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05/18/09 A Bake Sale Tale

After our 2009 Spring Festival was canceled due to the weather, we had a ton of baked goods that were originally donated to the festival bake sale...for hundreds of customers!  We sold some at our Lemonade Day...and the rest were divided among each of our children's cottages so that children could try their hand at turning a profit with their own bake sales.

Each cottage set up a sale at a different location in town.  They used the marketing and selling strategies they learned during Lemonade Day, held up signs, and did whatever it took to draw in the customers.   

As much success as all of our cottage families had, one of our little boys' cottages outshone all of the rest in the amount of money they raised.  Each boy was given a small stack of baked goods to sell as their own, from cookies and cupcakes to full-size cakes.  They loaded into the van, and headed off to a shopping area.

During the ride, the boys set their cakes and cookies on the seats and on the floor of the van...not knowing how careful they needed to be.  Their housemom glanced back midway through the ride...and saw mayhem!  Cakes were sliding along the seats...and tipping over onto the floor...and she heard an older boy call out to five-year-old Harley, "Harley!  No!  Nobody is going to want to eat those now!"  Harley was happily poking into the box of cupcakes in his lap...oblivious to the fact that he would have to part with them to a customer.

Harley tested the cupcakes for quality control purposes!

By the time they reached their destination, it was obvious that the bake sale scheme was a disaster.  The cupcakes were squashed together...the cake frosting was smeared all over the inside of the plastic covers...and the cookies were crumbs.

Not wanting the idea to be a total loss, the boys and their houseparents decided to instead give the cakes and cookies away.  They set up a table, and the boys ran up and down the sidewalks shouting "Free cake!  Take all you want!  It's free!"  Passersby couldn't resist, and came to the table.  Harley got into selling mode, telling people who approached, "You need this!  This tastes good!  You want this!" while loading their arms.  

Most people looked at the demolished baked goods and wanted to make a donation -- without taking the cake -- but the boys insisted, "No!  You've got to take the cake!  We can't leave until the cake is all gone!"

At the end of the two hour period of giving away "free cake" -- and drawing in plenty of donations, and many new friends -- the boys had made two to three times the amount that any other cottage made.  The disaster had turned out well...

...and Harley proved that you can have your cake...and sell it, too.

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