Kim’s cake sale raises more than £1,400
We’re so grateful for the incredible ways people in our community have continued to support us through lockdown and beyond. Here, Kim Warner, one of our supporters, shares how she adapted her annual afternoon tea to a successful driveway cake sale to raise funds for our hospice.
“Back in 2013 my friend Chris Flynn suggested we hold a fundraiser for St Catherine’s. Before that, we’d both done the Midnight Walk for about five years. Chris had been a bereavement counsellor at the hospice and I had volunteered so that was our connection.
Our first afternoon tea was a great success in Chris’s garden – I made all the cakes and Chris made the sandwiches. The following year we decided to hold our afternoon tea in my garden and that’s what we’ve been doing ever since. We’ve always had a lot of help, with people lending us gazebos, tables and chairs, and on average we have about 100 ladies attending our teas. We’ve collected cups, saucers, plates, tea pots, milk jugs and cake stands from charity shops so we can serve things up authentically! And we’ve also held raffles, silent auctions, guess the weight of the cake and how many sweets in the jar to raise more money.
That’s how our afternoon teas from 2013 to 2019 ran, then 2020 arrived
We were very upset that we couldn’t hold our annual afternoon tea. Last year, we raised over £5,000, but this year I thought why don’t I hold a tabletop sale of cakes on my driveway to hopefully make some money for St Catherine’s even during COVID-19.
So in June I set about making cakes. Due to COVID-19, I had to be very vigilant about hygiene but I always am anyway, as I worked in the kitchen and coffee shops at St Catherine’s for 15 years.
As I made cakes, I wore gloves, a mask, hair net and apron. I wrapped and labelled every cake and all in all, I made around 170 cakes to sell.
On the day of my cake sale, my friend Pauline who lives over the road came to lend a hand
We put signs up reminding people to stay two metres apart, and despite the restrictions, we had a steady stream of people all day long. It made getting at 6am to make scones for my afternoon tea boxes worth it!
I also held a socially distanced raffle on the day too. I asked people to make their own tickets, we composted these after, and people dropped their homemade tickets in the raffle box and their pound entry into a money box so nobody had to come within two metres of anyone else. We had some lovely raffle donations too. Chris gave me a fabulous, extra-large bottle of prosecco and I donated some wine. A local florist, Sweet Pea, wrapped the gifts for me and kindly donated a plant. Another friend did a beautiful flower arrangement and we made over £300 on the raffle alone.
The total amount raised was £1,468.09 which was a fabulous amount of money. St Catherine’s is close to my heart and I’ll always try to raise funds for them – coronavirus or not!”
Inspired to take on some fundraising of your own? Fancy doing a Bake Sale like Kim?
Your support has never been more needed. Find out how you can help St Catherine’s by doing your own fundraising today here .
