Valentine's Day cards made by local youngsters sent to troops overseas

Years ago the Niwot Cookie Moms developed a holiday tradition of using their baking skills to show appreciation for US troops serving overseas. This year those baked confections were joined by dozens of Valentine’s Day cards, all made by local youngsters to be shipped out in about 25 care packages.

The boxes will go out to military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa and South Korea, as well as on ships in the near and far east.

Area children participated, including preschoolers at Smiling Faces Academy in Longmont, who carefully dipped their feet in paint to make footprint hearts to adorn their Valentine’s Day message. Their cards read: “For all you have done and all you will do, I know I am safe because of you.”

Three classrooms at Niwot Elementary School also joined in the card-making mayhem, including Mrs. Breyer’s third grade class, and students at Mount Saint Vincent’s Early Learning Center also contributed.

The Cookie Moms tradition first started on a Valentine’s Day, but no one could remember how many years ago. “It must have been at least 10,” said Patty Strecker, whose three daughters all served overseas.

“Sarah, the oldest, deployed to Kuwait as a major for the Adjutant General’s Corps,” Strecker said. Laura served as an army nurse in Baghdad for 15 months, and the youngest, Julie, is an army captain stationed in Anchorage Alaska. “[Julie] just returned from 11 months in Afghanistan in the Army’s Signal Corps,” she said.

Years ago Strecker had been baking for her daughters every week when her friend, Pat Murphy, suggested they get organized. “There were about six or seven of us,” Murphy said about the group’s early days (now there are more than 20). They’d get together to bake, and then wait for the cookies to cool down before putting the boxes together.

The process has streamlined since then, with the cookies baked ahead of time, and then gathered along with other goodies that include Chap Stick lip balm, toothbrushes and toothpaste, beef jerky, playing cards (donated by the casinos in Black Hawk), trail mix, packets of lemonade, copies of the Left Hand Valley Courier, chocolate bars, a note, and of course, bags and bags of homemade cookies.

Somebody said, “Patty, some of these [boxes] are too full.” And that’s because they’re stuffed with heart-shaped cookies, cookies with Hershey’s chocolate kisses pressed into their centers, macarons, Kathy Koehler’s chocolate almond biscotti, Linda Vanderpoel’s bags of heart-shaped candy and more.

The table is littered with jelly beans, Kit Kat bars and conversation hearts. Somebody asked where the packets of toothbrushes were. “With all the candy that goes into these boxes—they’ll need toothbrushes,” Maureen Miller joked.

The note from the Cookie Moms tells each recipient how grateful they are for their service. “You are being thought of and remembered and thanked every day,” the letter concludes.

As the Cookie Moms work they talk about their families. Kathy Weibel’s nephew, Joey Scaruzzo is serving in South Korea near what she described as an “active” border.

“He’s in a group of about 30 who patrol in Humvees,” Weibel said. When she wrote to tell him he’d be receiving a box from the Cookie Moms he texted back, “Those are always such a treat and lots of fun! We appreciate it!!!”

Cheryl DeLong’s son-in-law served as a helicopter pilot in the Marines when he was stationed in the Middle East. He was deployed when his son and first child was born. “He had bad allergies,” DeLong said about her grandson. “It was a rough time.”

Yvonne Iden’s step grandson is in the Navy, about to deploy to Guam where he’ll serve as a Seabee, the nickname given to members of the United States Naval Construction Forces (a play on the acronym for Construction Battalion—or CB).

Seabees are engineers who build bridges, roadways and airstrips. They also help native populations in war zones make repairs to damaged infrastructure, explained Karen Copperberg, whose daughter has been deployed twice, serving as a Navy test pilot.

Iden’s daughter is a Lieutenant in the Navy, serving since 1999—she deployed on the USS Eisenhower in the Mediterranean Sea, and served in US embassies in Malta and Rome.

Mary Sokol has no relatives serving in the military, but she wanted to help with the care packages. “It’s the right thing to do,” she said. “It’s time to give back.”

It takes 8-9 days for the boxes to arrive overseas. Shipping costs about $14 per box, and is covered by donations made to the tip jar by attendees at the Rock & Rails concerts.