photo by: Shelley Hanson

Stacy Nixon, left, picks up the 23 cookie trays she ordered from Jody Miller, right, on Friday. The cookie sales support the scholarship named after Miller’s late daughter, Heather Miller.

WHEELING – Baking thousands of cookies to sell serves two purposes for Jody Miller.

It raises money for the scholarship named after her late daughter, Heather Miller. And it keeps her mind busy so she can dwell less on the fact that Heather is not here to celebrate another Christmas with her family.

On Friday, Miller helped place 23 trays of her cookies into the back of another customer’s SUV. There are a variety of cookies on the trays all festively decorated to match the season.

“I started baking the first of November – over 7,000 cookies,” Miller said. “I’m doing it to award more nursing scholarships in my daughter’s memory.”

Heather Miller, 21, died in 2008 from injuries she sustained in a car crash. Her organs were donated to others in need of transplants.

She was set to graduate from nursing school and already had a job prospect lined up. Jody and her husband, Gary Miller, learned after Heather’s death that she had been accepted for the position.

“I think it’s another way for me to channel my grief,” Miller said of the cookie work. “It keeps my head occupied this time of year. It’s for a good cause and I have a lot of people who support the golf tournament, but they don’t golf so this is something else for them.”

The Heather Miller Memorial Golf Classic is held annually at Oglebay Park and helps raise thousands of dollars for the scholarship program that has given about 200 scholarships to nursing students during the past 15 years.

photo by: Shelley Hanson

Shown here are some of the more than 7,000 cookies Jody Miller has made for the sale since early November.

Miller noted her home’s large kitchen helps with the cookie production as she has two freezers and two ovens. She used to bake cookies with her mother in the past. She continues to make two of her late mom’s favorite recipes, nut cups and rum balls.

“It has taken off. I’ve had people asking this past weekend if I had any more,” she said, adding there will be a few trays available at Miklas Meat Market in Wheeling for those who want to buy them.

Miller said she has sold 100 small trays, had about 65 special orders and also held a bake sale last week outside of the Ohio County Schools Board of Education office where she is employed.

The trays included buckeyes, peanut kisses, chocolate chip, nut rolls and more. Her daughter Sarah Miller helps her.

On Friday, Stacy Nixon with the Harris Law office was one of Miller’s customers picking up 23 cookie trays. Nixon said the law firm wanted to purchase the treats to support Miller and her cause. The firm plans to give the cookies as gifts to other law firms and magistrate judges, Nixon said.

“They are delicious. Everybody loves them and we love them,” Nixon added.

Miller noted a documentary film series, titled Gifted, that will include Heather Miller’s journey as an organ donor is scheduled to begin filming this spring in Wheeling.

“The pilot episode will have her story,” Miller said.

Heather Miller’s organ donation included her heart, kidneys, liver and another 50 people benefitted from her tissue donation as well.

In addition to the scholarship, proceeds of the cookie sales also benefit the Center for Organ Donation and Recovery and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.