When Elizabeth Stoltz and her team signed up to host a Tie-Dye Cupcake Bake-Off, they had no idea they couldn’t sell homemade cupcakes on their campus! But these clever girls quickly found a way around the restriction and are going full speed ahead with their bake sale preparations. Here’s how they triumphed:
Ithaca, New York is world famous for its tie-dye t-shirts that proudly boast, “Ithaca is Gorges!” Here at Ithaca College, we hope to make tie-dye iconic for another reason – cupcakes! My name is Elizabeth Stoltz and I’m a researcher for She’s the First as well as Founder & President of Food for Thought, a student organization at Ithaca College dedicated to improving the lives of children around the world. Food for Thought is caught up in the cupcake sweetness sweeping the nation!
One of our promo flyers!
Immediately after declaring that Food for Thought would join the cupcake bake-off, we hit a roadblock. We learned that Ithaca College doesn’t allow homemade baked goods to be sold on campus. At first we were disappointed that our grand plans of baking and bonding into the wee hours of the night were dashed, but our setback quickly turned into a greater opportunity than we could’ve ever imagined! We contacted Purity Ice Cream, the most beloved local ice cream shop and bakery in Ithaca, and asked them to lend us a hand…and a few hundred cupcakes. Purity Ice Cream graciously agreed and went above and beyond the call of duty! Food for Thought members will soon be taste-testing tie-dye cupcakes made from a special recipe specifically for the She’s the First cupcake sale!
A few members of our team
We’ve decided that we will use all proceeds from the cupcake bake-off to support a girl (or hopefully many girls!) at the Shanti Bhavan School in India. However, we realize that $1,600 is an ambitious goal to raise solely through cupcakes. We will be visiting local business asking them to help us “fill” our “recipe card.” What I mean is that we took the sponsorship breakdown of a full year scholarship at the Shanti Bhavan School and made each component of the scholarship look like an ingredient on a recipe card. We will ask sponsors to donate an “ingredient,“ like $240 to pay for housing or $55 for medical expenses, and supplement all corporate donations with cupcake sale revenues. We will also be sending pre-order invites to Ithaca College faculty and staff. We have a lot of other creative promotional ideas up our sleeves, so we can’t wait to get started selling cupcakes galore!
check out our cupcake flyers!
Last night, we spent our general body meeting decorating colorful cupcake Save-the-Date cards and will soon be canvassing campus with these sweet reminders! We’re thrilled to have already generated so much community support and are so excited to make one girl’s future brighter through these tiny, bright cupcakes!
