Residents Give Fire Crews Just Desserts

Some people say it with flowers. Others send notes.

But when the recipients are firefighters who struggled to save houses and businesses from the ravages of fire, residents of Oak Park, Calabasas, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills opted to say “thank you” with cookies.

Eight Chevy Suburbans and Toyota Land Cruisers worth of cookies.

“If you can imagine a baked dessert, it was there,” said Oak Park resident Scott Harris, who helped organize Friday’s cookie brigade for firefighters. “We had pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, nut bread and fudge.”

And then there were the cookies--chewy oatmeal raisin, gooey chocolate chip and rich peanut butter.

“We wanted to give them something sweet because they are doing something sweet for us,” said Harris’ wife, Randi.

The idea to thank the public servants by bringing sweets to the main firefighters camp in Malibu was born Wednesday with Harris’ two children, Justin and Samantha, who attend school in Oak Park.

“The kids wanted to know what they could do for the firefighters,” their father recounted. “We thought we could bake a couple dozen cookies. It kind of got out of control.”

Supermarkets donated cookies, a printing shop passed out fliers urging residents to bake, and school children from Oak Park and Las Virgenes penned notes for the 4,000 firefighters battling blazes in the area.

About a dozen children, 7-year-old Samantha among them, were on hand to deliver the sweet tokens of gratitude. They also went to a burn center in Sherman Oaks where two injured firefighters are recovering.

“We got to meet some of the firemen,” Samantha said. “That was fun because I had never met a fireman.

“I wanted to thank them because they’re saving part of our world.”