A truckload of home-baked cookies is on track to head about 50 miles northwest out of Aiken this week, en route to a rough neighborhood.
Kairos Prison Ministry, supported by a variety of local churches, has an outreach effort set to begin Thursday afternoon and run through Sunday at McCormick Correctional Institution. Donated cookies - about 6,000 dozen of them - are part of the program in the maximum-security facility for men.
On board for this month's effort are such local congregations as St. Paul Lutheran, South Aiken Presbyterian, St. John's United Methodist, Second Providence Baptist, St. Bartholomew's Episcopal and Midland Valley Community Church of the Nazarene.
"I am just glad to be able to share the love of Jesus to the prisoners through these cookies," wrote Elizabeth Whitlaw, 13, who is a part of Millbrook Baptist's cookie crew.
Planning to be in cookie-baking mode all day today is Aiken resident Kathie Fowler, with St. Thaddeus Episcopal. She is looking to fill a few banana boxes with her oatmeal-raisin and chocolate chip creations, and noted that a principle she keeps in mind is expressed in the biblical passage (Matthew 25:36) where Jesus said, "I was in prison and you visited me."
Baking cookies for Kairos, Fowler said, is "a way to visit in prison without physically going, and you can bake your cookies and get them to participate in church, and feel like you visited in prison."
Michaela Scotten, 17, with Grace Church, is among Kairos' more prolific local bakers. She started in late February and has been freezing her creations in preparation for this week's distribution. For a Kairos weekend in September 2014, she baked about 200 dozen cookies.
"My attitude is, I want to help people in need as much as I can," she said. "I've always had a heart for lost people, and ... this helps me, to be able to help the prisoners."
Store-bought goodies, ranging from Oreos to sugar-free options, are also a part of the mix. Some volunteers express the hope, in the midst of several days of focusing on the basics of Christianity, to provide a treat and encouragement for each inmate in the entire facility.
Millbrook's baking bunch this month was comprised of dozens of volunteers, including several students. Sarah Grace Piercy, 14, wrote, "I bake Kairos cookies because my uncle got saved from this ministry, and I want others to know that they are loved and prayed for."
Rebecca Bolin, 11, wrote, "I love to bake and helping people know they are not alone is a great way to do it."
McKenna Gore, 13, added, "I love baking the cookies! I've been helping with this ministry for the past four years and enjoy every part of it."
At age 9, Whitney Page may have been the youngest of the bunch. She wrote, "It will be great if these cookies help bring just one more person into God's family."
Bill Bengtson, a native of Florence, Alabama, has worked for Aiken Communications since 1996, providing pictures and stories for the Aiken Standard and The North Augusta Star.