While the rainy weather may have not seemed suitable for the Valentine’s Day spirit, clubs held bake sales to not only spread the love, but to support causes that their clubs emphasize. From February 11 to February 14, Amnesty Club held their annual bake sale to raise funds for Amnesty International and their other supporting charities despite the struggles of the rain.
With this being an annual event that often receives a good turn out, Club President and Founder Kate Lin (12) expected this bake sale to be as successful as previous years. However, the club didn’t anticipate the heavy downpour that would deter customers from visiting them after school as this year’s bake sale fell upon a rainy week.
“Towards the beginning and last days of the week, we did make quite a bit of money, but there was one day we made $24 because of how rainy it was,” Lin said. “Last year, I believe we made almost $400 in profit, and this year, we only made $100 in profit so that was definitely influenced by the rain.”
While Amnesty’s previous bake sales were held in club advisor Ms. Eileen Tse’s classroom, this year’s event was held next to the administration building to increase engagement from the student body and the chance of being seen. But once again due to the rain, their efforts went unnoticed.
“It wasn’t ideal so we tried to manage just by selling under the admin building, but it still affected us negatively,” club officer Caleb Lim (11) said.
Other than the rain, the club had to face additional hurdles behind the scenes. The stereotypical idea of bake sales stem around the idea of club officers baking homemade goods to sell at school in order to raise funds and profit for a cause. However, with bake sales having not been a popular fundraising event amongst clubs, Amnesty’s first bake sale in 2022 came with learning curves as they had to meet administration restrictions for this event to actually occur.
“We’re not allowed to sell any products that we made at home and we had to buy from bakeries, and then all of our goods at the beginning of the bake sale were completely unopened and all handled with gloves,” Lin said.
As the Amnesty Bake Sale is an annual event that club members can look forward to, many question the prosperity of the event as the founding board members are seniors preparing to hand down their legacy.
“I think it will become an annual thing for the club, even if I’m not president anymore,” Lin said. “At the end of this year, we’re gonna try to get a board that’s not senior heavy or junior heavy, so that it could go on for longer, but yeah, bake sales are going to become a club annual thing and not just [an event] under the current board.”
Despite the struggles and challenges officers had to face both in preparation and during the bake sale, people who attended noted the careful organization of the fundraiser and the necessity to support these types of clubs.
“I support these club events so they can have funding. I know Amnesty uses the bake sale to support human rights [causes] and they’re able to set up their money to help others in need,” patron Kate Avila (12) said. “I think it’s important to help clubs so they can help other people every day.”
