CASCADE, Mich — Jeanne Moldal moved to her current home from out of town in 2008. At the time, her neighbors had been members of the community for many years. Jeanne felt as though her neighbors were like family.
But as homes began to turn over, new neighbors moved in. Many of them were young couples with young children. Jeanne noticed something had changed in the neighborhood she had grown to love.
"I realized that these young people are so much busier than I was when I started out. [Both adults in the household] have jobs, and somehow they just don't have time to connect with their neighbors," she said.
"Time went on, and six years ago, I decided, I know how we'll connect this neighborhood. I decided to start the summer Cookie Club."
The Cookie Club meets four times per summer in Jeanne's yard, under her maple tree. Jeanne puts out blankets for the children to sit on. They eat cookies, have conversations, and they read books picked out from the Kent District Library.
"I met Jeanne in the stacks. I was looking for books with her. And she happened to ask if I knew any books that might make good read-alouds for kids," said Ashley Smolinski who serves as KDL's regional manager for the Cascade and Caledonia branches.
"I was a former third-grade teacher. I love picking up books as most librarians do. And I helped to recommend a few of my favorite titles."
That assistance has helped Jeanne create an experience that all the kids in the club, ages two to 13, will enjoy. The literacy aspect of Cookie Club has helped foster a love for reading in children like Annabelle Tollas who attends Cookie Club with her sister Adalyn.
"When she reads books to us it really makes me like books so then, once she's read to me, I go in my room and read a lot of books for like three hours," Annabelle said with a smile and a laugh.
The Cookie Club has brought together children who may or may not have already been classmates. They are different ages. Some go to public school. Some go to private schools. Some go to charter schools. But thanks to Cookie Club, they've become friends.
"When you're in cookie club, you learn a lot about each other, and you kind of just join in. You're almost like one big family. We're just so close," Adalyn said.
"Before, we definitely knew each other, but we weren't really friends. We were just kind of neighbors. But after Cookie Club, you start to really know each other. You know their names, and they just become more like real friends."
Adalyn and Annabelle's mother Amanda has seen the neighborhood transform since the woman who is now known community-wide as "Grandma Jeanne" started Cookie Club.
"We're pretty shy people, and so we're really thankful that Grandma Jeanne was able to gather some of the neighbors and give us an opportunity to introduce us to each other," Amanda said.
"Six years later, I would say our doorbell constantly rings with the neighbor kids wanting to come and play with each other, and I wonder if that would still be the same if we didn't have that gathering time of bringing the kids in the neighborhood together."
"Grandma Jeanne" says kids are so excited about Cookie Club that they start asking her about it in February each year when the first meeting is still months away. She's happy that Cookie Club has transformed her neighborhood, but she hopes the effort can become even bigger.
"I would like to see this in many neighborhoods. It's not hard to do this and bring together the neighborhood through the children. They always enjoy it. I think anybody can do this. I'd like to see the Cookie Clubs spread around," she said.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.