'Cookies for a Cop' spreads to 19 states

As quickly as some fast-rising cookie dough, one Boone County woman's idea to bake cookies for her local sheriff's department has swelled to a project involving at least 160 police departments in 19 states.

Becky Grizovic, of Walton, was driving on Dec. 4, thinking about the news coverage of police-involved shootings and subsequent protests locally and across the nation. She decided something had to be done to show police they are appreciated.

"The media has just been pounding the police lately ... It's just been weighing on me because I know so many good cops," said Grizovic, whose brother is a police officer with Cincinnati's District 5.

So Grizovic got the inspiration to bake cookies for the Boone County Sheriff's Department.

That's how Cookies for a Cop, found online at cookiesforacop.com, began. Word spread among her friends and on Facebook, many of them friends or relatives of police officers. The next department she approached was Florence. Within four days, 75 departments signed up to accept cookies.

"Becky Grizovic is a special individual for taking the time and effort to bake cookies and then coordinate for an additional 160 departments," said Col. Les Hill, acting sheriff of the Boone County Sheriff's Office.

"The Boone County Sheriff's Office is honored to be chosen first and to call Becky one of our own."

Grizovic, who works from her Walton home as a virtual assistant, has a network of trusted volunteers who will bake cookies to deliver to police on Dec. 22. She added a special "shout-out" to fellow cookie strategists Wende Penny, whose husband is a Cincinnati police officer, and Sarah Black, of Cincinnati, who has a lot of police and firefighter friends.

Some cookies have been delivered already. A Conner High School student, Zackery Tarantino, offered to bake cookies for school resource officers at Conner, Conner Middle School, Boone County High School, Dixie Heights High School, Walton-Verona Elementary School and Grant County High School.

Meanwhile, the Cookies for a Cop list has been growing. As of Dec. 18, a total of 160 departments are signed up to receive cookies in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Most of the work has involved organizing thus far, Grizovic said. Baking more than 20,000 cookies will begin in earnest this week.

According to Grizovic, wives of police officers are saying they've never been worried like they are now.

The Cookies for a Cop website notes, "As we all know, the news has been rough and our officers have been under a tremendous amount of stress. They are in a time of so much uncertainty and unrest. They are tired and in knowing people care and care enough to show an incredible act of #sweetkindness like this can be a game changer."

"My whole point right now is that the police just really need some support and need to know that people appreciate them," Grizovic said.