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Cupcakes with a conscience
There’s not too many places with a sweeter mission than Open Door Preschools, a child-care operation with two Austin locations that brings together kids of different races, abilities and family-income levels.
What made Thursday even sweeter at the Cherrywood Road school was the way teachers, parents and a few community-minded businesspeople pulled together for something as simple as a cupcake contest (and sale) to help the school’s book fair.
Four judges sampled about 20 cupcakes, awarding points for taste and design. Entries ranged from a blue-iced cupcake with white-frosting eyes and half a cookie for a mouth (Cookie Monster) to a masterpiece of yellow and white jellybeans across three cupcakes with squares of yellow frosting to create corn on the cob.
I was one of the judges, but the other judges and the organizer are the story here:
• Chris Cusack (in the orange shirt) owns Clementine Coffee Bar just down the street at 2200 Manor Road. Cusack said his mother is a teacher, and he believes in supporting schools and churches in the neighborhoods around his coffee shops (he also runs Thunderbird Coffee on Koenig Lane).
• Dave Foster (at left in the photo above) works with Austin Green Art, which is helping the school upgrade and naturalize its playground.
• Dianna Perez runs what she calls a”weekend warrior” catering business called East End Edibles. In real life, she’s an AISD program specialist, working with homeless kids. In her 10 years with Open Door Preschool, she helped children learn to cook through the “Camp Chef Kids” program.
• Tracey Matchefts is the teacher at Open Door who organized the book fair and the contest. She also made the corn-on-the-cob cupcakes, which won the design part of the contest. She’ll be spending her $25 prize on books for the school.
Sweet.
(Quick update from Tracey: “I wanted to mention that Sierra Jendrzey, my Co-Teacher, had the idea for the corn-on-the-cob cupcakes design and helped make them too.”)
(American-Statesman photos by Mike Sutter)
Comments
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By Tracey Matchefts
April 23, 2009 9:18 PM | Link to this
I wanted to thank Mike for coming to the school today, he did a great job..that was a lot of cupcakes. I wanted to mention that Sierra Jendrzey, my Co-Teacher, had the idea for the corn-on-the-cob cupcakes design and helped make them too.
By Chris
April 24, 2009 1:52 AM | Link to this
Awesome! What a fun event. Kudos to Open Door, Dave, and Mike.
But … I don’t think I’ll need another cupcake for a while.
By Alison
April 24, 2009 11:57 AM | Link to this
3 cheers for Tracey and Sierra - you guys are great!
By Torie
April 24, 2009 4:34 PM | Link to this
Open Door truly is one of the sweetest things about Austin!