Today the ladies of Van Vleck Hall and I checked a dream off our Hope College Bucket list: Kelly Knapp agreed to having us over for a baking party at her house.
Yep. We got to bake cookies in the President’s house.
The inside is just as beautiful as you think it would be.
It was built in 1886, 20 years after Hope College was established. Most of the furniture in the house has been donated to the college. It has pretty wooden floors, two fireplaces (one in operation), a beautiful, old Steinway piano, a large kitchen with a huge island counter, and the neatest microwave that pulls out like a drawer.
We all gathered in the kitchen where Mrs. Knapp had all the ingredients that she was kind enough to get for us set out on the counter. We split up and made her favorite family sugar cookie dough recipe that she uses for some of their patio parties where they invite students to hang out on their patio, eat food, and socialize. We split up the dough and made sugar cookies, snicker doodles, chocolate chip cookies, and also made a separate dough for lemon cookies.
While we baked and the cookies were in the oven we chatted with Mrs. Knapp about all kinds of things like dogs (Presidents can have pets, but the Knapp’s do not), movies, and Mrs. Knapp’s college experience. It was just a great opportunity to experience in a new way the kindness of Hope’s small community and how lucky we are to have leaders like Mrs. Knapp that are happy to invite us into her home to chat and make cookies. President Knapp even stopped by a little bit before we were done to chat and try a snicker doodle.
As we made our way out I thanked Mrs. Knapp for the Hope College bucket list experience. She laughed, gave me a hug, and said she was happy to help us check something off the bucket list.
Hope’s people really are the best kind of people.
Thanks for reading!
~Erin
If you have any question feel free to reach me at erin.hoolahan@hope.edu
You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram for more thoughts about and pictures of Hope.