by Bea Peterson
Last year Suzanne and Gary Fitzpatrick’s son, Captain Brian Fitzpatrick, USAF, was stationed in Afghanistan. After her package of Halloween cookies was so well received by him, she put together a plan she called Operation Christmas Cookie. Brian was the cookie Santa and distributed boxes of cookies throughout his base. Some of the cookies were shipped to Iraq. This year they decided to continue the project, and all the cookies will be going to Iraq, some to Bagdad and others to Balad, thanks to a friend’s sons stationed there.
Last Friday 308 boxes of homemade cookies were packed into 16 cartons that contained candy, trail mix, hot chocolate and cards from the students at St. Mary’s Academy. A Ballston Lake Church group included protection prayer cards with their cookies.
The cartons weighed over 511 pounds. They should arrive at their destination by this weekend. Suzanne said there were 50 to 60 cookie makers from Pittsfield and North Adams, MA, Albany, Cambridge and Hoosick Falls. Last Friday Mary Medvetz, Rita Downey, Patty Peters, Bob and Donna Fitzpatrick, Richard Medvetz and Gary and Suzanne set up an assembly line to pack the boxes. “We had more cookies this year,” Suzanne said, with pride. Her employer, Berkshire Hematology Oncology of Pittsfield and North Adams paid the shipping. In Iraq next week 308 military men and women will know that folks in Hoosick Falls and the surrounding area want them to have a touch of home for the holidays.