Banking on a Cure

We held a charity bake sale at the bank yesterday. It was our 4th annual bake sale in honor of one of our coworkers who passed away from breast cancer in 2006. Since she was the best baker of anyone in our branch of the bank we thought this was the best way to honor her and raise money to find a cure for breast cancer. All the monies raised will be donated to the Susan B Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.



I have to say the women at this branch are phenomenal. They work so well together. They care about each other and they all loved their coworker Joanne.

Every year we worry that we won't have enough food, but, come bake sale day there is a steady stream of dropoffs. The bank courier brings pies sent from other branches and then I do a big collection at our corporate center. Sometimes the pies, cookies, and coffee cakes don't make it out of the building as inevitably someone will follow me asking me how much for that pie or saying I'll buy those brownies. I actually sell items from the trunk of my car as word gets around that Elaine has the bake sale items outside!



How could you resist Mary's mini apple pies? Mary made 4 two crust pies, 1 Dutch apple pie and 15 of the mini pies! Her father-in-law received apples from a friend and he gave them to Mary to make a pie for the bake sale. Mary's mother made coffee cakes and breads. Good stories came from the bake sale.

We sold our first pie through the drive up window. One of our senior citizen customers saw the sale through the window and he spied an apple pie he just had to have. We brought it out to him so he didn't have to leave his vehicle. (It wouldn't fit through the driveup drawer). I'm kidding, we didn't even try to make it fit.




And how can you say no to brownies made lovingly by the teller supervisor's daughter? She also made cupcakes with her younger daughters- teaching them early to give back.



Presentation is just so important. Everything must be appealing to the eye. We have creative people who sit and package the items that come in. They'll add ribbons, leaves, all sorts of embellishments. They work tirelessly.



I made cranberry apple crisps and lemon squares. Joanne's daughters bake and Joanne's sister made the most beautiful blueberry and apricot crostadas. I must
admit I had never heard of a crostada before yesterday! The crostadas barely hit
the table before they were scooped up.



A cookie monsters delight! Pumpkin, chocolate chip, cream cheese, and almond cookies.



This sour cream coffee cake found a good home. I loved hearing from the customers as they told me where they were taking the items. I am having coffee with a friend tomorrow so I'll bring this coffee cake with me or I am going to give these Halloween ghost cookies to my grandchildren or my family will love this apple pie.



Our Bank President is a woman. She made a huge container of chocolate chip cookies, attended the sale and bought some items to bring back to the corporate offices. These are her cookies and they sold out.



My boss's wife made espresso brownies and put them in the cutest containers. I bought a box to eat at the bake sale. I couldn't resist, I love chocolate and coffee.



You know an apple pie went home with me too! One of our retired coworkers made a pie and brought it in for us. It was still warm and looked and smelled heavenly.

We also took pre-orders for some blueberry pies. In fact, one of the bank's trustees requests a pie from the same baker every year!

The tally at the end of the day was $953. We will ask for an additional donation from the bank and we usually receive donations after the sale.

We spoke with some breast cancer survivors who attended the sale. They had good care, early detection and now a clean bill of health. Sadly, we also learned that there are women at the bank who are battling the disease as we speak. They will have our prayers and support through their recovery.

Our hope is that our grass roots effort will help fight for the cure. We will have raised over $10,000 in the four years we've held the sale.

We know Joanne is smiling on us.

Bake Sale!

I was the coordinator for a charity bake sale this past weekend. The bake sale was held in memory of our friend and coworker Joanne DiPaola. Joanne wasa teller at the bank where I work. She passed away in July 2006 after fighting her cancer for 16 months. She was the nicest person I ever met.

The money raised will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. We raised $1,521.

Friday the first day of the sale was Joanne's birthday. She would have been 61 years old. One of our customers bought a cake and donated it to us for our sale. She wanted the word remembering written on it. When she picked it up the word remembrance was written on it and it was spelled wrong. We decided instead of selling the cake, we would cut the cake and
each take a slice and remember Joanne on her birthday.

Here's the birthday cake in memory of Joanne.

We received a large amount of baked goods. We had 5 pies, coffee cakes, whoppie pies, apple crisps, all kinds of breads and coookies, espesso brownies, candy, jars of sweet pepper relish and rum mocha sauce.

We displayed the jars of sauce and relish in my wire container.

We even had a "decorating room". Any baked goods that needed packaging went straight to the decorating room to be bagged and embelished with ribbons and other decorative elements.

This is my cranberry apple crisp, all ready for a good home! The recipe is from Susan Branch's Autumn cookbook. Susan Branch is one of my favorites. I actually got to have afternoon

tea with her last Fall!

I always ask the bank to match funds from the bake sale. I'm not sure if they will but if they

do we will have raised over $10,000. in three years. Money to be used for free testing for women who can't afford it and for education about the disease. I think that is one of the best tributes we can give to our friend Joanne.