PRESIDENT'S CORNER
President Nancy Schroeder's Welcome Message
On behalf of the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs, I welcome you to visit our club and experience the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs' hospitality and energy. We meet on Monday for lunch at 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the Hilton Perimeter Suites, 6120 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. You can reserve a spot by going to our website at www.sandyspringsrotary.org. Join your fellow professionals, and community and business leaders, and learn how Rotary can fit in your future. Experience Rotary Making A Difference!
Previous Program
Susansnaps - more than sugar, flour, and spices
On Monday December 16th, the co-owners of a local Sandy Springs business called Susansnaps visited the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs. While still wearing aprons and sneakers, the two local entrepreneurs presented their story of cancer & adversity and the courage to keep smiling through it all. Susansnaps makes cookies. More precisely they make gingersnap cookies and is the ONLY gourmet gingersnap cookie company in the country. Though they will say, “It’s just a cookie.”, get to know these two and you’ll see there is much more.
Susan, the daughter, and Laura, her mother, started their morning at 6:00am making cookie dough for over 10,000 gingersnaps. Capable of producing up to 16,000 cookies in a day, they took a little time off to share their heartwarming story with our club.
These two are no strangers to adversity. Susan, who after already having struggled with cancer in both her aunt Susan (for whom she is named after) was later told of her father’s new non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, then Susan herself was, only 6 months later diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease. Instead of letting the battle with cancer get them down, these two, showing grit and determination built a successful business out of what they learned during the tribulation.
After being a stay-at-home mother for over 20 years, Laura Stachler emptied her garage and began to refill it with a large mixer, oven and baking racks to make a commercial kitchen. Her plan was simply to provide more support for her family. Having heard that ginger was a natural stomach soother, Laura developed a delicious (and now secret) recipe for gingersnap cookies. Dubbing them Susansnaps and delivering them to her daughter while still in the hospital they were met with delight. Susan shared her cookies with others at Saint Josephs who were also going through chemotherapy and Laura was amazed at the overwhelming response.
Fast forward through some daunting years of healing and struggles, they are now selling their cookies internationally and in the entire chain of Nordstrom’s stores across the country. Every delicious Susansnap cookie is baked with love right here in Sandy Springs.
“There is something about home-made cookies from mom that make you feel a little bit better.”
Mother-daughter and founders of Susansnaps, Susan and Laura Stachler warming up the crowd at the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs
Having learned a lot about life and business in the last few years they wanted to share these three thoughts:
- You’re stronger than you think. Susan gave a firsthand account of chemotherapy and the difficulties she faced and asked us to remember that we are stronger than we may think.
- Celebrate the small successes. Laura told us a story of her sister Susan which illustrated that even while fighting cancer, you can still find reasons to be joyful.
- Choose to smile. Laura left us with this quote: “You have it within you to choose your attitude and put a smile on. The power of a smile goes a long way.”
To sum up their presentation Susan left us this catch phrase:
“The life we live might not be perfect, but you can choose to be un-snappable.”
From left to right: Susan Stachler, Nancy Schroeder - Rotary Club of Sandy Springs 2019-2020 President, and Laura Stachler
These two have also written a book about their ordeal called “The cookie cure”. It can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cookie-Cure-Mother-Daughter-Memoir-Cookies/dp/1492637831 Or bought directly in the Susansnaps store located at 229 Hilderbrand Drive, Sandy Springs Georgia, 30328
The Rotary Club of Sandy Springs would like to thank Susan and Laura for sharing their story (and their cookies too). The world is certainly a sweeter place to live knowing there are Susansnaps nearby.
These photos and more can be found here: https://rotaryclubofsandysprings.zenfolio.com/p973...
A special news report about Susansnaps can be found here: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/video/25-days-cookies-cookie-monsters-double-chocolate-cookie-59635305
Please visit the Susansnaps website for more information: https://susansnaps.com/
A short biographical article can be found here: https://sandyspringsrotary.org/newsletter/show/1070
Upcoming Program
Club Fellowship and business.
Our next meeting will be January 6th.
We will not be having a quest speaker on the 6th due to a last minute calendar change. We will still meet for fellowship and to discuss club business. All are welcome to join the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs for lunch and to make new friends.
A Look Ahead
Here's an easy and quick glimpse of our Rotary meetings to come
If you have inquiries please send them to tlawrimore@gmail.com
Is your name mentioned below?
Greeters and Invocation Leader for January 6, 2020
Rotary Club of Sandy Springs Greeters & Invocation leader for next meeting. (01/06/2020)
Invocators, as per the "Make it fun and they will come." theme, have a joke ready!
| Greeter A: |
| Will be announced soon |
| Greeter B: |
| Will be announced soon |
| Invocation Leader: |
| Will be announced soon |