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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Along with the days before vacations and weekends, early releases are among some of the most hotly-anticipated school days for Westwood students. With so many excellent options of how to spend their school-free afternoons, though, it can often be difficult to decide on how to maximize the extra two hours of the day.
One group of middle and high school students, however, usually find their half-days are best spent with the First Baptist Church in Westwood.
Two sisters participate in the First Baptist Church’s ‘Kids in the Kitchen’ program to learn baking basics and enjoy time together.
Through the church’s “Kids in the Kitchen” program, students ages 12 and up can spend their early release days cooking and baking away, learning life-long skills while socializing with friends. To celebrate the last half-day of 2017, the kids baked sugar cookies and decorated them, dividing their yield amongst themselves to take home and reserving some for church members and volunteers.
“It started out two years ago when the church was looking for a way to give back to the community,” explained Christine Keddy, Associate Pastor of Family Education and Outreach. “They discovered that there was a need: that on the early release days, the kids really needed something to do.”
What started with a sewing class eventually morphed and evolved into the cooking program, which consistently attracts just over 20 students.
Once a month, the church pairs the “Kids in the Kitchen” program with a community service project, like collecting donations for hurricane victims and fundraising for families with children in the NICU.
Middle school students at First Baptist Church’s ‘Kids in the Kitchen’ decorate Christmas sugar cookies.
In the new year, the students will be doing even more community outreach programs, including making gift bags for the residents of Rosie’s Place and making fleece blankets to donate to Project Linus.
“It’s really fun because even though you bake cookies and all that, you get to do the service projects and help people,” said a seventh-grader who spends most of her half-days at the First Baptist Church.
Although the memories they create with friends and the satisfaction of doing some community service work is worthwhile, the students also get the chance to build a cookbook with all of the recipes they use in the “Kids in the Kitchen” program. At the end of the year, their cookbooks will include the cookie recipe, a homemade macaroni and cheese recipe, and a whoopee pie recipe.
The kids rolled out cookie dough, carefully selecting cookie cutters and even crafting their own cookie designs, like diamonds and facial features on gingerbread people. Many of the groups stuck an M&M in the center of flower-shaped cookies, and some attempted to stick Hershey Kisses in the center of their dough.
With their cookies fresh out of the oven, the kids carefully snatched them from the tray and began decorating using frosting and sprinkles, doing their fair share of snacking as they decorated.
“This has been a really awesome program,” said Rev. Dr. Stephanie Salinas. “We’ve really enjoyed it and it’s a lot of fun.”
