These cookies made by children at St. Stephen United Church of Christ in New Holland are ready for delivery to hospitalized veterans.
Becky Snyder, 14, Hayden Laukhuff, 13, pastor David Goode, Logan Weaver, 16 and Dylan Griest, 16, hold some of the cookies they baked at St. Stephen United Church of Christ in New Holland to give to veterans on Valentine's Day.
Children at St. Stephen United Church of Christ in New Holland make valentine cookies for hospitalized veterans. Other groups and churches also participated by providing hundreds of valentines and cookies.
In the 1980s, advice columnist Ann Landers urged her readers to send special Valentine's Day cards to hospitalized veterans.
"We can never repay these valiant vets for the sacrifices they have made," she wrote in her column, "but we can do something to cheer them up and let them know that they have not been forgotten."
Today, all across the country, the valentines are still pouring in — and Lancaster County does its part.
Each year, an assemblage of local churches and businesses adds to the love by providing hundreds of valentines and cookies to the Lebanon and Coatesville Veterans Affairs medical centers.
"We do this to honor the veterans and make their day a little special," said Dorothy Carvelle of New Holland, who packs the lacy crop into her Chevrolet Blazer for delivery.
Her cargo results from the combined efforts of St. Stephen United Church of Christ, her own Trinity Lutheran Church, Evangelical United Methodist Church, the New Holland Area Woman's Club, Shady Maple Farm Market and Yoder's Country Market.
"The winter is long, and you're in a hospital," Carvelle said, "and it's nice to be perked up with something."
That something once was limited to heart-shaped messages, but now it includes something sweeter.
Several new members of the St. Stephen congregation gathered last week in the church's kitchen to produce more than 200 chocolate chip and sugar cookies, which will supplement the valentines.
"We probably made more than that," pastor David Goode laughed, "but we were eating them."
The congregation at large donated an addition 360 cookies, and the Sunday school classes contributed 120 more.
Shady Maple and Yoder's, who joined the outreach this year, donated a combined 360 cookies.
All in all, Carvelle's delivery will bring valentines and cookies to more than 410 patients at each medical center, she said.
Spokesmen at both hospitals said the gifts will mainly reach the veterans on the trays of their Valentine's Day meals.
"You just get a nice smile because it kind of takes them back to the younger days," Earl Johnson, chief of voluntary service at the Coatesville center, said.
"We are always excited."
