Beloved Cookie Mom

Thousands of Homemade Cookies Go Towad School Activities 

By Dave Arnold

Up among the pristine lakes and snow-peaked mountains of Alaska lives the Wasilla High School Cookie Mom.

It was my great pleasure to meet the Cookie Mom and her husband, Ron Rucker, when I visited our 49th state to speak at the NEA-Alaska Education Support Professionals (ESP) Conference. While I was getting acquainted with some of the ESP there, a scenic tour was arranged.

I didn’t know it would include an unforgettable cookie story.

Ron, Association president of the Mat Su local, was my tour guide. We only had one day before my departure. As the awesome scenery was passing before me, Ron called his wife, Nanette, on his cell phone and asked her to prepare a package of salmon for me to carry back to Illinois.

We stopped by her office to pick up the package. It was there that I learned how Nanette became known as the Wasilla High School Cookie Mom.

Nanette not only had a well rounded package of salmon for me, but also had a nice tray of assorted cookies for Ron to carry back to Anchorage for his ESP brothers and sisters. Ron then related the Cookie Mom story.

The Motivator

More than 10 years ago, even before their teen-age son was in high school, they felt that their high school had the best basketball player in the state. However, he wasn’t receiving recognition from college scouts, and perhaps was not performing to his utmost potential. Nanette believed that this young man needed some encouragement.

So, she devised a plan that no young man can resist. She made a batch of his favorite cookies and awarded him a cookie for each point he scored during a game. Of course this became a great motivator for this star athlete.

He also became the envy of his teammates. They asked why they weren’t being given cookies also. Nanette promised that if they started scoring points they would receive cookies too.

Well, a legend was born. They not only started scoring more points, the team started winning games. Many attributed this success to the Cookie Mom. The cookie project soon expanded to other sports and activities.

When their son was in his senior year recently, he became the co-chair of the Alaska State Government Conference. Since the conference was held at their school, the Cookie Mom turned out 4000 cookies for the event. She no longer bakes a cookie per point for athletic teams, but is still competing with the elves in the hollow tree.

Gift of Giving

Nanette now makes gallon bags of cookies for football, volleyball, track, choir singers, debaters, and cheerleaders. She also makes bags of cookies for special classes such as auto body, special education, and human relations.

For the school’s regional basketball tournament, she turned out two coolers packed full of cookies including macadamia nut with white chocolate. She now bakes for a home for runaway teens and for local ESP.

Occasionally she will receive a letter or post card from former cookie recipients now in college. She responds with a care package of cookies. Since she works as a tax pre-payer and accountant, she now bakes early in the morning or late in the evening.

We often underestimate ourselves by thinking that we can’t make a difference. Nanette is an example of how an act of kindness can make a huge difference. Too often we only think of parents and teachers setting examples and touching the lives of children and students. But any ESP and their family can touch lives in profound ways.

This may come in the form of an encouraging word, a smile, volunteered help, or a batch of cookies from the Cookie Mom.

(Dave Arnold, a member of the Illinois Education Association, is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois.)

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NEA or its affiliates.