New home for My Kids' Cookies

My Kids' Cookies has opened a retail cookie shop and commercial kitchen on Bainbridge Island. Located in Sportsman Business Park, the shop offers a bright and fun atmosphere to sit, relax and enjoy freshly baked cookies, coffee, tea and soft drinks.

Cookie lovers can also stop by for some of scrumptious varieties to go. Or pick up a gift box of cookies and surprise families, friends and clients with a delicious treat. They'll also have their signature 'sweet' gear of sweatshirts, hats and aprons available. And, of course, you can always order directly from their website, www.MyKidsCookies.com, for nationwide shipping. Send someone a taste of Bainbridge today

Local Business: My Kids' Cookies

Business Is Coming Along Nicely, In The Oven

By Rachel Pritchett rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND

Barbara Reininger is baking up a business, and she hopes this holiday season will be the starter.

With My Kids' Cookies, the Bainbridge mom is beginning to sell her cookies not only online, but here at home, too, with eight varieties of chocolate chip cookies each as big as her dream to eventually fund her two children's college educations with the proceeds.This morning, Reininger was aproned up and at work at Farm Kitchen in North Kitsap, where she rents time at the facility's commercial kitchen.



The aroma of melting semi-sweet morsels and fresh-from-the-oven cookies filled the kitchen as the petite baker deftly measured, stirred and placed ample ball after ball onto parchment-lined trays. These were to be samples she'd hand out this afternoon outside Bainbridge Cinemas. Her cookies will be sold behind the movie concession stand there, just in time to be snatched up by the hoards of Bainbridge kids descending on the holiday movies.


"I've been baking cookies forever," said the San Francisco-area transplant, whose first careers were in the finance and Internet industries. Husband Len came along, and then children Molly, 13, and Daniel, 12. Reininger continued to make cookies - for her family and friends, for church, school and her Girl Scout troop, and "just because."

"I could eat them all, but for health reasons and weight reasons, I don't," she said.
Friends urged her to turn her passion into a business. She and Len, a banker, massaged the numbers. Finally, she took the plunge, buying the Internet domain name mykidscookies.com to sell online, and tirelessly making calls to local coffee shops and others to see if they'd like to sell her cookies. Some said yes; Reininger will supply her assortment of cookies with milk chocolate, semisweet chocolate and white chocolate, with pecans, walnuts or just plain at Olympic Performance Group's upcoming "Nutcracker" in Poulsbo and on Bainbridge.
Starting a business from scratch has been a learning experience for green entrepreneur Reininger.


"It is simple (to say) 'Yes, that's what you want to do,' but there's a lot more to it," she said.

There's giving up a steady paycheck, for one.

"You can't build a business without devoting full time," she said.


Licensing and packaging were just a couple of components to her business's extensive infrastructure she's put together.


Then there's getting her business' name out in front of the public.
"I think you have to have a lot of self-confidence and a thick skin," she said.


Reininger's always had a tough time getting to sleep. She still does. But at least the time she spends tossing and turning is productive as she plots out all the details of the next day of baking and selling.


Reininger had this advice for others with the dream of starting a business: "If you can try it financially, and you have the belief in your own dream, go for it."

How to make a difference

I've just learned of a relatively new philanthopic organization in Bainbridge. If you're looking for a way to make a permanent difference in our community, you'll want to consider this.


Five years ago, a group of caring and concerned Bainbridge Island leaders came together to create a lasting community endowment, aiming to improve the quality of life in our community. Initially known as the Bainbridge Island Community Endowment, the Bainbridge Community Foundation helps people with philanthropic interests support the growing needs of nonprofit organizations that serve Bainbridge Island residents.

A Coloradan's impression of Bainbridge

You know I'm biased about Bainbridge because I gave up a tenured position to move back here. It's nice to be able to report that I'm not alone in my opinion of how strong the sense of community is on the island. Here's a post written by a visitor from Colorado:


One night in Bainbridge

On a recent trip to the Northwest, I went to a reading and book signing by Washington Congressman Jay Inslee. Inslee, a member of the House Natural Resource Committee, just wrote a new book, Apollo’s Fire, about building a clean energy economy in the United States and I the world. After the talk, reading and questions, the conversation inevitably shifted from energy to conservation.The crowd of 200 that packed into Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor Book Company talked values and ethics as they relate to the environment. Even Inslee commented that the transition from discussions of clean energy to conservation values often occur in his public forums.The best part: This audience was genuine, engaged and informed. I was curiously overwhelmed with a sense that all was not lost. At least this group of people on this night could make relevant connections among their personal outdoor and environmental ethics, the ethics of their community and their natural environment. It was exhilarating.
-Susy