Baking Gals Featured in Taste of Home Magazine

Read about our national group in Taste of Home!

Thanks

...... what you and all of the bakers do means so much to these guys. It's just the feeling that they get when they receive these cookies and it reminds them of home......

.....Thank you and everyone so much for thinking of Chris. Your hard work just means everything to these men and women......

All the best,

Karen Bragg

A Soldier's Mom Thanks you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Baking Gal's of Ohio :^D

My son, Marine Corporal Tyler Kantorowski was one of your featured soldiers for the month of June.
Tyler is in Iraq and is part of the CLB-4 Combat Engineer Division.
He called me on Monday (8/10) and was so overwhelmed with gratitude for the 8 boxes of cookies he received that day, he told me one of the rules is when you receive a package you have to empty it from the box and take the contents out immediately and put them into a plastic bag and burn the box with all addresses that it was packaged in. He said he couldnt believe it, EIGHT boxes in one day, and 3 of the ladies had packaged their goods together in one box so that was 10 bakers and dozens and dozens of cookies. He said the boxes were all dated June, the most current with a date of June 20th - so since they have been on the road working these packages took 7-10 weeks to catch up with him. He said he copied down as many names as he could before the boxes and packaging were taken away to be burned and wanted to give a heartfelt shout out to: ...
all the ...wonderful bakers that singled him out and made his life a lot brighter that day and many days to follow before the sweets ran out.

Ty said he was immediately surrounded by all the guys looking to see what he had received and what he was sharing with them all. Tyler said it was so wonderful to have a little taste of home and they made great snacks to fill their pockets with out on the road.

Ladies, I tear up when I think of all of you baking for our troops and especially all the prayers that are sent up in their names. Thank you all. Thank you for making my son your Marine for June and for all the prayer directed right at him. Thank you for all your time and all the love and support that went into every batch of every baked good sent. Every day is such a struggle and without FAITH in our DEAR LORD I truly don't think I could have made it thus far, in fact I know I couldnt have. So thank you. :^D This Marine Mami continues to feel so very blessed and very proud of my son and all our military men and women.
Here are a few pics of Ty and his guys. (Tyler is always the tallest one out of the group) :^D

http://www.spiritisup.com/prayerforsoldiers.html

Cheryl Kantorowski

Our Soldiers Share!

One of our bakers, Marilyn, forwarded this email to me. It shows a little how our group works.
Ma'am,
I just want to thank you very much for your cookies that you sent. One
of my fellow Captains, CPT Tony Cox, shared his care package with me and
the cookies are so good!!!!
I appreciate you taking the time to do that for the Soldiers.
With Great Respect,
Nelson
3rd Brigade Combat Team

Soldier Thank You

My name is Tony Cox .... I just wanted to thank you for the cookies I received a couple days ago. They were honestly some of the best cookies I've ever had! My soldiers and I love them. (Or, I should say, loved them... they were gone pretty quickly.) The funny thing is that since they were sitting in our mail container outside, the packages were still warm when they got to us, so it was almost like they just came out of the over when they got to us!

Thanks again from me and my team.

All the best,

Tony Cox

Soldier Thank You

Dear Operation Baking Gals,

I would like to take this time the thank the Operation Baking Gals for the recent delivery of cookies to Eric Augustine. I can’t even explain to you how this has really picked up his spirits while deployed. It seems that he has been labeled the cookie man on the ship. This is the first time Eric has been away from home so your thoughts and gifts of cookies has been greatly appreciated. Please tell those other men and women who are involved in this project that the Augustine family has greatly appreciated your tasty treats and thoughts of those who are serving abroad. We keep all of you in our prayers.

Respectfully,

John, Denise and Jamie Augustine

Love You More Than You Know....

That's the title of a new book by Janie Reinart and Mary Anne Mayer. Subtitled Mothers' Stories About Sending Their Sons and Daughters to War, it has the essays of 45 mothers of U.S. service men and women, mostly from Ohio, who open their hearts and share what it feels like when your son or daughter leaves home to fight a war. A portion of the proceeds for sales of this book will be donated to ReMind.org, a Bob Woodruff Foundation initiative and to the Semper Fi Injured Marines Fund.

Gloria Frombach, the mother of our December soldier, Matt, has eloquently told her story. If you click here, it will take you to a link to the book and you can get a free sample of Gloria's essay on pg 44.
Reading these stories gives us insight to the sacrifice families like this are making every day.

A Family Thank You

Here is a thank you letter and pictures we received. I have more to post, but am running out of time!!!!

"With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I'm not sure I officially thanked you for sending a baking package to Jon. He did most certainly receive it and was so thrilled. It really made a difficult time more tolerable. I think the holidays in general were okay there, but the actual Christmas Day had some violence and I think he wasn't really mentally prepared for that.

He was home for his leave in February and it was wonderful to see him.... Thanks so much again for thinking of Jon and I'm so sorry my thanks are so late. If you are interested, I attached his latest email. He's really doing some interesting and different things now. It sure is a different world over there...."

Sincerely,

Wendy

Hello All!

Today I had a couple early missions and I was done with my duty day by 13:00 (1pm). The afternoon off it not only gave me a chance to take a nap but also a chance to think, and I realized I haven't sent an email to everyone in a long time. Ever since getting back to Mahmudiyah after my R&R leave I have sort of gotten into a groove. I rarely know the date or what day of the week it is.

My attachment to Delta Company has been going well. We have some exciting moments, but thankfully we have plenty of dull ones too. Last week I spent a few very long days on an Iraqi Army Compound teaching Iraqi soldiers "Combat Lifesaver" skills. (the Army's phrase for First Aid) I will try to attach some pictures of the classes. The classes went well. The Iraqis were very eager to learn. Trying to teach a group of guys how to initiate an IV is pretty interesting when the majority of them did not even know what a vein was before we began! They did a good job though, and not too much blood was shed as we practiced on each other.

Most of my missions are humanitarian in nature. We go out and help (re)establish businesses. Ranging from fish farms to little corner markets. We are literally throwing tons of money at these people. Honestly it can be a bit aggravating watching all these funds get handed out knowing that our own country is in a financial crisis. There are times I feel we are doing some real good over here, but a lot of the time I get the feeling we are pushing democracy onto a nation of people who don't really want it.

Today we went to a chicken farm. We were escorting a couple guys from the USDA so they could teach the farmers how to vaccinate their chicks. It is one of the many businesses we are funding. It is interesting and boring at the same time. I never would have thought I would be pulling security on a farm for 3 hours while we were dehydrating chicks so they would drink their medicine. It is up there with watching paint dry. Strange days! While the chicks drank their medicine we took a break and accepted Chai Tea from the farm owner's children. This happens a lot at the homes and businesses we visit. They love their Chai Tea here! Iraqis usually drink it out of the saucer. I drink it from the glass. I just don't want to end up wearing half of it....

Love,
Jon

Plain Dealer writes...

...about our team!

Come join us!

We are in the process of sending baked goods to our March soldier, stationed in Afghanistan. If you would like to join in, once or on an ongoing basis, send an email to the address listed on the left!

Letters From Soldiers and Families

Happy New Year!
Thank you so much for your support to our soldiers! Y'all are amazing!
It is our pleasure to be able to bring a little bit of home to someone so far away from family.

I want to share some letters and comments we have received in the last month....

"As A mother of a son in Iraq this holiday season, I just wanted to say Thank You for what you are doing. Have a wonderful holiday!"

Cindy

"thanks ....
again for your COOKIES
for Doug last month. God Bless you !" Laurie and Jim

Dear Baking gals,

This is Doug Weigelt writing you back to thank you all for the cookies and
thoughtfulness to go out of your way to think of us.  We really enjoyed your
cookies and everybody here wants to thank you for all that your are doing in
your efforts to support the troops.  The cookies were tremendous and your
generosity does not go unnoticed.  I would personally like to thank you and if
there is anything you would like me or the guys to do for you back home just let
me know.  I am sorry that it has taken so long for me to get back to you, it was
unfair to you ladies for me to wait this long to respond, but as you are aware
I'm sure, we don't always have the time to get online as often as we would like.
But take care and again thank you very much for your cookies and thoughts.
sincerely,
Doug Weigelt

Thank you very much for all of the great cookies. I have to tell you, that was one of the most impressive things I have seen during my 15 months in Iraq. I have never seen so many cookies...Everyone here enjoyed them and it meant a lot to us that there are people at home that are thinking of us. I hope you have a great holiday and I can't thank you enough for what you are doing.
Sincerely,
Matt Frombach

We continue to bake each month for a different soldier. If you would like to join our effort, please drop me an email at zimmOhio@aol.com. I will email you when we are baking. You can bake one time or each month.
I want to wish each of you a healthy and prosperous New Year.

How to Ship / FAQs

Here is a link for important info about packing and shipping, and the customs form (which will double as your shipping label). NOTE - in Box 10- if non-deliverable, check "redirect to address below" and add "any local chaplain".

Please use a FREE Military Flat Rate Large box- available from the Post office- also get a customs form while you are there. This box costs $11.95 to ship no matter the weight and is usually much less expensive than any other box.

Add a card, as you would to a pen pal! Also, on the mailing label include Operation Baking Gals along with your name and address in the "from" line. In addition to your customs mailing label, USPS asks that to soldier's name/address info also be written directly on the box.

Here are some more personal tips from a mom who sends goodies-"Most things such as cookies, muffins, cupcakes, loaf quickbreads, I use my Seal a Meal. I seal them as far as I can without smashing them. Then pack them in a box of styrofoam peanuts. Typical way of boxing them. Oh, I also FREEZE them first!! Just to make them last a few extra days. My son said he forgot about some muffins once for 3 weeks since they were out on a mission, and they were just as fresh as freshly baked! So I don't know if it was the Seal a Meal or not. But I would say just pack them as protected as possible. Don't bother to send anything chocolate as it will melt no matter how you try it.
With the seal a meal, everything somehow is compact and able to layer things easily. So that's how I do it. Without it, it'd be a lot of packing in layers of styrofoam wrappings
I freeze then after I seal them, that way I can stack them all up in the freezer to save space. I do a lot of baking on some days and process a bunch of stuff, and then when I send out a package I pull out whatever I have in there. I also seal and freeze things like Little Debbie treat, etc.
Oh, I also, eve though it's a lot more work, seal up like individual size package. Such as 6 cookies to a pack, or 2 muffins. So in case my son is passing something out or someone is there when he's opening a package, he can just toss them cookies, muffins without giving them ALL the goodies!."
Note- I used my food vac and sucked as much air out, before they started to smash. - but didn't freeze. Please remember to NOT send any pork products or meltables- chips in cookies seem to be ok at some times of the year, but when it is summer you may want to use candy coated chips as it gets quite HOT!

WooHoo!!!
We had great show of support for our soldier, Doug of Bay Village, Ohio, a fire and rescue airman stationed in Iraq. I want to send a sincere thank you to all of you who baked! We sent our soldier so much love!
I heard back from Doug's mom Laurie, after he received a couple of the first boxes.
"Yea !!!!! Doug called this morning from Iraq...he just received the
cookies in two seperate boxes....he said they were consumed within
minutes as he shared them with others. An F-18 airplane exploded on
base last night and they had been working for 11 hours controlling the
fire and haz- mat materials. He has lost 15 lbs since Sept. so the
cookies were so appreciated. I hope he will write or email you, but
do know how awesome you gals are for doing this for our military men
and women. Not only did this show Christ to Doug but it was such a
blessing to ME since last year we did Bravery Boxes and Doug was
stateside at MacDill AFB in Tampa land now someone did it for my son
this year !!!! God is GOOD....
Blessings to you and all your bakers !!!

Christmas is coming and it won't take much to bake a few dozen extra cookies for a soldier. We will be sending again before Christmas and we would LOVE for you to join our effort! Send me an email if you would like more info.
If you have a soldier you would like us to bake for in the coming months, PLEASE drop me a line.

Getting Up to Speed!>>>

We are getting ready to send our first shipment to our soldier. I wanted to let those who have inquired if we are accepting soldiers' names- the answer is a resounding YES! Please email me (zimmOhio@aol.com) the name of your soldier and we will be honored to fit him into one of our months ahead.
Thanks to everyone for all the support!

OH Bakes Introduction-Join Us in Baking for Local Troops Stationed Overseas

Calling All Northern Ohio Bakers!
Hi! My name is Fran Z and I live in Northern Ohio. I have been a member of Operation Baking Gals (started by Susan of the blog I'm Becoming DoughMessTic), a great group whose mission has been bombarding our troops overseas with homemade cookies and care packages.
Recently, you may have heard that another of our local soldiers was killed in action- Capt. Mike Medders, Jr. of Avon Lake. So heartbreaking - but Capt. Medders knew the realities he would face at war and chose to enlist anyway. Nothing less than a true American hero. I did not know Capt. Medders personally, but I went to high school with his mom, Lynn, and worked at one time with his dad, Mike.
While I was attending services for Capt Medders I had the chance to talk to a few parents of servicemen and women and told them about the mission of Operation Baking Gals. The people I talked to were so supportive of our little group and encouraged me more by telling me that a lot of soldiers actually receive very few packages from home.
That being said, I emailed Susan and received her blessing to start a more localized group. The plan is to get a group of Ohio bakers, moms, families, and any others who are interested in baking once a month, and send care packages to local servicemen and women stationed overseas. Initially we will all send to one soldier each month, with a new soldier picked each month (to see how this plays out).
If you get a free Military Flat Rate box from the post office, it cost $10.95 to ship all you can fit into the box.
So, I am looking for some volunteers.Would you join the effort?? Could you maybe bake one thing, seal it up and ship it to him? Maybe get a group together to send a box? Would you spread the word??? We all do this on the same week, so he’ll get them all about the same time. Imagine how happy all those homesick troops will be to have homemade goodies!! You can make anything you want, and you really only need to wrap it in plastic and then a freezer bag (with a piece of bread to soak up moisture) or, if you have a vacuum sealer, that would be great. It takes about 7 days for them to get packages, so bear that in mind when choosing something to bake. Cookies of all kinds, bars, even things like trail mix would work well. Anything except pork or meltables!
Please just shoot me a quick email back (zimmOhio@aol.com) letting me know if you are up for this (I really hope you are, I know we Clevelanders and Ohioans have big hearts – and hey – get the kids in on it too – make it a family affair - let them see the lift we get from giving!)
Once I hear from you, I will supply you with the address to send the goodies and any other pertinent information.
Thanks for taking the time to hear me out. I really do appreciate it. And while we may not be cheerleaders, I think this could be a really great morale boosting endeavor…don’t you agree??