Providence Church Rewards Voters With Fresh-Baked Cookies

The reward of voting is being part of something bigger, having a say in how your community, your state, your country is run.

But if you vote at , you get another sweet reward.

Fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies!

For the last three or four years, the church has been baking cookies all day for people coming in to vote, and poll workers.

"Poll workers vie for a spot here," said Sarah Young, who works at the church and helps coordinate the cookie efforts.

Young shows up before 6 a.m. to open the church to poll workers, and get the kitchen ready for baking. Volunteers work in pairs in two-hour shifts until the polls close and clean-up is done.

Providence had bought 28 tubs of cookie dough, which would make about 2,240 cookies.

"God blessed us with this building," said Young. "Having it used as a place for our neighbors to vote, and giving them a little something special, is our way of showing Christ's love."

Voters -- some with cookie-munching young children in tow -- left smiling. One woman came over to the kitchen where volunteers Jenny Bzdafka and Sarah Collier were baking and said the thought of cookies made her want to come out and vote.

"It was busy in the morning," said Bzdafka, wife of minister Jim Bzdafka said. "Our heaviest times are usually before and after work."

Collier enjoyed supplying voters with warm cookies and hot coffee.

"This is the fun part," she said. "Cookies make everyone happy."