The Valentine’s Bake Sale is over. Whew! It’s surprising how intense a tiny little church fundraiser can get for a few hours (hence the “shake” in the title). It’s like a flash flood. Before it began, I had a few goals in mind:
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Expand the product offerings – in other words, avoid the usual downpour of chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, and brownies.
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Reduce waste (from saran wrap, zip-locks, etc.).
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Introduce a standardized pricing guide to eliminate price discrepancies.
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Raise money – preferably more than last year.
By all these accounts, I think the event was a success. A few of the goodies arrived individually wrapped (some quite smartly), but overall I think we ‘done good’. And more so, I hope it will get the ball rolling on people considering alternatives to plastic packaging and implementing greener practices in the future. We also raised about $680, which, if I recall the figures correctly, is about a 25% increase over last year. For that, I can’t take credit – it could just be that more sweet-tooths showed up this year than last, or that the kids brought more tantalizing treats.
Speaking of tantalizing treats, we had the most creative year yet! In addition to the standard fair, we had homemade jam, sweet honey BBQ sauce, and HANDMADE TAMALES! The tamales went in about 3 seconds. I didn’t even see them get sold; I just turned around and they were all gone! Warmed my little heart.
Sure, most of the treats weren’t as designer as some of the beautiful store-bought goodies. But I bet you can’t find something more endearing than a 15-year old football player showing up with a plate of slightly smushed and sloppily frosted cupcakes that he baked all by himself. That, my friend, takes the cake.
Philanthroparty 