High school teacher has been giving out cookies to graduates for about 20 years

DICKINSON, N.D. (KFYR/Gray News) - A teacher has been gifting her graduating students a sweet treat for about 20 years.

Cookies are Kathy Kiedrowski’s love language. The Dickinson Trinity High School teacher has been using cookies to congratulate her students when they graduate and providing them with a little taste of home.

For the past 20 or so years, she’s been gifting cookies to all students who send her graduation announcements.

Kiedrowski said her tradition began as a way to save a little money.

“I’ve been teaching for 40 years. And as a teacher, you get a lot of invites. And it was a $10 check. A $10 check. And after a while, that was a lot,” Kiedrowski said.

So, Kierdrowski wrote a poem to include in the cards that entitles each graduate to a dozen of her now-famous cookies.

Every year, she prints out a few dozen copies and gives them to students.

“I don’t get very many returned, but they all are very thankful. And they remember 10 years later, 18 years later, they still are holding on to this card,” she said.

Kiedrowski offers three choices of cookies: chocolate chip, made “Mrs. K’s way,” sugar cookie and “other.”

She said in all the years she’s been fulfilling cookie orders, only one student has asked for something other than chocolate chip cookies.

There’s no expiration date on the cards, which turned out to be a blessing for Dustin Hibl.

Hibl graduated from Trinity High School in 2011 and only cashed in his cookie card a few months ago.

“It’s been a long time. I can’t believe I haven’t lost this,” Hibl said.

Kiedrowski recalled delivering Hibl’s delivery with a smile.

“It was a cold evening and I got it in the mail that afternoon. By 7 that night, I took it over to his house and he was surprised. That was neat,” she said.

Hibl said those might have been the best cookies he’s ever had.

“It means a lot,” he said.

It’s proof of the power of a good cookie and of a teacher who cares about her students, no matter how many years it’s been since they sat in her classroom.

Copyright 2024 KFYR via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.