When triplets Lindsay, Max and Eric Lee were 5, their mother took them to the Giant Cookie Sale.

“Everybody got their own box, everybody got a glove and they were able to pick up the cookies they wanted the most,” said mom Dianna Lee. “Now, we’ve come full circle. Last year Lindsay (now a college freshman) helped me make the cookies we donated for the sale.

“It really is a family tradition.”

The annual Giant Cookie Sale is one of the major fundraising projects for the Troy-Pike Habitat for Humanity. It takes place from 8 a.m. to noon this Saturday at First United Methodist Church in downtown Troy.

The premise is simple: scores of generous folks across Pike County donate homemade cookies (and some cakes and pies) to the sale. Because the cookies are sold by the pound, the public is invited to come and fill a box (or two, or three) choosing their favorites from the hundreds of different kinds of cookies, brownies and other sweet treats. All the proceeds go directly to funding construction of homes in the local Habitat program.

“With this money, we help build new houses for deserving people from our area who could not afford the housing on their own,” Lee said. “It goes right back into helping our neighbors here in Pike County.”

The Giant Cookie Sale welcomes a new tradition this year, as well.

“For the first time we’re going to have a kids’ corner,” Lee said. “Children can purchase a shortbread cookie for $1 and decorate it however they would like. We’ll send it home in a special box just for them.”

Also, it’s not too late for people to donate cookies for the sale.

“We ask that you donate a minimum of three dozen cookies in a non-returnable container,” she said. “Drop-off is 2 to 8 p.m. today at the church.”