Sweet Cupcakes and the Joy of Giving

Halloween was a little less ghoulish and scary last year as Culinary Arts students sold gourmet cupcakes to raise money for the Rehabilitation Centre for Children. These Winnipeg Technical College Culinary Arts students rushed around the kitchen, pulled freshly baked cupcakes from the oven, piled them with mounds of frosting, and delicately decorated the cupcakes with candy pumpkins and licorice black cats.

The program is called Cupcakes with a Cause. Started by a local non-profit organization called Engage: Students Making a Difference, Cupcakes with a Cause gets culinary students using their talents in the kitchen to raise money for causes of their choice.

For Winnipeg Tech. teacher Sunshine Layton, participating in the Cupcakes with a Cause program was an easy choice. “I am always trying to get the students involved in the world around them. We have volunteered at Agape Table, and fundraised for various local charities. The students were excited to raise money for this particular cause.” Students worked hard to prepare over 500 cupcakes for the Halloween Day sale and worked alongside Engage volunteers to sell them for $1 each at various locations around Winnipeg.

The $500 raised went to the Rehabilitation Centre and Chef Instructor Sunshine Layton says, “The best part of this whole project was delivering the cheque to the Rehabilitation Centre for Children. The students were taken on a tour of the centre, and saw exactly how their donation could help these children with things like a new prosthetic or a modified specialty keyboard. By the end of the tour the students were more motivated than ever to continue to fundraise and donate to this great organization.”

Star Nap, who is still a youth herself at only 24 years of age, is a high school teacher who started the Cupcakes with a Cause program. “Students have a lot of energy and motivation to help others,” Nap says. “My goal is to provide them with opportunities to get involved.”

Next Year, Cupcakes with a Cause is planning to work with even more schools to raise money for their communities. Engage: Students Making a Difference is a local non-profit organization run entirely by volunteers. It organizes the Cupcakes with a Cause and Blankets 4 Babies programs in Winnipeg schools. For more information, or to invite Cupcakes with a Cause to sell cupcakes at your place of work, please call President Star Nap at 775-5669 or email at starnap@engageincharity.com.