We recently came across a great feature in The Acorn, a community newspaper in Southern California featuring three teens who found a sweet way to celebrate their Bat Mitzvahs.
Pictured at Left: Sadie Emmitt, Victoria Wildman and Lauren Leftz learned how to bake, decorate and sell cupcakes on behalf of Cupcakes for Cancer, a nonprofit group started by in 2007 by a 13-year-old Blakely Colvin, which helps families pay for cancer treatments.
The girls concocted cupcakes to fit every occasion and theme, including thin-mint-flavored cupcakes, and cream soda and orange 50-50, which combines orange Fanta and cream soda.
Together the girls baked more than 1,000 cupcakes in about three months and used the kitchen at the Valley Outreach Synagogue.
Lauren, a 13-year-old student at Colina Middle School in Thousand Oaks, said she and her friends raised more than $1,200 for their mitzvah project.
“We did cupcake sales all together at the temple,” Lauren said, adding that they also sold cupcakes for the cause at their schools and on other occasions.
Lauren became a Bat Mitzvah on May 4, 2013. “It’s an awesome feeling knowing that you’re helping to make the world a better place,” Lauren said.
The temple’s Facebook page promoted the event for the girls
Victoria is graduating from Sequoia Middle School in Newbury Park. She became a Bat Mitzvah on May 4, 2013. She said the project turned out to be fun and educational, adding that she picked up a few skills when learning how to bake. “We had a Valentine’s Day flavor—a vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting,” she said. Her personal favorite is the 50- 50 cupcake. “It felt good that I did something to help people in need,” she said.
Sadie will become a Bat Mitzvah on June 15, 2013 and said that the experience was rewarding and gave her the chance to experiment with creative recipes. She plans to use the recipes she learned for a future project and may come up with some new ones of her own.
Click on Cupcakes for Cancer for more information about this great organization.
