By: Melinda Hambrick
This year will be the seventh year Sandra Hauptman and her family will do what they always do: find a way to give back.
The event was first inspired by Madison Rose Lane Elementary, a Phoenix school that Sandra’s daughter, Mia, attended in kindergarten. One year, the school held a food drive, and Mia was sent home with a pamphlet explaining how all the food collected would be given directly to families in the school. The first year was an impulse. Sandra woke up one Saturday morning thinking, “Let’s just have a bake sale.” She made cookies, chocolate-covered strawberries, crepes, and hot cocoa and set up in her front yard. She made $120. “It was super fun. We loved it. So we decided to do it every year going forward.”
As time passed, the bake sale fundraiser evolved and the planning improved. Messy crepes with Nutella were replaced by baklava and cupcakes. Sandra talked to the school to ensure they knew how she was trying to help. She became more creative about spreading the word about the fundraiser. One year, Madison Rose Lane held a fall festival. Sandra asked if she could give away samples, and “all those people truly showed up for the bake sale.” Eventually, she contacted the local news station down the street to see if they would post the bake sale event on their Facebook page. Instead, she received a visit from the Channel Three Surprise Squad, who offered to purchase the groceries that year. https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&si=PsSUChj5zSybhK6I&v=G7GwfSmZ180
In 2018, Sandra and her family moved their annual tradition to Prescott Valley. Because they were new in town and arrived during the summer, proceeds went to Stepping Stones. The following year, they donated to Mountain View Elementary School.
Then came a three-year break imposed first by COVID-19, and then by the challenges of completing Yavapai College’s nursing program. This year, the first since the break, funds will help feed families whose children attend Granville Elementary School and Pronghorn Ridge Middle School.
“The schools let us know how many families they have in need, and then we buy groceries as if we were to go for our Thanksgiving dinner. We buy that quantity for each family, so it’s like a package deal. If there are 56 families, you buy 56 turkeys and 56 stuffings, etc. We usually don’t put them together. We tried that the first year, but because we don’t have contact with the families or know where these meals go, we give it to the school, and they pass it on as needed. We’re never in that line of knowing who the recipients are or getting in their space.”
For Sandra, the event is much more than a fun way to contribute to her community. She was born in Drvar, Bosnia in 1989. Her early childhood memories include violence and hunger, searching for berries along roadsides, waiting for a truck to come so her family could get a bag of lentils and have something to eat during the war. She still recalls the horror she felt when she realized American children are experiencing the hunger she grew up with. “To come to America for better things and see kids going through that is very difficult, and it hits home to realize these kids are sitting next to [my daughter] during class. For some kids, the only real meal they get is at school. If I can help provide that outside of the school, even for just one day so families don’t have to worry about it, that’s what the bake sale is about.”
Now a nurse in the Progressive Care Unit at Yavapai Regional Medical Center, Sandra decided to move the fundraising operation to a licensed commercial kitchen. She says this year, her goal is to have extra funds after purchasing the holiday meals to pay off any balances on kids’ school lunches. You can contribute to her efforts by joining her and her family at NoCo Community Kitchen on November 9th between 12:00 and 4:00 p.m. Donations are gratefully accepted from those who aren’t fans of sweets.
