The Bake Sale

History was made in Probistip on Monday the 23rd of March 2009. This following the peaceful Macedonian Presidential and mayoral elections the day before. Let me explain.

Several weeks ago I left a Teacher’s Dream Sheet in the teacher’s room which asked the teachers to “write down three items that they would request if they had three wishes.” The items they wished for were very surprising to me because for the most part – one teacher wished for a TV and DVD player- they were items which are taken for granted in most American schools. Teachers wished for permanent markers, paper, children’s musical instruments, math books, scissors, and a new carpet to replace the 15 year old carpet in the after-school classroom.

These wishes offered me the excellent opportunity for me to bring up the idea with Alexandra of fund raising. She already has her students bring in plastic bottles and scrap paper for which she has a buyer but the return is somewhat minimal. I asked her if they ever had a bake sale at school but the concept was novel to her and as I came to find out, every other Probistipian. Baking something at home, bringing it to school and selling it was never done before. I explained that if each of the 24 students in her home room brought in twelve cookies and we sold them for 5 denari each, we could raise 1400 denari in one morning. At first she wasn’t too sure it would work but she’s always willing to give anything a try (a 20%’er). She accepted the challenge of setting up this historic first bake sale.

She brought up the idea with her homeroom class and they were extremely excited about this new idea (all future 20%’ers?). The classroom was abuzz (another word I’ve always wanted to use) with who was going to make the posters, man the table, set up, clean up, and count the money. It was decided that it would be held the following Monday during the school’s breakfast period. There would be over 400 potential customers that would pass by the table set up outside the cafeteria. Location, location, location – we had it all.

Failing to work under my philosophy that it’s always easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission, Alexandra suggested that we get the rubber- stamped permission of the school Director before conducting the bake sale. I explained that in America we would do something experiential without asking for permission and then if need be, seek forgiveness if someone had a problem with us having done it.

But Alexandra knows the Macedonian way and wisely mentioned our plan to the Director. He liked the idea but told us that we couldn’t sell food school-wide because a child could get sick from contaminated food. He gave us permission, though, to have the bake sale within the confines of the classroom , and we could only sell food amongst her class and to staff members (don’t ask me to explain the rationale).

So the new plan allowed us to purchase the ingredients, spend Sunday afternoon making the cookies, carefully transporting them to school over the icy sidewalks on Monday morning, and then buying them back from ourselves at our own bake sale. Although this didn’t adhere to the strict definition of either “bake sale” or “fundraiser”, the students were still excited as ever when Alexandra informed them of the “minor” change to the original plan. At least we didn’t have to make signs and posters advertising the sale to ourselves.

So on a cold and icy Monday morning the historic event began upon the arrival of the 24 students in Class 6V. Unlike most other Monday mornings in classrooms all across the world, this one was filled with energy and determination. The students dutifully set up classroom, proudly displayed their homemade goodies, and quietly scouted their potential purchases from their classmates’ bounties of sweets.

Alexandra did a wonderful job promoting the bake sale to the other teachers – none of whom had experienced one. She made some flyers that the students delivered to each teacher reminding them of the event and inviting them to come to the classroom to make a purchase. The sale could only be conducted until 9:30 when 6V had to head out for another class and German class would take over the classroom where the sale was taking place.

It was great sitting on the sidelines and being able to watch the proceedings as students and staff engaged in an activity that brought smiles to the faces of all the participants. The students were eager to describe to the potential buyers the background behind each cookie: “My grandmother makes that one on very special family occasions”; “That’s my father’s favorite.” ; and “That one is from America. Michael made it”. With such great marketing support behind them, my apple cakes and butter cookies were the first items to sell out.

The teachers were pleasantly surprised by the wide assortment of goodies. They had never been to a bake sale and marveled at the concept. They exclaimed that they wanted to try one of each item as they proceeded to purchase the entire inventory by 9:30. “When’s the next bake sale” echoed throughout the hallways.

Working together, Class 6V was able to raise over 1000 denari for classroom items. The 23rd of March 2009 was a good day at the Nikola Karev Primary School in Probistip, Macedonia.