Mount Airy Elementary School Students Host “Kookies for Kamala” Bake Sale to Support Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign

On Sunday morning, as Beyoncé’s music blared from a loudspeaker, Kamala Harris’ most ardent supporters from East Mount Airy gathered on the greenway.

It will be at least a decade before many of them are eligible to vote. Still, local elementary school children held their second “Kookies for Kamala” bake sale, bagging treats and collecting handfuls of cash from passersby on the corner of Durham and Crittenden streets.

At $1 per cookie and $2 per bag, all sales were considered donations that will go to Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign against former President Donald Trump, according to their parents. The group raised $2,031 in three hours Sunday, on top of $680 from the first sale two weeks ago.

“The energy and hope that’s in the air right now is just contagious,” said Raissa Schickel, who came up with the idea with her 8-year-old daughter Kaia and partner Lauren Silver earlier this month as Democratic enthusiasm for Harris and Tim Walz surged.

“We really wanted kids to feel it,” Schickel said.

Her plan worked. The Kookie sale on Sunday was almost as festive as the recently concluded Democratic National Convention.

Third-grader Kaia and her neighborhood friends smiled brightly as they strolled among folding tables stacked with chocolate chip sugar cookies freshly baked by several homes on Sunday morning.

Others sat in the grass, smearing colored markers on signs that were meant to artistically bear the Democratic candidate’s name. To be clear, they were advertising “cookies,” but in alliteration with Kamala, replacing the C with a K.

From the speaker, Beyoncé asked a question and answer: “Who rules the world? Girls.”

“What excites me is that [Harris] will support equality,” Kaia said during a break from the cash register (the kids also took Venmo). “She will help women have more rights.”

Most parents did not want to reveal details about their children, including their names.

Parker, a sixth-grader and aspiring artist, hand-drawn a Kamala Harris sign for Sunday’s event. For the first “Kookies” sale, Parker stayed up late, squeezing lemons into lemonade.

“I don’t like Trump,” Parker said. “I believe in [Harris]. I trust he will do the right thing.

Silver, Kai’s mother, said support for “Kookies” spread like wildfire after the initial event, with discussions in group messages and on social media piquing interest from local families.

Silver saw a few new faces on Sunday as children marched down the street to advertise a bake sale along the busier street.

Several parents plan to split the funds and make individual donations to comply with campaign finance rules.

“Of course, adults help with everything,” Silver said, “but we definitely want to focus on the kids and create a space where they can be active and bring their own passions and energy to something good.”

With the school year starting this week, parents weren’t yet sure if there would be any more sales.

Lucretia Browning, who has lived in the area for almost a decade, had tears in her eyes as she waited in line for cookies.

Browning said she believes the country’s politics have become a “battleground” of division and that a Harris presidency is the way to move forward.

“We’re just so lucky to live in a neighborhood where kids are involved in what’s going on,” Browning said. “They just want a better world.”