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November 7, 2009

Stacking cookies adds up to real dough

Cancer fundraiser turns out sweet

By Patrick Cooley

HERMITAGE —



More than 40 people stacked Oreos to raise money for breast cancer research on Saturday at Hickory High School in Hermitage. The occasion was Stacking the Odds, an annual event organized by a group of people living in the Shenango Valley to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a national breast cancer support group that has offices in Pittsburgh and donates money to breast cancer research.

This was the third year for the Stacking the Odds, the first was held in Pittsburgh, and the second in Youngstown, but Jennifer DeFazio, who puts the event together every year, says they will keep it in Hermitage from now on.

“We hit our sweet spot,” she said. “ We got a lot of response locally, this is the biggest turnout so far.”

There were 46 people, in the adult and children’s category who competed to see who could stack the most Oreos into a tower in the space of five minutes without it collapsing.

First time stacker Dennis Riportella of Hartford beat out friend and future brother-in-law Jim McAlister of Niles in the final round by stacking five Oreos onto the top of his tower just before time expired. After the all the cookies were counted, Riportella said McAlister, who has competed in all three Stacking the Odds, was the one who got him interested in this year’s competition, and showed him how to stack Oreos in the days leading up to the stacking.

“I’m not bringing him back to this,” McAlister said with a laugh.

He said the two of them had an Oreo party the night before with friends and family, and even decided on last minute strategy. For Riportella, there was a little extra motivation to participate. “ I lost my mom to cancer,” he said.

The McBride family, who lives in Austintown, did particularly well at on Saturday. Mike McBride placed third in the adult competition, and his 5 year-old daughter, Paige, won the children’s competition. “ Some friends of our invited us to compete,” said Jodi McBride, Mike’s wife. For both father and daughter, it was the first time in a stacking competition. Mr. McBride said, when the timer started, they just had to wing it. “ I looked on the internet to see if I could find something about how to stack cookies and I couldn’t find anything,” he said. In addition to the entry fee for the stacking competition, there was also a Chinese auction and a bake sale. The amount of money raised was not immediately available on Saturday.

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