It's no secret Pittsburgh connections reach far and wide, so when Laura Magone had an idea to show support to the community in Uvalde, TX, she knew just where to go.
"I had several responses of people saying 'yes, we're within a hour and a half,'" Magone said. "Some people responded from Dallas, some from Houston, saying 'whatever you want us to do, we will.'"
Magone is the creator of the Wedding Cookie Table Community Facebook page. Its 102,000 members typically use the page to share pictures of a cookie table they saw at a recent wedding or exchange recipes. Recently, it transitioned into headquarters for a massive effort to send a cookie table to Uvalde, the town devastated by a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School last month that killed 19 children and two teachers.
Though cookie tables are most commonly known to appear at weddings with Pittsburgh ties, Magone noted they're also used to provide comfort in even the most difficult times.
"This is a very sad, tragic event, but we still wanted to help brighten people's day for just a moment, if we could, and we did that," she said.
After posting her idea to the Wedding Cookie Table Community Facebook page, Magone was inundated with volunteers. She figured she had the resources to send 800 dozen cookies to Uvalde. When it came time to actually bake, volunteers came through with 1400 dozen cookies, hundreds of stuffed animals, and 150 books on grieving.
Volunteers based in Texas were in charge of receiving the cookies and actually hosting the event over the weekend.
Magone recalls one baker in particular based in New Castle. Organizers ordered and paid for dozens of the most "Pittsburgh" cookies like gobs, peaches, and lady locks. When it came time to ship them, something didn't feel right.
"In the end, she couldn't bear to ship those cookies, so she got in her SUV and drove 22 hours down and back to make sure our refrigerated cookies got there in good shape," Magone said. "They had to be there for this."
Magone said the community welcomed the event with open arms. Videos and photos show a line out the door as residents carefully picked which cookies to take home.
The group is also delivering cookie trays to those who responded to the shooting in some way, like hospital workers, funeral homes and school district employees. Leftover cookies will be donated to the food bank.
"Cookies do provide comfort because in a lot of cases, they're homemade. They're made with love and care and concern," said Magone. "The members of our community, with every batch they baked, they had the community of Uvalde on their minds."
