The sweet part of bake sales

Less than a week away until my Bake for Hope sale. Aaaggh! OK, now that I've got the nerves out of the way. For those of you who don't know, last month, I signed up to be a baker for the Phoenix area chapter of Bake for Hope, a nationwide effort to host multiple bake sales May 3-9. Well, it's been kind of a bumpy road from the start for me.

I originally pictured just baking some cupcakes and dropping them off somewhere. I decided out of courtesy to attend a planning meeting in another part of town. There were only four of us. Not a great sign. I could tell the group organizer wanted me to take on a bigger role than just bake--reach out to businesses, make fliers--all stuff a journalist does not like to do. But as the week went on, I was little peeved that they had only scheduled sales outside of Phoenix proper, one in some far off chi-chi pocket of north Scottsdale and one in a bedroom community of Anthem. That was the result I guess of most people living in other parts of metropolitan Phoenix. So, I made my own inquiries and calls and found a store in downtown Phoenix called ShopDevious.com. It's actually a perfect fit. The store sells funky, vintage clothes and wigs. The owner gives discounts on wigs to cancer patients. They are right along the route of First Friday, which is the monthly art walk. Since I found the place and nobody else had stepped up, I was now the organizer too. Oh and then I figured out later by happenstance that I got the date wrong. I thought May 8 was the first Friday of the month. But wait, if you subtract 7 from 8, that still puts us in May. Good thing I figured it out last week. Of course, that means having a week less to do everything.

I've gotten practice in PR and outreach over the last couple weeks. I used Yelp, word of mouth--anything I could think of--to find people to bake, businesses that would donate supplies, post fliers. I have done a lot of this during my lunch hour because that's the only time possible. But one thing I've really enjoyed is seeing how generous people have been. Besides ShopDevious' owner, who gave me a big hug when we finally met, the cake decorating supply store almost without hesitation gave me about 200 cellophane treat bags to wrap stuff, a big tray, and breast cancer ribbon themed cupcake liners. My local Hallmark gave me about 30 Cards for the Cure to hand out. Sometimes I bring extra cupcakes to the staff at Massage Envy, where I always get a massage from the same woman, Demi, when I need it. I went in for a massage on Wednesday and asked a manager if they would post a flier. Later on, Demi told me all the receptionists were listening because they were getting ready to say something if the manager said no. I brought some fliers, which list all the sales, the next day and one girl said she was going to go through all of them and highlight mine. I said "I really appreciate this" and another girl said, "No, we appreciate you." She also said she was gonna try to come but only wanted to buy something I baked. Talk about flattering.

Last, but definitely not least, I've been touched by how much some of my friends want to help me. One friend, a fellow volunteer from the shelter, is going to make stuff for me even though she arrives back from a business trip May 1 at 2:30 p.m. And I've got two very special friends -- you know who you are -- who will help me the night before with organizing, packaging and labeling anything that needs it. It really feels like this sale just might come together. Still, hopefully I won't be too much of a nervous wreck until then. Can't wait for May 2 to get here, hehe.