WAUKESHA, Wis. — A group of seniors wanted to do something special for the community following the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy. Now they have a yearly tradition of baking cookies, thousands of them, for people who walk in the parade.
Nan Lanting and Joyce Thompson are two of the dozen cookie-making volunteers for the Waukesha Christmas Parade. On Monday, Nan and Joyce were test-baking Nan’s chocolate chip cookie recipe with TMJ4 reporter Rebecca Klopf.
"They run together. They will run together,” said Nan to Joyce before turning to Rebecca. “She isn't listening to me.”
“So they run together,” shrugs Joyce.
They were making two versions of Nan's recipe.
“You didn't try that one. She wants you to try,” said Nan to Joyce.
"I'm going to try one of each, I mean two of each,” said Joyce.
Nan is 86-years-old. Joyce is 92. They are both residents of Summit Woods which is part of Capri Communities, which has senior living facilities. They hand out 2,500 cookies for the Waukesha Christmas Parade. Almost all of the cookies are homemade.
"In one of our buildings, we had one of the moms of the Dancing Grannies living. So it was really emotional and personal for us,” said Dawn Graham, director of community engagement for Capri Communities.
She is referring to the dancing group that had 4 members killed in the Waukesha Christmas Parade attacks in 2021. In total, 6 people were killed that day.
So like many grandmothers do when they want to make us feel better, the seniors asked to bake cookies for the people who walk in the parade. They didn't even like that our photojournalist Jeff wasn't eating one.
Watch: How some Waukesha seniors are feeding Christmas Parade participants
“Do you want a cookie?" asked Nan, turning to Jeff in the middle of the interview.
“Haha, I'll get one,” he answered.
Their favorite part is handing out the cookies before the parade starts.
“It is always good to do something for someone you don't know. You feel like you are doing God's work that way,” said Joyce.
This year's parade is Sunday, Dec 8th at 4 p.m. TMJ4 News is one of the primary sponsors of the parade. If you can’t make it out you can watch the parade on TMJ4.com.
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