Diana Stuart, an Air Force spouse at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, sorts through a box of cookies made with pretzels and candy Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. Thousands of cookies were donated for the annual holiday cookie drive, organized by the Ramstein Officers Spouses Club, for single and unaccompanied service members. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Diana Stuart, an Air Force spouse at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, sorts through a box of cookies made with pretzels and candy Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. Thousands of cookies were donated for the annual holiday cookie drive, organized by the Ramstein Officers Spouses Club, for single and unaccompanied service members. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
These gnomes were among thousands of homemade cookies donated for the annual cookie drive at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Dec. 12, 2019. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Volunteers choose from a variety of cookies to box up for single and unaccompanied service members during the annual holiday cookie drive at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Dec. 12, 2019. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Elizabeth Chambers, an Air Force spouse at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, boxes cookies on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, for the annual holiday cookie drive at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Community members donated more than 18,000 cookies in two days for the annual holiday cookie drive at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Dorm residents and unaccompanied personnel at Ramstein Air Base and Kapaun Air Station, Germany, are receiving boxes of a dozen holiday cookies. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Dozens of cookies sit on a table Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, before being boxed up inside the Ramstein Officers Club at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — There will be no shortage of cookies in the airmen dorms this year.
The Ramstein Officers Spouses Club’s annual holiday drive received 18,000 cookies over two days, enough to amply feed 1,500 single and unaccompanied residents at Ramstein and Kapaun Air Station.
“They just kept coming and coming,” Kristie Connolly, ROSC president and cookie drive coordinator, said Thursday.
Leftovers went to various agencies, she said, including the Fisher House, seven fire stations and the Deployment Transition Center, which helps personnel from bases worldwide adjust after returning downrange from a deployment.
More will to be flown to Africa, where some 1,500 Ramstein airmen are currently deployed, Connolly said.
Volunteer bakers included school groups, Boy Scouts, community organizations and individuals. Most cookie donations were homemade, Connolly said.
svan.jennifer@stripes.com Twitter: @stripesktown
