Kathy Nadalin is sorry for putting so many cookies into the mouths of the people of Prince George.
"We take full responsibility for the three thousand pounds of cookie dough that's distributed throughout the community," said the organizer of the seventh annual cookie dough fundraiser at the Elder Citizens Recreation Association.
Each year, the labour-intensive fundraiser sees members of the centre gather together to lift, weigh, measure, mix and wrap cookie dough that's ready to go for those who need a fast and easy way to enjoy high-quality treats every day or for special occasions.
Saturday is the first of three baking days at cookie dough headquarters where 1,000 pounds of cookie dough will be assembled at the centre by 24 volunteers. There will be seven in the kitchen and 17 wrappers and rollers.
It will take 280 kilograms of flour, 1,212 eggs, and 225 pounds of margarine just to get going.
It's starts with ECRA members Kathy and Lino Nadalin going to buy all the ingredients in advance of the fundraiser's start date. They make many trips to the grocery store on sale days to make it happen.
When they get home, they start to prepare by putting the dry ingredients together ahead of time. Then it's time to take it all over to the Centre for storage down in the basement. When it's close to baking day, all the flour, margarine and other ingredients have to be hauled back up the stairs to the kitchen. Once the dough is made and wrapped, it's time to haul it all back down to the seven freezers in the basement ready for pick up day. On pick-up day, it's all hauled back up to the waiting arms of those lucky enough to have placed their orders before the Nov. 12 deadline.
Available for order is dough for chocolate chip cookies, ginger snaps, oatmeal cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies and frozen pastry dough.
Another side of volunteerism that goes into the cookie dough recipe are those who take the orders by phone for six weeks. Barb Claffey took on the role of coordinator for the call takers. It will take 324 volunteer hours to take the more than 1,000 orders of cookie dough and about 300 orders for pastry dough.
The dough comes in packs that contain three one-pound packages of cookie dough for $10 each.
The dough can stay in the refrigerator for up to three days and can be frozen for up to a year. The dough can be thawed and frozen. All the baker has to do is slice it and put it in the oven.
The pastry dough comes in a pack of two, so one order can make a pie with a top on it or two bottom shells.
Last year's efforts raised $12,823, with all proceeds going to operating costs. The annual operating cost for ECRA is $310,000, which is supplemented by a gaming grant of $71,000 going towards.
The remaining $239,000 must be raised by the members of the association to keep the centre running.
"Thank you so much to everyone in Prince George who orders the cookie dough," said Nadalin.
"Without people calling in, there wouldn't be a cookie dough fundraiser," said Claffey.
The Cookie Dough Hotline is 250-561-9381 Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
