All-day long, we are accosted by negative headlines. In a world where stories like these are the epicenter of our lives, maintaining a positive outlook on life can be hard, but let’s face it: It is officially the holiday season. Many people see next month as “the most wonderful time of the year.” There are many holidays to celebrate and days off from school. Generally, most people are in good spirits. So, to ring in the holiday season, this week’s edition of “The Good News” pertains to a winter holiday classic – cookies.

Huntingdon, PA – In this small town of just 7,000, quarantine was home to many instances of giving back and many home-baked goods. It all started when a Huntingdon man made a quarantine bucket list, vowing to develop one new skill each week. Like many of us, he tried to make use of his free time by learning new skills and trying new things. The very first thing on his bucket list was to learn to bake cookies.

“I made an absolute mess of the kitchen, but the cookies were actually pretty good,” he said.

After that, he posted a picture of the batch on his Facebook account, causing his friend and fellow Huntingdon resident to challenge him to a bake-off, so they secured a judge, each baked a batch of cookies, declared one of them dinner and donated the extra cookies to essential workers. Little did they know the news of their cookie competition had spread around Huntingdon, and many residents wanted to join the cookie bake-off. Now, each week for the last eight months, Huntingdon residents have participated in the bake-off for the chance to win bragging rights and the opportunity to donate cookies to the homeless, essential workers, food banks and hospitals, among other community establishments in need. They have come to call the initiative, “Cookies for Caregivers.”

“We blinked twice, and we’re now 35 weeks in, and we have delivered just slightly below 1,300 dozen cookies,” the original cookie-baking Huntingdon resident said.