“It started randomly,” said first-year Rachel Rothgery. “We were just around the Science Center and I said, ‘I want to make cookies tonight.’ And then we decided to sell them. Then I just randomly put up these posters around Burton.”

The response Rothgery and her roommate, first-year Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, got was not what they expected.

“We didn’t expect anyone to come so we only baked 40 cookies,” continued Rothgery. “We screwed up the oven so we were late and suddenly there was this herd of people wanting cookies.”

“Rachel kept having to run back to DeCafe for cookie dough,” added Eilberg-Schwartz. “We were baking until midnight.”

Perhaps part of the appeal of these cookie sales (now two weeks in the making) is where the proceeds go; they do not simply add to Rothgery and Eilberg-Schwartz’s pocket cash.

“We’re working through the organization Free the Children,” said Rothgery. “It’s an international organization of youth activists, from elementary school to college.”

Free the Children involves 35 countries and has built 400 schools in 21 developing countries since its founding.

“It was founded 10 years ago by a 12 year old,” said Rothgery. “It’s organized by and for children.”

Rothgery has been involved in the organization for a long time. She spent her summer working in Ecuador, building schools and visiting hospitals. When she returned she fundraised for a water system and medical supplies.

“This year, being in college, I wanted to do something larger scale,” she said.

So what exactly will the proceeds benefit?

“The campaign is trying to raise $6000 for a school in Kenya, in the Maasai region,” said Rothgery. “I had a really close friend who was an integral part of the organization and he died in a car accident. The work in Kenya is being done in his name so that’s why I chose Kenya.

“The district has the highest primary school dropout rate in all Kenya,” Rothgery continued.

Specifically, the projected school is in the Narok district. It’s a large district but the school is for children who are living (and working) in more remote areas.

“There aren’t a lot of facilities,” said Rothgery. “And what there is is dilapidated and widely spaced apart.

“FTC funds it but families build the school,” she said. “The community is responsible. Parents organize meal plans, etc. Education was originally perceived as something colonial and materialistic. The government had to force people to bring their children to school. Now, it’s valued literally as a way to shape the future of their families and communities.”

This school, once built, is hoped to shape the community on more than one level.

“It’s also going to be a literacy center for women and a community center,” said Rothgery. “So, it’s a special school.”

Cookies are not the only thing on the agenda for Oberlin’s part in this campaign.

Also in the works is a “bowl-a-thon.” This will take place on Rothgery’s birthday, April 8, from 10 to 12 p.m. at the College Lanes.

“We’ll be collecting pledges per pin and tabling all week in Wilder,” said Rothgery.

Meanwhile, the cookie business is expanding. They plan to sell them in the 3rd floor Burton lounge every Thursday at 10 p.m. They also plan to get other dorms involved, and are going to attend the next hall council meetings of East, Noah and Dascomb.

“We’ve already received $120 from Burton Hall Council,” said Rothgery. “It’s the most they’ve given to a project all year because it’s already so successful.”

Eilberg-Schwartz agreed.

“Someone in South volunteered to start it there last night. First-year Anne Hoffman sold them at the hardware store party last weekend. People kept on asking if they were ‘special.’ She told them that they were special, just not ‘special.’”