Sisters, Charity, School Share 30th Birthday Loot

Lexi Windelborn

Media release
MONDAY 11 MARCH 2013

TAURANGA SISTERS, KIDS CHARITY AND HIGH SCHOOL SHARE COOKIE TIME 30TH BIRTHDAY LOOT!

A Tauranga family, a national charity and a Queenstown school are the big winners in Cookie Time’s 30th birthday promotions for 30 years supply of cookies and a slice of $30,000 cash.

Tauranga sisters – five year old Eden and three year old Lexi Windelborn – have won the 30 years supply of cookies after proving they were the country’s ‘most serious cookie munchers’ with a tongue in cheek video showing a cookie baking and eating session. Cure Kids and Wakatipu High School meanwhile each receive $15,000 as the winners by public vote for the $30,000 cash donation, courtesy of Cookie Time’s Charitable Trust.

The big birthday prizes were offered through facebook to mark Cookie Time’s 30th birthday. Cookie Time was founded on 7 February, 1983, an idea dreamed up by 21-year-old Michael Mayell in his one-bedroom Christchurch flat. The first deliveries were made, with the help of his Mum, to 70 Christchurch dairies. Cookie Time has also been giving away 30,000 free cookies as part of the birthday celebrations, and this will continue to run until 21 March.

For the charity and schools cash donation, there were close to 5000 nominations for schools throughout the country. Wakatipu High took out first place with 878 nominations, followed by St Columbus School in Hamilton with 754 nominations and Burwood School in Christchurch with 696 nominations. There were just over 3500 votes for charities, with Cure Kids the winner with 1997 votes, followed by Canterbury Earthquake Children’s Trust with 638 votes and Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand with 500 votes.

Cure Kids CEO Vicki Lee says the charity is delighted with the result. “Cure Kids is thrilled to be the benefactor of Cookie Time's 30th birthday celebrations and, on behalf of the thousands of Kiwi kids who live with a life-threatening illness, we want to thank everyone who voted for us. This donation will help fund vital child health research,” she says.

The serious cookie muncher competition winner was chosen by a Cookie Time panel that reviewed six finalists – five chosen by public vote and one wildcard selected by the panel. The Windelborn sisters’ entry was both the top entry by vote, and the panel favourite. The winning entry was made by the girls’ older sister, 19 year old Shannon Anderson. Shannon, who is studying business at Bay of Plenty polytech, devised the concept based on Cookie Time brand values of creativity, passion and a mischievous take on everyday life.

The video shows Eden baking cookies and carefully packaging them up and placing in a high cupboard. When she comes back the cookies have mysteriously disappeared – the culprit, Lexi, is discovered with a mouthful of cookies and empty wrappers.

“We love making home movies and watching them speeded up so we sound like chipmunks to have a bit of a laugh. So this was a great opportunity to indulge our video making habit and for Eden to do something that they love – baking and eating cookies!,” Shannon says.

Melanie MacKenzie, Cookie Time assistant brand manager, says the 30th promotions were designed to give a broad range of people the opportunity to share in the birthday celebrations.

“Through Cookie Time Charitable Trust, the company has a longstanding focus on giving back and helping New Zealand kids discover their gifts, so the cash donation was about giving a charity and school a funding boost in this area. We were also looking for New Zealand’s most serious cookie muncher as a way of saying thanks to those Cookie Time cookie lovers who are so passionate about the brand,” she says.

The winning serious cookie muncher entry can be viewed on Cookie Time’s main facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/CookieTimeCookies. Three highly commended prizes will also be awarded as part of the competition, with large boxes of cookies going to Hamilton’s Mark O’Brien, New Plymouth’s Olivia Honeyfield and Auckland’s Catherine Fenwick.

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