Anyone Can Make A Difference

A great deal has happened since the last time I was able to make an entry here.  First off I just want to thank everyone who wrote comments on my last post for their encouraging words.  Also, I want to extend another thank you to my twitter/facebook followers for your gracious support.  Cupcakes for Japan was a huge success!  It would not have been possible without the support of my friends; from your kind words, encouragement, donations, your time, and everything in-between.

When I first had this vision of Cupcakes for Japan I wanted to raise $300, that goal did not seem to extreme and seemed totally achievable.  I ended up getting support from the local Wal-Mart and one of my past professors.  Starbucks let me host my event there, which was so gracious of them.  I bought all of my supplies at Wal-Mart for the batter and for the icing.  My professor Dr. Weeks met went shopping with me and purchased the icing supplies.  I had a frosting party the night before to make sure that the cupcakes would look their best for the following morning.  Dr. Weeks has a daughter that is in high school who is always looking for community service hours.  She sent her over with a friend and they frosted the night away. (*This reminds me of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days-Frost yourself with diamonds.  If you know what I am talking about it makes perfect sense and you were thinking it too subconsciously.)

Here are the cupcake flavors that made their appearance at the fundraiser: peanut butter & strawberry jelly, white amaretto, lemon, snickerdoodle, strawberry champagne, the devil made me do it, and a margarita.  I ended up having around 13 dozen cupcakes overall.  The cupcake flavor selection was a triumph, a small victory won in my book.  Peanut butter & strawberry jelly along with the snickerdoodle were the most popular flavors.  I cannot say that I am surprised by that at all, those are two of my favorites as well.



That morning it was literally freezing.  I was set up and ready to go at 8:00 with a caramel macchiato in hand. The Starbucks regulars were there and happy to see me.  It’s weird and hard to explain if you don’t understand the people that are attracted to Starbucks.  The regulars become friends over a period of time.  There is a point where you see them on a daily basis, you may not even know their name (secretly you have a nickname for them like police man, the two old men that always are reading the newspaper, business woman who is always in a hurry…you catch my drift) but you always exchange greetings and chat about your morning/day ahead.  Starbucks is another social network if you will, but it is all done over great: coffee, lattes and good ole’ one on one face time.  The regulars all made a donation, some of which didn’t even take a cupcake (whatever, some people don’t like sweets or are on a diet, its fine).  There was one man who just donated a $20 bill and simply thanked me for what I was doing.  That made me almost start bawling right there on the spot.  It was so nice to see everyone making charitable donations, helping a good cause, and watching them bite into one of my delightful cupcake creations.  This is an experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life.  At the end of that morning, I ended up raising around $315 in just a matter of hours!  Cupcakes for Japan was a success!