Gretchen Holt-Witt - Cookies for Kids Cancer: Best Bake Sale Cookbook

Copyright 2011 by Gretchen Holt-Witt. All rights reserved.

Photography Copyright 2011 by Lucy Schaeffer

Designed by Cassandra J. Pappas

Food styling by Cyd McDowell

Prop styling by Michelle Rotman

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Witt, Gretchen Holt, 1967

Cookies for kids cancer : bake sale cookbook / Gretchen Holt-Witt ; with Sally Sampson ;
Photography by Lucy Schaeffer.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-94761-6 (cloth : alk. paper); 978-1-118-11053-9 (ebk); 978-1-118-11054-6 (ebk);
978-1-118-11055-3 (ebk)

1. Cookies. 2. Cookbooks. I. Sampson, Sally, 1955II. Title.

TX772.W5485 2011

641.8654dc222010048202

Printed in China

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Prince Liam

Our love, our life, our inspiration, and number one Good Cookie.

We love you.

Mommy, Daddy, and Ella

introduction

It was never my goal in life to be known as the mom daring enough (or is it crazy enough?) to bake and sell 96,000 cookies for a good cause when, in truth, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. And I certainly never dreamed of starting a pediatric cancer nonprofit that encourages people to host bake sales as a way to raise money to support research. Honestly, I wasnt even much of a baker.

Now dont get me wrong, I love to bake. And even more than baking, I love sharing beautiful and delicious cookies, cupcakes, breads, bars, and even elaborately decorated cakes. To me, the act of baking is an act of love, and while I am passionate about baking, my true passion is being Liams and Ellas Mommy.

But my goals in life changed in an instant when my precious 2-year-old son was diagnosed with pediatric cancer in 2007, and suddenly only one thing in the world mattered to me, to my husband, and to his adoring sister Ella: Liams health. Suddenly, I found myself asking a million questions related to pediatric cancerabout treatment options, side effects, long-term ramifications, and worst of all, why I didnt know more about the disease I was just learning claims the lives of more children in the U.S. than any other. These are not questions any parent should have to ask, and the answers we learned left a few things crystal clear.

First, we learned there are not nearly enough treatment options currently available for kids battling cancer. And of the options available, many of the drugs will likely cause harm equal to or greater than the cancer itself or, even worse, were not even designed for use on kids, so the dosing or long-term side effects are just now known.

Second, we learned of doctors and researchers across the country and around the world committing countless hours and years to the discovery of new and improved treatments for kids with cancer. These doctors are dedicating their careers to saving kids lives, which makes them heroes to all who know them.

Finally, the most crushing immediate lesson we learned is that these hardworking and dedicated doctors and researchers often place their ideas on a shelf due to lack of funding to begin clinical trials. New treatments are largely dependent upon private funding. And testing theories, medicines, and treatments in clinical studies is how science moves forward. Theres only one problem: In many cases they dont have the funding needed to develop therapies that have been proven to work in a lab, and drug companies are not interested in making them because theyre just not profitable enough. So essentially, there is a need to find private funding from people like you and me, who share a passion for children and who want to help doctors create new treatments for the battle against pediatric cancer. But since, as one doctor told us, kids with cancer dont make headlines, getting the word out to people about the need and inspiring them to get involved is often an uphill battle. And as one TV producer told me, she didnt want to cover a story about pediatric cancer because it just wasnt happy.