Rocket Bakery to the Rescue

Noel saw that Lily was featured in a previous post and protested that her voice should also be heard. Fair enough.

The day after Lily had her melt down, Noel had a crisis of her own. She came home with the fundraising packet from Pasadena Park elementary. The students will be selling Otis Spunkmeyer frozen cookie dough for $14 a bucket, with half the proceeds going to purchase supplies for classrooms. Every day of our "Year of Plenty" seems to bring a, "We never thought about that" moment. This was definitely one of them. In the past we have always purchased a couple buckets of the sweet goo and, with a tinge of "I'm a parent so I have to do this stuff" shame, invited our friends and family to buy some too. According to our rules we can't buy any buckets this year and we never even thought about being in the position of selling non-local stuff. I initially told Noel I would just write a check to the school to support the fundraiser. That was easy enough until Noel unveiled the shiny brochure with all the prizes you get with different levels of sales prowess. The thought of missing out on the cheap trinkets from China crushed her spirit. The thought that I was raising my daughter in such a way that her spirit could be crushed by missing out on a .50 cent plastic caribiner am radio crushed my spirit. This little crisis led us to a wholly unexpected and satisfying resolution.

Noel and I went online and did a little research on Otis Spunkmeyer. Turns out Otis is not a real person, but a name made up by the founder's 12 year old daughter. It's hard to have a relationship with a made up person. So I asked Noel what she would think if we sold stuff from someone we do know, a local business. The Rocket Bakery was the first thing that came to mind. Jeff & Julia Postelwait, owners of the Rocket, are real people that we know, and everyone we know loves the Rocket Bakery. We decided that we would ask the Postelwait's if we could sell $10 Rocket cards and have them make a donation to the school for every card we sell. (By the way everyone should own a Rocket Card. You get 10% off on all drinks when you use a Rocket card instead of cash and you can just keep adding money to the card as you go.) While I was reluctant to ask friends to buy cookie dough, I'm actually excited to go door to door with Noel spreading the gospel of fresh baked cinnnamon rolls, knowing that we are supporting a local business, selling something that people will really want, and raising money for Noel's classroom.

But what about the prizes. Well we went online again and came up with some prizes that fit within our plan. We settled on a Mancala board game, hand made by a hill tribe in Thailand. That's a whole other story. See About Our Year for an explanation of the Thailand connection.

So, let the Goodwin family/Pasadena Park elementary fundraising campaign begin. Jeff has given us the green light. Let us know if you want to buy a $10 Rocket card for $10, and the Rocket Bakery will make a $1 donation to  Mrs. Reischmans second grade class at Pasadena Park elementary for every card we sell.

Comments

[Dana Kangas]

I will buy a Rocket card from you guys. We live by the Rocket on Garland...and we go once or twice a week. I just recently lost my Rocket Card and I was thinking about getting another one anyway. Let me know how to get one of those card...my husband and I really want to meet you guys anyway!!!

To be quite honest...we want to come with you guys on all your "field trips". It sounds like fun. We don't have any kids, but I think we would enjoy visiting all the places you've mentioned.

[nancy]

Dana, we'd love to meet you! And we'd love to sell you a Rocket card. Craig and I will talk about when we might be able to meet you over at the Rocket on Garland. Maybe we'll plan a field trip too. Thanks for your encouragement!

[Judy Goodwin]

Grandma Judy is always eager to buy goo or whatever from Noel and Lily. The prospect of buying something I really enjoy like coffee and Rocket Bakery bran muffins really gets my attention. Put me down for 2 cards and the donation. By the way, I'll need to visit in order to use the card.

[Keith]

I had a similiar experience with girlscout cookie sales last weekend. I did end up helping at a booth at HEB. It was a close call. In the end, it was interesting to see how happy those cookies make people. When it came to the "prizes", I told Kaley that we weren't going door to door.

Saying no to girlscout cookies is... I don't know... about as against the grain as you can get.

The nutty thing is that I thought it might be worth the $36 a box in sales just to hang out and watch people smile over getting a box of thin mint.

[nancy]

Thank you Judy! You love us, goo and all!!! Maybe we can use our cards by stopping at the Rocket after Bloomsday.

Keith, I bet those smiles were due not only to the thin mints (which I love too) but to you and cute Kaley greeting people and enjoying the day together.:-)

[Kathryn LaPointe]

Good thinking, Goodwins! I tried to have a discussion with my eight-year-old Evan about Box Tops. Hmmmm... the Kleenex brand is $2. And your school gets ten cents. The store brand is $1. How about I give your school the dollar instead of the dime? "But then our class won't get the pizza party." You see how this works! And works US!

[kate]

It's great that you didn't give in to the initial guilt of having to support the school in a way that compromises your values. This is a brilliant solution!

Found you via the Inlander; I'm bookmarking you and will check back often. I love and admire your "experiment". What a wonderful thing for your children to live and learn.