(bright music) - We are going to add a quarter cup of sugar to this.

- I take the cookie that's filled with the cream.

- [Baker] I'm doing 286 dozen.

- [Becky] I dip it in the yellow schnapps and then roll it in the red schnapps so it looks like a peach.

- It means caring.

When you give somebody a cookie, it's gonna make them smile.

- It's making me happy.

You unite people with food.

(bright music) - [Narrator] These women are busy mixing and scooping and twisting.

And it's not just baking business as usual.

Their mission is to provide some comfort to the families of those who died when Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

(somber music) While workers prepared to mark the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks, people were baking cookies, more than a thousand dozen cookies, that would make their way to a table where families of the Flight 93 heroes and passengers would share a meal.

- This is one way that we can show our support of them.

- [Narrator] In 2015, Laura Magone created The Wedding Cookie Table Community.

(gentle music) It's a Facebook group whose nearly 77,000 members celebrate the Pittsburgh area tradition in which wedding receptions feature an elaborate table laden with cookies of all kinds.

Laura and her members were invited by the Salvation Army to share this local custom with the Flight 93 families.

- It's an act of generosity and kindness and it's all about giving.

- [Narrator] And also to take home with them the meaning behind the so-called Pittsburgh cookie table.

Today, this ethnic tradition born out of love and honor has a reach much wider than weddings.

- I hope that they'll really start to learn about the tradition, what is the story behind the cookies, because it speaks to the goodness of the people in this area and it might give them some comfort that they lost their loved ones in an area where there are so many caring people.

- It's an honor to be picked to do something like this for people.

Try my best to make them happy.

- [Narrator] Marilyn Sanner owns the Honey Bee Bakery in Monongahela.

- I'm baking Italian rainbow cookies.

They're traditionally done with green, red, and white batter and I am doing them for this special event in red, white, and blue.

- [Narrator] A few towns away, these childhood friends hadn't slept much in a week.

This is the Goodie Girls Cake Shoppe in Uniontown where the team is turning out 350 dozen cookies, including chocolate chip, peanut butter blossoms, and buckeyes.

I'm noticing every cookie has its own little home.

- Yes, a lot of thought went into the packaging of these cookies.

We don't normally individually wrap each cookie, so I had to measure each cookie that we make and try to find an appropriate packaging that would accommodate the size and shape.

- [Narrator] And maybe the most special, the peach cookie.

- It is known as the queen of the wedding table.

It is one of those cookies where if someone makes it for you, you know they care about you because it is very time consuming and very tedious.

- [Narrator] As they worked, their thoughts returned to that day a lifetime ago.

- One of my best friends from high school, her sister was killed in the second World Trade Tower.

This is a comfort thing.

You know when you wanna be comforted when you were little, what did your mom make?

She made you cookies.

- We can't return the people back to their families, but this is a way for us to show that, you know, we do remember them.

- [Narrator] In all, five bakeries in Western Pennsylvania would bake and send more than 12,000 cookies, bits of sweet comfort for people they don't know and probably will never meet.

- I could never understand the emotional pain that you carry to do this day, even though it's been 20 years.

But this is something that I can do for you and hopefully, you know, it might make you smile.

(bell chimes) - [Narrator] And so on September 11th, 2021, as chimes rang out across this hallowed ground, bakers and sign makers were honored to know that their loving work would touch the hands and the hearts of those who lost so much here.

(gentle music) - Just know that there's people in this world and this country that really care and really are saddened over this event.

We will never forget.

- [Narrator] When you eat a cookie that has been prepared with love, you take in the person who made it.

In that spirit, we share this tradition with you.

- A cookie is a small thing.

Very simple ingredients: flour, sugar, butter.

- [Marilyn] It's the little things that I think people appreciate the most.

- The fact that they're getting overloaded with cookies from hundreds of people who have donated their time and their money to show their appreciation, show the remembrance of their family, and show that they care.

- But they've put their heart and soul into it and they've turned flour and sugar into love.

(gentle music continues)