The cafeteria at St. Regis School on Feb. 3 was filled with the sweet aroma of warm sugar cookies — around 840 of them. 

Students donned aprons and rubber gloves as the school's Business Professionals of America chapter spent Saturday morning kneading, rolling, cutting and baking over 70 dozen heart-shaped cookies. The tasty baked goodies, which will be frozen and frosted the following weekend are part of a longstanding fundraising tradition for the BPA group.

BPA advisor Tina Hill isn’t sure when the cookie sales began at St. Regis Schoo, but she recalled, “I’m pretty sure the roses started when I was a freshman.” 

Along with Valentine’s cookies, the chapter also takes orders for roses distributed on Cupids’ Day. They ordered 1,000 stems. To help ensure peak freshness, those will delivered on Feb. 13 so that it will be a long thorny night for the BPA students and advisors arranging bouquets. They are also requesting donations of unwanted vases from the community to be brought to the school, this helps cut down on costs for the flower arrangements.

While students rolled out dough last weekend, they had to make sure the cookies weren’t too thin or too thick. 

Mae Grosenbaugh joked, “Mine keep ending up too big, so they’re a little fluffy, but at least they shouldn’t break!” 

Prepping that many cookies require a good system, from carefully transferring each tray of six, to freezing them in boxes, their goal is to keep the hearts intact. And coating them next weekend with cream cheese frosting while still chilled will keep them strong. Last February, they baked a total of 600 cookies.

The BPA cookies at St. Regis School have been around for about two decades. In the past, cookie orders included personalized messages that were transcribed in frosting onto the cookies. 

One such heart-shaped cookie that I anonymously received as a freshman, written in pink stated, “Can I call you sometime?” This was before the days of every student owning a cell phone. 

Now, message requests are typed out, printed, and attached to the plastic-wrapped cookies.

These romantic customs and sought-after tokens of love are then distributed throughout the school on Valentine’s Day to various classrooms. It’s always a delightful tradition to observe each year. 

The profit from this annual Valentine’s Day BPA fundraiser goes toward the students competing at state and national competitions this spring.

    Senior, Brooke Filek, removes a hot tray of sugar cookies from the oven as the St. Regis Business Professionals chapter baked hundreds of cookies for their annual fundraiser last weekend. (Mineral Independent/Amy Quinlivan)