CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Fifth-grader Jordan Bayang pours nuts into the shortbread dough during Ho'ala School's cookie baking day. He helped make 60 batches of dough.
Cookies create
calorie-rich
camaraderieHo'ala School parents, students
and teachers marshal their energy
into a fun fund-raiser
The day before Cookie Bake is Butter Day. This is when a dozen people get together to unwrap sticks of butter. For three hours.
CORRECTION
Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003>> The telephone number to call for shortbread cookies from Ho'ala School is 621-1898. A story on Page D1 yesterday included an incorrect number.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.
It's all part of an annual ritual for parents whose kids attend Ho'ala School in Wahiawa, where the year's major fund-raiser is a cookie sale.
Shortbread sale
Ho'ala School's benefit cookies and gelato are available in a very limited supply. Call 225-6588 or visit Ho'ala School, 1067 California Ave. in Wahiawa to buy:Cookies in flavors of chocolate chip, cinnamon-macadamia nut and chocolate chip-cinnamon, $6 per dozen.
Cinnamon gelato with cookie pieces, $5 a pint. Also available at La Gelateria, 819 Cedar St. in Honolulu.
In most cases, a benefit like this means distributing bags of commercially prepared cookies. At Ho'ala it's a matter of everyone's hands in the dough -- mixing, shaping, baking and bagging.
This year, the school expects to sell 5,000 dozen. If that's a difficult number to get your mind around, think of it as 60,000 individual cookies, which should net $25,000.
To make it work, the 122-student school asks the help of every parent, every teacher and every student in fifth grade through 12th. "This year is a very good year," coordinator Colette Shichida says -- 90 percent participation.
The 2003 Cookie Bake took place on Sept. 15, a Saturday, beginning at 4 a.m. and lasting all day.
As always the effort straddled two schools: Ho'ala, which provides the volunteer power, and August Ahrens Elementary in Waipahu, which provides the kitchen (Ho'ala doesn't have one large enough to accommodate such a massive project). August Ahrens also provides cafeteria manager Harold Ferwerda, who supervises the making of the batter.
Ferwerda feeds one of the largest elementary school populations in the state and runs a catering company, Casey's Home Style. He says he helps every year because it's something he knows, and shrugs it off as no big deal. He didn't even want his picture taken.
But Shichida is clear about Ferwerda's contribution: "Harold is our savior."
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ho'ala School Principal Nancy Barry, center, helps roll out shortbread cookies as part of a school fund-raiser. Volunteers made 60,000 cookies in a day. With her are Ali Vinson, left, and Shanae Souza.
This year, Ferwerda's batter-making assistant was Jordan Bayang, a fifth-grader, who showed up for his shift at 4:30 a.m. "I was looking around for a job, so I started pouring sugar."
Together, he and Ferwerda would make 60 huge batches of dough, using the school's gigantic standing mixer. Ingredients were going in by the bagful.
By the way, the recipe is a secret, so don't bother asking for it. Shichida says to think of it as "butter, flour, sugar and lots of love."
OK, maybe that was corny, but you can't argue with success.
About half of Ho'ala's cookies are sold before the baking even begins. Each student is asked to sell 40 bags of a dozen cookies, Shichida says. The stock is usually gone within two weeks, or just after Thanksgiving, which means if you want some, you need to find yourself a Ho'ala kid or call the school fast.
"Each year, we build up such a following, people are waiting," Shichida says.
This year, Principal Nancy Barry has arranged for an adjunct fund-raiser: The broken cookies are being incorporated into a cinnamon gelato by La Gelateria. The 500 pints went on sale Friday at the school and the store, and probably will be gone in a few days, too.
The Ho'ala Cookie Bake began 15 years ago, not long after the school opened in 1986. It draws not just current staff and students, but retirees, teachers who've moved on, parents whose kids have moved on and students who've graduated.
Eighth-grader Jaycie Petersen, standing at the cookie-rolling station, sums up the attitude: "Cookie Bake is the best part of the year."
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