A little taste of home

by Casey Andrysiak
2d Engineer Brigade

12/5/2013 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- The beginning of December brought a surprise for troops living in barracks and dorms around Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in the form of a decorated bag adorning each doorknob.

Inside were homemade cookies, baked by volunteers across base.

"It was awesome surprise to come home to the barracks and get some cookies I didn't expect to get," said Pfc. Antonio Tolefree of the 205th Ordnance Company.

"They tasted awesome - my favorites are the chocolate chip and the peanut butter.
"I was walking to my room and there was a bag - it looks like an elementary student decorated the bag; it was awesome," Tolefree said. "There was a candy cane and a little message, 'From the JBER family.' It really made me feel special, made me appreciate that someone thought about the guys that live in the barracks."

JBER's 2013 "Spread the Warmth, Share a Cookie" campaign started from a simple, two-step equation.

First, determine the number of recipients - 2600 single Soldiers and 600 single Airmen.
Second, multiply that number by one dozen. Answer? 40,000 cookies.

The annual cookie drive here began 18 years ago on Elmendorf Air Force Base; similar cookie campaigns occur on almost every military base during the winter holiday season.
JBER's cookie drive was unique this year in that it included cookie distribution to all single Soldiers and Airmen - a reflection of how joint-basing principles are implemented at all levels of an installation.

"It didn't matter if you were Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine, or Coast Guard," said JoAnn Handy, wife of Air Force Lt. Gen. Russell Handy, commander of Alaskan Command. "The goal was to bring a taste of home to all single military members living in the dorms and barracks on JBER - something that could not have been achieved without volunteers across all military communities."

Military and civilian bakers had the monumental task of baking the 40,000 cookies and delivering them to volunteers at the Arctic Warrior Events Center and Warrior Zone collection points.

Thousands of carefully baked cookies - chocolate chip, sugar, gingerbread, peanut butter; iced, sprinkled, sugared - were collected from generous, thoughtful chefs.

Army and Air Force leadership were on hand to receive the cookies and undertake rigorous quality inspections including flavor, texture and overall palatability.

Command Sgt. Maj. Bryan Lynch, senior enlisted advisor for the 2d Engineer Brigade, dropped off 52 bags of cookies, each bag containing six sugar and six gingerbread cookies.

"On Sunday, I started up the oven and the TV," Lynch said. "I used the oven timer so I could watch some football, and baked."

Volunteers at the AWEC were charged with sorting, organizing and packaging the cookies into about 3,200 bags, each tagged with a holiday message.

The bags, designed for hanging on a barracks door handle, were decorated by children from JBER schools including Mt. Spurr, Orion, Aurora, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor elementary schools, as well as the Torch Club of the Ketchikan School Age Program.

On Wednesday, Air Force Master Sgt. Jeffrey Urbanski orchestrated the cookie delivery to the Soldiers and Airmen in unaccompanied housing. Army and Air Force non-commissioned officers distributed more than 3,000 bags of cookies.

This year's cookie drive, led by the Air Force 3rd Wing, was a joint-volunteer effort supported by many organizations and individual volunteers including the Elmendorf Officers' Spouse's Club, the Armed Services YMCA, Army Community Services, Army Family Readiness Groups and the JBER First Sergeant's Association.