Bake a Wish Celebrates 10 Years of Gifting Birthday Cakes
The volunteer-run organization delivers messages of care and community
By Jessika Roth, Fri., Aug. 16, 2019
Bake a Wish believes that everyone deserves cake, especially on your birthday. The reality is that there are children living in shelters and transitional housing whose birthdays go unacknowledged. For the past 10 years, a team of volunteers has made it their mission to provide birthday cakes for those who wouldn't otherwise receive them.
It all started in 2009 when Karen Nichols was inspired by an out-of-state organization offering this type of support. She saw an opportunity to fill the same gap in Austin and contacted local housing agencies to find willing recipients. LifeWorks became the very first partner by requesting a birthday cake for a young man turning 19.
The impact of her gift was greater than imagined. "We got a note saying it was the first birthday cake he had ever received. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time," Nichols said. "A child having a birthday cake is something most people take for granted. To hear that someone had never received one was shocking. It really drove home the importance of what we were doing."
Word spread quickly amongst her friends and an organized network of volunteers formed to field requests from agencies, bake cakes according to specifications, and to deliver on schedule, all using their own funds, supplies, and free time. A leadership team eventually formed too, including interim President Judy Yhu and Communication & Media Manager Madelyn Varella.
"Often, agencies try to do these celebrations on their own, but that takes away from resources that they could be committing in other ways to better serve their clients. We can take that burden off of them and provide something that the child can pick out and can look forward to," Varella explained.
"It's a really remarkable, special promise from our community to that kid – someone that you don't know, that you will likely never meet, cares about you enough to let you pick the flavor that you want, the decorations that you want, and is willing to put forth the time and effort to make something that is just for you on your special day. This is one step in a very long road of rebuilding trust with their community and those around them."
Since many of the children are in protective services, the only information given to Bake a Wish is the recipient's age and first name. Volunteers access a spreadsheet filled with requests and choose which cakes to make based on delivery time and date, location, and very endearing cake specifications – sometimes as simple as "baker's choice" if the child hasn't specified, and other times as elaborate as half vanilla, half chocolate, with strawberry frosting and the theme of Pusheen the cat or Marvel's Black Panther or unicorns or outer space. Yhu smiled while recalling some of the cakes she's made, including an iPod-shaped cake. "Every delivery that we make is special even though we don't get to meet the kids. We just want them to feel special and have the opportunity to have what anyone should have – a moment to celebrate."
Today, Bake a Wish is still 100% volunteer-run and has grown to include 105 active volunteers who deliver an average of 63 cakes per month, totaling over 6,000 cakes delivered since 2009. With its growth, the organization has recently expanded the mission to also support birthdays for elderly and disabled adults living in affordable housing communities. "It would be fantastic if we could serve every single agency in the area, but we're going to need a lot more volunteers to make that happen," Varella said. "We're always in need of baking skills for special requests like sugar-free and gluten-free."
The volunteer commitment is pretty easy if you're a home baker with some free time. Bake a Wish asks that you make a minimum of two cakes every six months and know how to make a buttercream frosting from scratch. You're expected to work from a sanitary kitchen as outlined by Texas Cottage Food Law, must have a clean driving record, and pass a background check.
Bake a Wish aims to continue their mission of bringing joy to the youth and adult populations they serve. Nichols stated, "What we do is about so much more than cake – it's about delivering a message that somebody cares."
To find out how to get involved, visit www.bakeawishaustin.org. Disclaimer: Jessika Roth has been a Bake a Wish volunteer since 2018.