Hey everyone! I hope that you’re enjoying this fantastic weather as much as I am. And guess what, I have some exciting updates to tell. Recently, the Sigma Kappa chapter at Elon University completed two very successful philanthropy events! The first was our Spring Cupcake Bar and the second was our Swim-a-Thon that we co-hosted with Alpha Chi Omega, another sorority on our campus. However, today I’m just going to focus on the Cupcake Bar that I planned.
Because I love baking, our Cupcake Bar is one of my favorite philanthropy events to both produce and participate in. Before this event, sisters sign up to bake various flavors of un-frosted cupcakes. We also had numerous cupcake toppings ranging from sprinkles to crushed Oreos to icing, which were all generously donated from our alumnae chapter. While at the event, students could purchase an un-frosted cupcake for $1 and add however many toppings they desired. It is always fun to see the different topping combinations my fellow students create. My all-time favorite has always been a funfetti cupcake with funfetti frosting and sprinkles (clearly I’m still a child at heart). Here’s a picture of other students adding their favorite toppings!
This year, I decided that I wanted to have an additional interactive activity for students to partake in. So, we had a cupcake eating competition! Originally, we were going to have a male and female division in the competition. However, due to a low level of interest from the female students to participate, we decided to just have a male competition. The men paid $2 to participate and were required to ice six cupcakes with the frosting of their choice. The person who finished all six cupcakes first won a $15 gift card to Local Yogurt, an organic frozen yogurt shop located just a few minutes from campus. The men had a great time, and of course everyone else enjoyed watching them try to quickly eat a large quantity of sweets! Maybe next time I’ll make them eat large cupcakes like this one that one of our sisters baked for the event-
I would say that the event was an overall success. The only real problems that I encountered while planning this event were the lack of interest from the females on campus in participating in the cupcake eating competition and the fact that some of our chocolate-based toppings began to melt under the heat of the sun. In the future, I will make sure to spread the word about the cupcake eating competition earlier by e-mailing all of the presidents of the Greek organizations on campus a couple of weeks before the event takes place. I am hoping that since people have heard about the competition this year, they will be eager to participate next year.
Event planners always run into certain problems when planning outdoor events. In my case, it was the fact that since it was a sunny day, my chocolate toppings began to melt. I remember this happening last year, so before my event began, I decided to only place some of the contents from the bags of chocolate toppings in the serving dishes on the table and kept the remainder of the toppings in a cooler in the shade. This definitely helped the situation somewhat, but of course the toppings in the serving dishes did still melt somewhat. But, that was the risk that I decided to take when choosing to hold the event outside! Here’s an example of the chocolate debacle- one of our friends wanted to add some chocolate chips to his cupcake but they were so melted that they molded into a giant ball of chocolate!
In total, our Cupcake Bar raised $250 to benefit the Sigma Kappa Foundation and to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s research. I am very proud of the work that my sisters put into this event, and am excited to plan another Cupcake Bar in the fall! Look forward to hearing some updates on our Swim-a-Thon and a personal achievement very soon. As always, feel free to leave comments below and have a lovely afternoon
Best,
Jessica
