He's used to putting things together and making them stick.
Lino Nadalin, a retired welder of almost 39 years at Canfor, now helps mix key ingredients for cookie dough at the Elder Citizens Recreation Association.
The cookie dough fundraiser started six years ago with Kathy Nadalin, ECRA board member, saying she wanted to put ECRA on the map and wouldn't it by nice to be the Cookie Capital of Prince George.
Last year about 30 volunteers created 3,500 pounds of dough at the seniors' facility, with all proceeds going to operating costs.
For $10 a person gets three pounds of frozen cookie dough that can be refrigerated for up to three days and frozen for one year. It can be thawed and refrozen. Just slice and bake.
All the ingredients is top quality, just like homemade, with no preservatives.
Varieties include chocolate chip, ginger snap, snicker doodles, oatmeal, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, sugar and last year pastry dough was added to the roster and the latest addition is baking powder biscuits.
"Honestly, there would be no cookie dough project if it wasn't for Lino," said Kathy. "Lino manages all the volunteers who do the wrapping and packaging of the dough. He manages all the groceries and does all the heavy lifting."
The Nadalins buy more than 4,000 pounds of groceries in preparation of creating the cookies and Lino does all the heavy lifting. He packs the groceries out of the store, into the car and into the ECRA basement storage. When it's time to put the ingredients together he packs it upstairs to the kitchen, waits for other volunteers like Orville Claffey to mix the ingredients using the industrial size mixer, then helps pack and wrap and label the finished product. Lino then takes it all downstairs to the freezers, then when customers pick up the dough, he packs it all back up to the main floor of the centre for distribution.
"I had never set foot in a kitchen except to eat," said Lino, a traditional Italian man. "Now here I am wearing an apron and mixing spices."
This is very much a group effort with Odelia Kranz managing the administrative side of the fundraiser, managing the funds and taking the orders.
If people are looking for a full treat combination, order the baking powder biscuits and pick up a jar of Gertraud Hildebrandt's raspberry jam when they pick up their orders at the Elder Citizen Recreation Centre, 1692 Tenth Avenue. To place orders call 250-561-9381.
