group fixed DSC_0604.jpgA sampling of some of the creative cook designs made during last month’s holiday party organized by the Harwich 4-H Club. 

Candy canes covered in red and green stripes, a gingerbread man adorned with a smiley face and green sweater, and snowmen with top hats.

These were just a few of the decorative cookie creations that six members of Harwich’s 4-H Club made alongside mothers and children staying at HAC’s Angel House shelter. They did so together, sitting quietly at the dining room tables inside two of the houses on the Angel House property where frosting and sprinkles were applied carefully to sugar and gingerbread cookies.

This festive scene took place just four days before Christmas, part of an annual holiday tradition started by the club three years ago. Each year they do something different; last year was a potluck dinner followed by games and the year before they helped the families decorate the Christmas trees at Angel House.

“This is fun,” said Jaylene, one of the mothers at Angel House, as she decorated cookies next to her daughter. “It’s nice of them to donate their time.”

She has been at the shelter for nearly four months. “It has given me a sense of security,” she said. “I feel safe here.”

Once she leaves shelter, she hopes to go back to school and become a drug counselor. “I want to give back in some way and help people,” she said.