece of my cookie," said Thorp, deadpanning for his audience. "I know I helped her by sharing my giant cookie."
He extolls the many other virtues of the cookies made with the cookie dough created for the fundraiser for the Elder Citizens Recreation Association.
"You know if you make the oatmeal cookies big enough and hang them around your neck, you can use them as perfume if it's not a day you've had a shower," said Thorp. "The ginger snaps don't have to be as big because their scent is stronger."
He will look you straight in the eye and claim they were made with his own two hands from scratch but never mentions the fact that all he has to do is reach into the freezer and slice the dough and place it on the cookie sheet.
Marlene Wenschlag admits she's a tall-tale teller, too, but only with the best intentions.
"Every year I buy a whole bunch of cookie dough and then I make the cookies, thinking I will send them out to my grandchildren in Calgary, but then I end up eating them all," said Wenschlag. "And then when I make them for my neighbours - and the cookies actually make it out the door - and the neighbours ask me if I made them from scratch, I always say yes!"
Barb Claffey, ECRA secretary, said the cookie dough brings her family closer together.
"Every year I buy the cookie dough and me and my grandsons make the cookies," said Claffey. "It's so easy and without any fuss or muss and it really makes the boys feel like they've accomplished something. It makes our time together so special when we get to enjoy the baking -- and eating -- together."
The all-natural ingredient cookies are made in the ECRA kitchen under the watchful eye of food-safe certified staff.
The Elder Citizen Recreation Association has an annual operating cost of more than $300,000 and the fundraiser helps offset those costs. Last year the group filled 922 orders for cookie dough and 344 for pastry dough and made a total of $9,000 with all the proceeds going to operating costs, like paying the Hydro bill.
There are seven varieties of cookie dough to choose from, including oatmeal, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, ginger snap, sugar, snicker doodle, and peanut butter.
Three one-pound rolls of dough costs $10, and pastry dough enough for two large single pies costs $2.50. Because the fundraiser is so popular, the volunteers have to make the dough in huge batches. Pick up of the orders takes place Thursdays and Fridays and the last orders will be accepted Nov. 14. There's already 300 orders to fill so the earlier, the better. Call 250-561-9381 to order so you can take credit for these homemade cookies.
