We wanted to share with you a letter that was written to us last week by Julie Barrett, a teacher who mobilized her class to host a cupcake stand at their school. Read below how God moved in the hearts of the entire school to multiply their efforts and impact many.
Dear Cupcake Kids/Sixty Feet,
Y’all are awesome! We had a great time with our cupcake sale. I wanted to share the story with you because it was such an unbelievable experience for my students. I met some folks from Sixty Feet at the Created for Care retreat in 2012. I’m a middle school teacher at a Christian school, so I tucked the idea of a Cupcake Kids fundraiser away in my brain; I’m always looking for ways to expose my students to things happening around the world and open their eyes to areas of injustice. For one week during April, our school abandoned the normal schedule and had exploratory-type options for students to choose from. Teachers were asked to create five half-day sessions on one topic. I chose the topic of local and global social justice issues. As part of the week, the students decided to have a cupcake sale on Friday. We planned to make cupcakes in the morning and distribute them at lunch. We also allowed people to order ones to be picked up at the end of the day, too. There are a litte over 200 students in our school. In my head, I imagined we’d be making and decorating 100-200 cupcakes and make a few hundred dollars.
The students learned about Sixty Feet on Tuesday. They created a presentation to share with classes and spent time praying for Sixty Feet and for their sale. They presented to classes on Wednesday. Order forms were collected on Thursday. When we started looking through the order, it was evident that we were going to be making way more cupcakes than originally expected. Once we totaled all the amounts, it came out to almost 46 DOZEN cupcakes. I entered the teachers’ lounge at lunch, wide-eyed and wondering how in the world I was going to help orchestrate the execution of so many cupcakes. Teachers were excited about the sale and asked about how many cupcakes had been ordered. I laughed and told them over 500 cupcakes. They immediately responded with things like, “What?! How are you going to do that? You need to let us help!” I ended up sending out an email to all the teachers in my school saying, “If you wanted to throw a dozen or two cupcakes in your oven tonight, I certainly wouldn’t mind.” Staff more than rose to the occasion and baked an enormous amount of cupcakes that night. On Friday morning, cupcakes kept coming in and we ended up with more than enough. The students in my group decorated for a few hours and then distributed the cupcakes to all those who had ordered.
With all the decorating, we ran short on time, so I told the students that I’d count the donations after school and let them know how much it was. I started to count the checks and money and could hardly believe my eyes. The total came out to $1513!!! So awesome to see how God took one little idea and multiplied resources, time, energy, and donations to be so much more. I know we’re just one little story of God’s movement in the hearts of people to love, care, and provide for orphans around the world. However, I don’t think that this experience will be something that my students (or I) will quickly forget. The whole school has be abuzz about it for the past week.
Thanks so much for letting our community be a part of the greater work that God is doing through Cupcake Kids and Sixty Feet. We were so honored and blessed through participating with you all.
Julie Barrett
Rockford Christian School
Thank you, Julie, for sharing your story with us! We are so grateful to you, your amazing students and your entire school for such generosity. Your efforts will go a long way in loving and serving the precious children in Uganda.