"Crunch" Time at Osan

(Rebecca Mattison is an Osan spouse. She and dozens of other Team Osan volunteers spent several days in October and November baking more than 90,000 cookies to be distributed to servicemembers throughout the Korean peninsula for the holidays. It's all part of Team Osan's "Cookie Crunch.")



Cookie Crunch this year was wonderful!! I am not sure how long it has been going on, but it is a unique program at Osan because of the small number of accompanied Airmen compared to the huge number of Airmen and Soldiers we give cookies too. I love being a part of it because not only do I get to volunteer with other spouses from the base, but also with Active duty volunteers from across the Wing, 7 Air Force and the tenant units.


Sometimes, military members even came in during their lunch breaks, on a day off or Saturday. Some of them even take a day off to volunteer and bake cookies. Everyone from chiefs to colonels to airmen, they all came out to help bake cookies and do their part to help make Cookie Crunch a success.

When I'm baking cookies at the Mustang club on base it feels like I'm working in Santa's workshop! When volunteers show up they are given a job to do like breaking eggs, mixing dough or scooping dough onto pans. The bakers are given the job of putting the pans of cookies into one of the six massive ovens we use. Usually, all six of the ovens are going at one time! Other volunteers help put cookies into bags and pack them into boxes. It is a great chance to meet people from all walks of life at Osan. While it is hard, exhausting work, it is so much fun you don't notice how hard you are working until it is over. My family knew that after a day of baking at Cookie Crunch, they could expect a take-out meal from one of the many Services restaurants on base :)



It feels good to know we provided a taste of home in the form of a few cookies to every unaccompanied Airman and Soldier at Osan and Kunsan and the consolidated operating bases.