If you’ve noticed the disappearance of sugar, flour and other baking ingredients from the grocery shelves this week, you’ll be glad to know it was used for a worthwhile cause. More than 1,800 cookies were baked for the Community Center’s third annual Valentine’s Day “Cookie Walk” on Wednesday, Feb. 14.

The event is a significant fundraiser for the center and generates well over $1,000 in cookie purchases and generous donations used for operational expenses.

Sign-up sheets for volunteers were posted Feb. 1 and more than 45 bakers registered to bring cookies. The center welcomed donations the day before and throughout the day area residents delivered more than 150 dozen cookies. 

“We have some of the best bakers on the peninsula,” said center director Jane Good. Amy Bateman, who dropped off her contribution in the afternoon, agreed, saying she loves to bake.

Cookie buyers crowded the tables by 10:15 a.m. on Valentine’s Day. The center extended its usual closing to 5 p.m. “We want to make sure that those coming from work have a chance to buy cookies,” Good explained.  

Cookie containers for sale ranged from $3 to $8 and the number of cookie choices was surprising. Aside from the popular chocolate chip or peanut butter, cooks contributed filled cookies, no-bake cookies and heart-shaped decorated cookies. In deference to concerns about the flu, participants were given disposable gloves to wear when reaching for the cookies.

Center volunteers Gladys Beane and Mary Connelly coordinated the event.

Valentine’s Day preparations began a week before the holiday. On Thursday, Feb. 8, Lighthouse Learning Center brought 33 children to the Community Center to make valentines for their families and friends. The children ranged in age from pre-school to fourth grade. The event was coordinated by Angel Ames and Stephanie Guite. The children received stickers to decorate their cards and were served healthy snacks of fruit cups, bottled water and muffins.

Good called attention to the recently renovated area inside the center. Two smaller rooms were combined into one large space and Good felt the new space better accommodated the children’s card workshop and future large group activities. 

As the young artists left, they received their choice of any three children’s books, which were donated by the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor. Kim Hilgendorf of Lighthouse Learning Center praised the event, now in its second year at the Community Center. “We really appreciate the Community Center for making sure the kids have a great time,” she said. “We always look forward to it every year.”

Children and those with a sweet tooth weren’t the only beneficiaries of the center’s Valentine efforts. Participants in the cricut card-making class made cards for residents at St. Andrews’ Safe Havens and the Greens at the center. Other cards were made and hand-delivered to the Gregory Wing at St. Andrews Village by the Community Center’s junior volunteers, who are grammar school students.