Holiday Cookies for the Homeless 2015

Members of CHS Italian Club in front of the donation box

From December 17th-18th, I ran and  participated in Italian Club's 4th annual Holiday Cookies for the Homeless Drive.









The Holiday Cookies for the Homeless program was started by Howard County resident Lisa Jablonover as a way to give back to those less fortunate by baking homemade holiday cookies and distributing them to the Day Resource Center - a Grassroots program that provides meals, showers, limited laundry and social services to homeless individuals and families in Howard County, Maryland.

Italian Club members sorting out the cookies

This year, the Day Resource Center received an astounding 1,700 cookies thanks to everyone's collective effort- almost half of this amount came from the Italian Club. We were able to increase our donation count from last year and support more people during the holidays.  A shout-out goes to several other Centennial High School clubs for donating cookies - Red Cross, Salvation Army, Culinary Club, Model Congress, Model United Nations and Guitar Club.  Huge thanks you to my grandmother for making this event possible by introducing me to Ms. Jablonover in the first place and donating cookies.

Using the cookie press

 Charles and I first participated in the program back in 2011(click here) when our Grandma Alberta introduced us to the program's founder Lisa Jablonover.

From 2012-2014, we got our high school Italian Club involved in the the program (see here for 2012) and challenged other school clubs to a bake-off competition.  The winner receives a pizza party courtesy of the Italian Club (see more here for 2013 and here for 2014).

The final step: delivering the cookies

I decided to bake festive cream-cheese cookies this year. The ingredients are as follows, for about 3 dozens cookies: 3 ounces of cream cheese, 1 cup of salted butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 2.5 cups of flour.




Remember, just because the 2015 holiday season is over, doesn't mean that Grassroots doesn't need our help. Contact Grassroots here to find out more ways you can help out.

-Thomas

Last-minute reservations in Howard County for New Year's Eve

Get read to boogy down, drink champagne and indulge in fabulous food. It's New Year's Eve 2015! Here are some places that are still taking reservations in Hoco if you're a last-minute larry:

Make reservations here

 Click  here to find out more about the event and the fixed price menu

To make reservations and check out their fixed price new year's eve menu click here

To make reservations and check out their fixed price new year's eve menu click here

To make reservations click here.