The bakery will be giving the proceeds from an ongoing heart-shaped cookie sale to help children in the G.A. Family Services foster and adoption care program.

The local branch of G.A. Family Services helps more than 100 children in the area.

Chad Ecklof, owner of the bakery, said the continued support to G.A. Family Services is important. While Ecklof said making heart-shaped cookies isn’t hard, but was certain the local support directly impact children in the area.

“It’s important to us because it helps put some funding into a program that makes a lot of sense,” he said. “You got a lot of foster kids out there that end up at the G.A. home and they’re looking for homes and they’re trying to be taken care of. Every little bit helps.”

P-J photo by Jordan W. Patterson

Ecklof Bakery has collaborated with the foster program for nine years.

Kara Kloss, family resource coordinator, and Debbie Hasson, program manager, from G.A. Family Services were present to kick off the month-long event. Kloss said the proceeds generated from the bake sale are used directly for children in their program.

“We are able to use those monies to help the families,” Kloss said.

Some of the funding is used to coordinate a family picnic and a Christmas party for the children in the foster care system. While Kloss praised the efforts of Ecklof Bakery to raise money, she said the event also helps raise awareness of the children in need. It also helps generate potential foster parents.

“Getting foster parents is really a big deal to us,” Kloss said. “We need foster parents all the time. I get four to seven referrals a day for kids to go into homes. We just really need families. We hope that this gets our name out to let people know that were looking for foster families.”

Ecklof said the fundraiser typically raises large portion of money to be donated to the foster program. Last year, however, the proceeds declined, which Ecklof said was due to rising expenses. This year, the cost for the heart-shaped cookie is back to 75 cents, which he said will help increase proceeds.

However much money the bakery ends up raising, Kloss was certain the initiative would help, as it has for the last nine years.

“We do the best we can,” Ecklof said.