The baking efforts of a 10-year-old Summerland girl have raised more than $4,600 for the Summerland Fire Department’s Toys and Toonies for Tots and Teens drive.
Blake Karlson baked more than 5,200 cookies, which she then sold to raise funds for the annual toy drive. She raised a total of $4,654 through her efforts.
Karlson spent seven and a half hours baking the cookies, and another five hours icing them.
Seven people were involved in the baking and 15 friends and family volunteered to help ice the cookies.
This year, she was able to use the oven at Murray’s Pizza one evening, after the pizza shop had closed for the night. She began baking at 9:30 p.m. and kept on until all the cookies were baked.
This is the fifth year Karlson has donated funds for the toy drive. She began by donating money she had saved for Christmas and then began baking cookies as a fundraiser.
During the past five years, she has raised $17,881 from the sale of her cookies.