Sugar cookie could soon be Ohio’s official state cookie
It’s not Christmas without cookies for Santa.
On Thursday, Ohio lawmakers played the role of jolly Old Saint Nick by stuffing language to designate the sugar cookie as the state’s official cookie under the branches of Senate Bill 278, considered a Christmas tree bill because of its many amendments.
The quest to designate an official state cookie began in 2019 with a third-grade class from All Saints School in Sycamore Township near Cincinnati. The students learned in class that Ohio, unlike Massachusetts (traditional chocolate chip) and New Mexico (biscochitos), had no official cookie.
In debating which cookie to recommend, the students concluded that a generic sugar cookie could represent a diversity of cookies ranging from the iced or sprinkled sugar cookie to snickerdoodles.
“With so many amazing flavors of the sugar cookie, most everyone in our state has a favorite,” the 11 third-graders wrote in a letter to lawmakers supporting the bill, sponsored by Cincinnati Reps. Brigid Kelly and Jessica Miranda.
Bill would make first week of February Ohio Burn Awareness Week
The underlying legislation would designate the first full week of February as “Ohio Burn Awareness Week.” Hunter Young, a 17-year-old student at Teays Valley High School in Pickaway County, asked Sen. Bob Peterson, R-Sabina, to champion the bill because of burns Young sustained when his quarter midget race car caught fire.
Young spent 25 days in the hospital following the April 2021 accident, lost 6% of his body weight and faced multiple surgeries. He had to relearn how to walk. But that has not dissuaded him from his dream of becoming a sprint car driver.
Over the past year, Young has used his pain to help others. The Ohio Thunder series now mandates on-board fire suppression systems and two-layer suits. Young and his mother collected about 250 toys for patients in Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s burn unit.
“Just like burn awareness week, the sugar cookie legislation was brought to us by some young constituents,” Kelly said. “It’s a sweet way to get them engaged and show them how government works.”
The bill would also:
- create rules for evaluating a registered environmental health specialist.
- allows the Division of Liquor Control to issue a liquor permit to sell alcohol in disposable containers for on-premise consumption with drag racing and food trucks.
- create the Chardon High School Football State Champs license plate.
- designate Aug. 17th as “Eugene ‘Gene’ F. Kranz Day” to honor the Toledo native and lead flight director during NASA’s Apollo 13 mission.
- designate the last Saturday of September as “Ohio Public Lands Day.”
- designate the last full week of June as “Pollinator Week.”
Senate Bill 278 is expected to pass the Ohio House of Representatives Thursday. Senators would need to approve the changes before the bill could head to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk.
Cincinnati Enquirer’s Jackie Borchardt contributed reporting.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
Read More: Sugar cookie could soon be Ohio’s official state cookie