She's Well Served By Cookies
Last May, McKinney cookie maker Mary Beth Schad entered the Martha Stewart Living “Dreamers Into Doers” contest, which was looking for women who have turned their hobbies into careers.
She never thought that she might win.
“I never enter contests, but a friend urged me to enter,” said Ms. Schad, owner of Ellie & Ollie Cookies for Dinner. “I didn’t set my hopes high.”
In August, Ms. Schad was shocked to receive a phone call saying she was one of 11 finalists selected out of more than 1,100 entries. She and other finalists received an all-expenses paid trip to New York for two in October to appear on a taping of the Martha Stewart Show.
Ms. Schad and other finalists also were featured in the November issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.
Ms. Schad didn’t win the $20,000 grand prize, but she did receive $2,000 for being a finalist. Money aside, she said, the experience has been priceless.
“Last December I had orders for 50 to 60 boxes of cookies,” she said. “This month, I’ll have 10 to 12 times the business and ship around 800 boxes. That’s amazing.
Ms. Schad, a former fourth-grade elementary school teacher who is now a stay-at-home mom, has the baking talent in her genes. Her grandmother was a home economics teacher for more than 30 years, and her mother is known among friends and family for her baked goodies.
The family-taught baker started Ellie & Ollie Cookies for Dinner (named after her preschool-age children, Eloise and Oliver) after a friend tasted her cookies at a church function and wanted buy them as gifts for clients.
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