OLPH Students Create Smiles with Bake Sale

The baked goods made by the eighth grade Catholic Christian Doctrine confirmation class at in Pelham Manor brought smiles to a lot of faces last month.

But for all the smiles they helped create through their tasty creations, there are three more smiles the class hopes to create in the near future.

The confirmation class raised $750 for the “Smile Train,” a charity that provides free cleft lip and palate surgeries to children from poor families across the globe. The $750 that was raised is enough to cover surgeries for three children. It was also three times more than the class’s goal.

“I think it’s amazing how many children we are able to help and how many people stepped forward to help us raise money,” said Anna Gardner, one of the students who participated in the bake sale. “I think it was important for us to do this so that we can help people who really need it.”

The class, which meets every Monday,  participated in the project as way to earn community services hours. Jospeh Keane and Andree Kelly, the teachers of the class, and Michael Hall, the religious director of Our Lady suggested the Smile Train as an organization and helped the children brainstorm ways they could help raise money.

After watching an educational video about the Smile Train, the students decided to hold a bake sale. All of the students in the class were required to bake or purchase an item that could be sold.

Students were assigned specific roles, such as advertising director and treasurer, and sent out to spread the word about the bake sale.

Matthew Spana, another student who participated in the project, said he was surprised by how successful the sale was.

“Everyone would start off at the counter at  first and then we’d leave a few people on at different times in the day,” said Spana, a Pelham resident. “We made a good amount of money the first time and we had another one. Our teacher said we could catch kids going to and leaving confession. There were no leftovers.”

Although the baked goods were a hit with the students, the class also had additional help in reaching their goal.

“Some people just left money and didn’t buy anything,” Gardner said. “They were  just being generous.”

Additional information about the Smile Train and its mission can be found here.

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