Cheri Kovacic, owner of Cheri’s Bakery, has recruited a new ally – kids – to spread the word about her 9-year-old retail bakery in west Wichita, KS. Once a month, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, she invites children to come into the bakery for free cookie decorating sessions.

Cheri’s Bakery creates Make & Take Cookie Kits that contain un-iced cookies and containers of Royal Icing and decorations. The sessions are free, but plenty of parents wind up buying Make & Take Cookie Kits to take home. The kits sell for $12.95.

“It’s become a very popular event,” Kovacic says. “We had 39 kids participate the first time, and 51 the next month.”

So, she’s learning a valuable lesson that if you can hook the kids, the parents will follow.