‘We’re All Santa’ ‘Cookie Squad’ Creating New Area Tradition
While most of the community events happening this time of the year are focused on making sure local children have a merry Christmas, a small group of people in Goshen are making sure that the town’s elderly residents aren’t being left out of the holiday celebrations.
For the past three years, a steadily growing number of elves have baked, bagged and delivered cookies and other holiday treats for the town’s seniors and shut-ins.
“It feels good to take something to people,” said Trudy Martin, Goshen’s town clerk, who helped start the tradition in 2023. “It’s just a simple bag of cookies. It’s nothing fancy or expensive. They just love being thought of and remembered. I just like giving back and it feels good.”
Martin’s initial idea was to organize a cookie exchange for town residents, but limited space in the old town hall office kept that idea from coming to fruition.
Discussions with Shelia Sampson, who was the town clerk at the time, led to the idea of putting together gift bags of baked goods for elderly residents in town.
They got a couple other elves to help – Lisa Conner, who does a lot of volunteer work for the town, and David Hall, who oversees the maintenance of the town’s water system – and put together 50 bags to distribute.
“When we grow up, we quit believing in Santa, but in my heart, I believe we’re all Santa,” Conner told The News-Gazette. “If we do something nice for somebody, we’re all Santa. So this gives me a chance to give back a little to the community … If you can make a 90-something-yearold woman smile by bringing a plate of cookies and candies, that’s worth doing. If you can get a cancer patient who hasn’t been eating to just put calories in their body, it’s worth doing. That’s what matters – people knowing they’re not forgotten, that they matter [and] we do care.
“I think more places should do things like this,” she added. “People should know that this matters.”
While the tradition is still new, it’s already grown. This year, the group that Martin refers to as the Christmas Cookie Squad consisted of nearly a dozen members, all of whom contributed in some way, either by baking treats, buying candies or packing the bags. While Martin is the town clerk and Sampson currently serves on Goshen’s town council, the Cookie Squad’s efforts are not funded by the town.
“It’s good to make sure that everyone in the community is giving back to each other, support each other and help each other out, especially this time of year,” said Dani Dunovant, who took part for the first time this year. “Not everyone can have loved ones around, so it’s a good way to join together and have a support system for everyone.”
Last Friday, Martin and Sampson took the 60 bags of cookies that the Christmas Cookie Squad put together and delivered them. They weren’t able to visit with everyone they delivered goodie bags to – since the delivery date isn’t widely announced ahead of time, not everyone was home when they came by – but they spent at least a few minutes with everyone that they could. And the ones who were home to receive the treats and the company were grateful for it.
“It means so much to people like me,” said Clarice Dagnan, who has received a goodie bag each year. “It makes Christmas. This is a real treat, and has been for the last [three] years.”
“I think it’s great, and they’re going out of their way to do it for us, especially on a day like this,” said first-time recipient Margaret Jack.
“It’s kind of a demonstration of Christmas – surprising and wonderful,” noted John Hinton, who told Martin and Sampson as they were leaving that he hopes “Santa Claus is exceptional to you.”
Getting to know these residents, Martin said, has made this tradition more meaningful as it’s gone on.
“I know people better,” Martin said. “I know more people [and] I know their stories better. Although the first year it felt good to see people’s reactions, for some reason it means more to me now, knowing the people and knowing their situations.”
ABOVE, Dani Dunovant, who joined the Christmas Cookie Squad for the first time this year, helps load the 60 bags of cookies for distribution. AT RIGHT, each bag of goodies contained several Ziploc bags of cookies as well as a variety of candies. (Joseph Haney photos)
