Carter Wallace said it's difficult to put into words how much he and his fellow Brookstone School students appreciate the Columbus police and firefighters.
So the students showed them with cookies. And cakes. And candy.
More than 200 trays of them.
Carter, the Brookstone student government president, and junior class president Sallie Robbins led this third annual project, bringing gobs of home-baked goodies and handmade cards to each of the city's 14 fire and EMS stations and the police headquarters last week.
And they didn't seek publicity. Columbus fire Capt. Terry Herring was so overwhelmed with Brookstone's gesture, he called the Ledger-Enquirer to ensure more folks know about their mutual admiration.
"These kids are awesome," Herring said after a Brookstone contingent visited Station No. 10 on Commerce Street off Victory Drive. "They got their heads on straight and their hearts in the right place."
Carter figures that place is increasingly important as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America that inspired this effort grows distant.
"I think we need to not let it peter out," said Carter, a senior. "We need to keep the memory of that day alive, and if this tiny little thing can help in some way, then we should keep doing it."
But don't call this project a "tiny little thing" with Herring around.
"Oh, my God!" he gushed. "We thought they were coming for a tour, but, man, they were bearing gifts!
"We had more cookies than an army could eat: probably 15 to 20 plates of cookies, donuts, peanut brittle and brownies."
Nan Pate, a Brookstone history and politics teacher, is the student government's adviser. She credits Kate Kimbrell, the upper school's president three years ago, for leading the project's start.
"The students really felt the commitment to say thank you to people that we all think about thanking but never articulate," Pate said.
Herring's only lament: the Brookstone students didn't stay long enough for the firefighters to thank them.
"They didn't even call ahead that they were coming," he said. "They just surprised us, brought in the stuff, told us they appreciate us training hard and being ready to protect them, and then they left. They were so polite and humble; they just blew us away."
