Faith Duquette, 6, gets ready to mow down on her cupcake purchased last year at the Value Village National Cupcake Day Bake-Off.
Flour power takes over Value Village later this month, as the store’s annual Cupcake Day is set to return for a fifth year.
This time around, staff from the store, as well as local Girl Guides and members of the Friends of the New Animal Shelter group will present their best offerings for sale to the public, and to also be judged by a panel of local celebrities on Feb. 25.
Donna Dick, organizer of Cupcake Day, said this is the fifth year for the event, and it has come a long way.
It’s first year, she said the day was a last-minute decision and was held internally in the lunchroom, raising $80.
The next year, they moved it to the store floor and raised $300. It’s grown to the point they raised nearly $1,000 in 2016 and hope to top that this year.
Customers look forward to the event, Dick said.
People are starting to expect it. Coming up to the event date, they’re seeing the posters, and word spreads from there,” she said. “With the family and friends of everyone participating, it gets quite busy.”
The Girl Guides came on board about three years ago, Dick said, and are very creative.
“If you go on Pinterest or Google, you can come up with literally thousands of ideas. When I put this out to the Girl Guides, their designs were incredible,” she said. “Of course, some of them did have some help from their parents, but overall they put together some awesome cupcakes.”
Dick said the Girl Guides get more than the fun of baking from taking part.
“It is something fun for them to do and they also work towards a couple of their badges,” she said. “Coming out and helping for charity helps them towards those badges as well. They get to have fun too.”
Participating bakers are asked to bring in at least a dozen cupcakes to sell and possibly be judged. All proceeds from sales go to the Friends of the New Animal Shelter.
Dick said the baking part of the event hasn’t been opened up to the general public, as support from Value Village staff, the Girl Guides and the charity of choice – last year being the OSPCA – yielded more than 400 cupcakes in 2016.
Cupcake sales start about 11 a.m. Feb. 25 and run to 4 p.m., or until the cupcakes sell out. Judging on the best cupcakes begins about 11 a.m. as well.
Historically, the judges enjoy the challenge, but wind up taking afternoon naps following their sugar crashes later in the day.
