Two young Brunswick brothers, Luke and Paul Schlueter, put their love for baking to good use by making cookies and delivering them to Hospice families.
"I'm helping out other people and making God happy," said Paul Schlueter, a second grader.
The boys, ages 7 and 8, also developed a Hospice app based on knowledge they gained from a computer coding class at St. Ambrose School.
The app tracks volunteer hours and Hospice is considering expanding the use of the app to help other volunteers keep tabs on their service.
"It submits your first name, your last name, your date, your hours and your activity," said Luke Schlueter, who is in first grade.
On Tuesday, Hospice workers presented certificates to Luke and Paul to honor their volunteerism.
Twice a month, the siblings bring their baked cookies to the Cleveland Clinic Akron General Justin T. Rogers Hospice Care Center in Fairlawn.
Their mother, Lori Schlueter, explained that a family friend died in Hospice care three years ago and her family was very grateful to people who donated food to the facility during that difficult time.
The Schlueters decided they wanted to give back to Hospice by making a variety of cookies every other week. It helps that the boys love to bake. Paul's favorite cookie is chocolate chip, while Luke prefers banana chocolate chip.
"It teaches them to think outside of themselves, that giving back and being compassionate are good things," Lori Schlueter said.
William King, who has a family member at the Hospice facility, said he was touched when he learned about the cookies made by the boys.
"They're highly knowledgeable of what they're doing. I wouldn't really know how to bake cookies," King said. "They know that they want to provide something, being a service for someone else and that's really surprising at that age."
According to their mother, the boys thought of the app when they noticed Hospice was out of paper forms used to calculate volunteer hours.
Lori Schlueter teaches the computer coding class which includes her sons, but she said the Hospice app was their idea.
"They are very technologically savvy, the kids of this generation, so when you give them the tools to be able to go into a library of code and you explain to them the process, they can run with it," she said.
The boys said they usually spend three hours every other week baking the cookies and plan to keep making the special deliveries to Hospice.
"We take them to Hospice because we'd have too many if we kept them all," Paul said with a smile. "Our counter would get filled up in days."
