McAllen church bakes cookies for first responders

McAllen - The members and students of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School are giving police officers and firefighters a sweet reward for their service to the community.

Members of the church have baked about 1,300 cookies — and bought hundreds more — to give the first responders as a token of their appreciation for protecting and serving McAllen residents. Students from St. Paul’s school made cards and wrote letters thanking the officers and firefighters for the work they do.

They plan to deliver the goods to the Police Department and fire stations Friday, which marks the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Church members said they were pleased to do something to honor the public servants.

“To me it means a lot,” said McAllen resident Cris Ausborn, whose late husband was a firefighter with the McAllen Fire Department for 32 years. He rose to the rank of assistant chief and retired 15 years ago, Ausborn said. “Sometimes we (the community) take them for granted.”

The church and school decided to take part in the project, called Caring with Cookies 9/11, as part of an outreach effort that the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has dubbed 72 Partners on the Road. This is the first year the local church has participated in the campaign, said Toni Ruiz, the cookie project’s main organizer and a member of St. Paul’s.

Volunteers spent Wednesday making small bags of cookies adorned with ribbons and a card with the words “thank you” in nine languages — representing the different languages spoken by the school’s students — as well as listing Bible verses.

“Our goal is (making) 450 bags of cookies,” Ruiz said.

Other volunteers organized students’ cards and letters for the first responders.

St. Paul’s fifth-grader Emmie Mehis, 10, spent the afternoon helping the grown-ups make the bags of cookies.

In class earlier she had made a card thanking firefighters.

“We got paper and we could put anything on it and write something inside and draw pictures,” Emmie said.

Her card said, “Dear firefighter, you’re so cool.”

When asked what she thought about making the cards for the firefighters, she said, “It’s nice to (do for) them.”

The heads of the city’s police and fire departments said they’re looking forward to receiving the treats Friday.

“It’s a very special overture on their part, very significant, very thoughtful on a day that is somewhat solemn,” said Police Chief Victor Rodriguez.

Fire Chief Rogelio Rubio said such gestures from the community mean a lot to firefighters.

“Especially knowing (they’re being) recognized for serving their community,” he said of the firefighters. “They don’t ask for anything in return.”

Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.