mrstweedy
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2010
- Messages
- 18
We are all immensely saddened about the news that the Guests will no longer be at the Academy. I have been very close friends with Carol and Gene for the four years we have been working together on Cooke Café, and I am sure that it is not their choice to leave their relationship with the students, as their first priority is to support and love them. They very much want Cookie Café to continue, and are quite willing to help with the transition.
At the start of last year, the funding that was provided to Cookie Café by the Chapel was no longer available. With no other way to continue with Cookie Café, we started a non-profit corporation with the purpose of receiving donations from parents that would cover the weekly essentials other than cookies. The parents stepped up in a big way, and we received enough money to make it through the year. We have been receiving funds for the upcoming year as well. The corporation and website (which I have donated personally) have no connection with the Guest’s volunteer work or the Academy.
This is what Cookie Café involves: first off, the communications. I manage the website that provides the current schedule and list of sponsors and bakers, as well as background, instructions and weekly photos and stories. I also coordinate with each regional Parent Association to remind them of their upcoming sponsorship and get the list of bakers and their emails so Carol can send a personal thank you. Finally, I manage the donations and books, and provide tax receipts.
On the location side, Carol and Gene’s weekly contribution involves almost 2 full days. Receiving approximately 100 pounds of cookies and providing freezer space, shopping for 16 gallons of milk and replenishing all other supplies. Packing the van with cookies and coolers and arriving at Land Hall at 7:30 am on Thursday morning. With the help of two other parents, the four of them unpack, unwrap, place cookies in pans, write tent cards, set up table cloths, and all the beverages over a four-hour period (16 man hours). Another parent bakes on site for 5 hours. During Cookie Café Carol would spend her time talking with students at their request, and Gene would help tutor students. Clean up starts at 4:30 and the Guests leave around 5:30. Next day is spent washing tablecloths and writing thank-yous. This gives you an idea of the time involvement that needs to be replaced by whomever takes the Guests place.
In a letter to the Parent Association Presidents, Mary Jane Fuschetto, Co-Chair of the National Parents Association, states that Cookie Café will be picked up by the Midshipmen's Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Fund under the Department of the Commandant. I have not been contacted about this, but certainly want Cookie Café to continue the wonderful service it provides to the kids.
I have been given no guidance about how Cookie Café will move forward at this point in time. The donations that have come in for 2011-2012 are currently frozen while we work through this transition. If Cookie Café proceeds under a new program, I will offer those who have sent donations the option of a refund, you do not need to worry about that.
Cookie Café belongs to, and is affiliated only with, the Kings Point parents at large, not a specific Parent Association. So until I hear otherwise I ask you, as president of the Cookie Café Corporation, what you want to do about the future of Cookie Café, and what suggestions you have. I know everyone’s first concern is figuring out a way to make Cookie Café continue for the students, and I will do everything I can to make it happen.
At the start of last year, the funding that was provided to Cookie Café by the Chapel was no longer available. With no other way to continue with Cookie Café, we started a non-profit corporation with the purpose of receiving donations from parents that would cover the weekly essentials other than cookies. The parents stepped up in a big way, and we received enough money to make it through the year. We have been receiving funds for the upcoming year as well. The corporation and website (which I have donated personally) have no connection with the Guest’s volunteer work or the Academy.
This is what Cookie Café involves: first off, the communications. I manage the website that provides the current schedule and list of sponsors and bakers, as well as background, instructions and weekly photos and stories. I also coordinate with each regional Parent Association to remind them of their upcoming sponsorship and get the list of bakers and their emails so Carol can send a personal thank you. Finally, I manage the donations and books, and provide tax receipts.
On the location side, Carol and Gene’s weekly contribution involves almost 2 full days. Receiving approximately 100 pounds of cookies and providing freezer space, shopping for 16 gallons of milk and replenishing all other supplies. Packing the van with cookies and coolers and arriving at Land Hall at 7:30 am on Thursday morning. With the help of two other parents, the four of them unpack, unwrap, place cookies in pans, write tent cards, set up table cloths, and all the beverages over a four-hour period (16 man hours). Another parent bakes on site for 5 hours. During Cookie Café Carol would spend her time talking with students at their request, and Gene would help tutor students. Clean up starts at 4:30 and the Guests leave around 5:30. Next day is spent washing tablecloths and writing thank-yous. This gives you an idea of the time involvement that needs to be replaced by whomever takes the Guests place.
In a letter to the Parent Association Presidents, Mary Jane Fuschetto, Co-Chair of the National Parents Association, states that Cookie Café will be picked up by the Midshipmen's Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Fund under the Department of the Commandant. I have not been contacted about this, but certainly want Cookie Café to continue the wonderful service it provides to the kids.
I have been given no guidance about how Cookie Café will move forward at this point in time. The donations that have come in for 2011-2012 are currently frozen while we work through this transition. If Cookie Café proceeds under a new program, I will offer those who have sent donations the option of a refund, you do not need to worry about that.
Cookie Café belongs to, and is affiliated only with, the Kings Point parents at large, not a specific Parent Association. So until I hear otherwise I ask you, as president of the Cookie Café Corporation, what you want to do about the future of Cookie Café, and what suggestions you have. I know everyone’s first concern is figuring out a way to make Cookie Café continue for the students, and I will do everything I can to make it happen.