SOUTHWEST FLA. — **UPDATE** Wonderland Cookie Dough has raised enough money to donate 1,065 cookie dough cups to the healthcare workers at Lee Health and NCH Hospitals.
Wonderland Cookie Dough of Southwest Florida is holding a fundraiser to donate treats to healthcare workers at Lee Health and NCH Hospitals.
Since opening last summer, the folks behind Wonderland Cookie Dough of Southwest Florida have been busy.
"Since day one, we haven’t stopped. We’ve done over 150 events so far," the owner, Jeff Smith, said.
He and his fiancee, Ashley Gray, told Fox 4 despite the Coronavirus pandemic, they haven't stopped.
"We're doing more community events. We bring the food truck in and then sell out every single Saturday. We haven’t noticed any decline with anything. We’re still doing four to five events every week," Smith said. "We practice social distancing. I’ve got the orange spray paint, and we spray it every six feet."
- Smith and Gray said because they've been able to continue their business during this pandemic, they want to do their part to give back.
"She’s a Registered Nurse down at NCH, and she’s been working with COVID-19 patients and possible COVID-19 patients for awhile now, and I see all the stress it's having on her. And not just on her, but her fellow staff members. And I said, 'You know what? Let’s give back some cookie dough,'" Smith said.
Wonderland Cookie Dough is donating 250 cups of cookie dough themselves, and they're also turning to you.
"We’re going to give one 3 ounce cup for a dollar. We sell this for four bucks, So I figured a dollar a cup, we break even. We’re not here to make any money off of this," Smith said.
One dollar from you means one cup of cookie dough for a healthcare worker, and they're also donating canvases with nurses standing among popular superheroes to Lee Health and NCH hospitals.
"We had a friend of ours make these canvases. They are the superheroes right now. We’ve got 12 of them, so I did the math, and were going to do two down in Naples, and two each for Lee memorial Hospitals -- one for the ER and one for the COVID unit floors," Smith said. "We would love to help everybody. Right now, we’re focusing on the ER, or ED as they say, and the COVID floors for all five Lee Memorial and NCH down in Naples. The two hospitals.”
Gray said as a nurse herself, she knows how stressed healthcare workers are right now.
"You have to think about the patients. They don’t get to see their families, they don’t get to have anybody with them. And then you are going in there, possibly being exposed, but then you are their only communication, and they can barely even see your face. And then when you come home, you have to worry about how you’re going to decontaminate before you go in your house, before you’re around anybody," she said.
So Smith said doing what they can to make them smile is a no brainer.
"I see what she goes through. I hear stories, and she’s one out of thousands all over the nation, the world, that we’re going through this. So they deserve a treat,” he said.
Gray said she is so grateful to all of the businesses who have donated food and other things to healthcare workers during this time.
To donate to Wonderland Cookie Dough's mission:
- GoFundMe (gf.me/u/xx44sd)
- PayPal (wonderlandcookiedoughswfl@gmail.com)
- Venmo (@WonderlandCookie23)
- Cash App ($WonderlandCookie23)
