Walking into my very first Friday Fun Night at IGNITE, I had no idea what to expect. Here I was at the same place I had toured many times, the place I was a part of choosing as the 2018 Charity Ball Beneficiary, the place where I had built IKEA bookshelves using the back of a board game as a hammer. Yet this time things were different—this time the air smelled like cookies.
After signing in and setting down my Sheetz burrito bowl (which Keya, Jack, and I discovered as a great place to get dinner before going to IGNITE) I walked into the back room and was instantly transported back to my childhood. Sugar and flour coated every surface, measuring cups were on every table, and sticks of butter were stacked up next to chocolate chips and almonds. “Today we are going to be making Individual Cookies” announced Trisha. I turned to Avery, “Duuuuuddeeee,” I exclaimed, so excited because baking was my favorite past time.
And so we began, measuring flour, spooning baking soda, eating chocolate chips while no one was looking, all under the tutelage of Ashley, who used to be a baker. Jean Philippe and I worked together on cutting butter into the flour mixture, taking turns on holding one fork while the other mashed the butter. I learned Jean Philippe is allergic to nuts, which was fine by me since I hated almonds. As everyone rolled their dough into semi-perfect spherical shapes, I couldn’t help but laugh when they transferred them to the baking sheets. There was Rayna’s neat little cookie dough ball sharply contrasted by my “loaded” cookie which was almost more toppings than the actual cookie. Michael’s cookie looked like it came from the hands of a master baker himself and Keya’s was more like that of a toddler’s.
As we waited for the cookies to bake, I fell into a beanbag chair, getting ready to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail. While we laughed, Trisha brought in our freshly baked cookies. As I took a bite of my warm cookie that actually melted in my mouth, it finally hit me. It hit me why I was here. It wasn’t only because I was helping raise $200,000 to help the Autism Society of NC fund the IGNITE Raleigh program. It was because I was helping raise $200,000 to start a home—a place where anyone can go and feel at peace. A place where I would come to fall in love with every new friend I made. A place where I could team up with Suzanne and win a card game every round or make fun of Roxie as she forgot to call UNO yet another time.
When I look back in January at the time I spent on Enloe Charity Ball 2018, I’ll remember the journey: the laughter, the stress, the looks Ben makes when he counts money, the hours spent at IGNITE, the vloggable moments, Barry’s room, and somehow and somewhere, I’ll always remember the cookies.
Sanjana Tharuvesanchi
Vice President of Public Relations