07/17/2014
Icing Smiles
There’s more to a cake than flour, sugar, and eggs – a cake can bring with it a little bit of magic. Few understand this better than Tracy Quisenberry, the founder of Ellicott City, Maryland-based Icing Smiles, a nonprofit that provides custom celebration cakes for critically ill children and their siblings.
For Quisenberry and her team of nearly 6,000 volunteer bakers (called Sugar Angels), it’s not simply about baking up a colorful confection – it’s about temporarily lightening the load for families and helping them create happy memories in the midst of difficult times.
Icing Smiles delivered its first cake in January 2010 to a six-year-old girl battling brain cancer. Just over four years later, the organization has delivered more than 5,300 cakes – also called smiles. The 5,000th cake was delivered on Mother’s Day 2014 to a two-year-old girl battling Neuroblastoma.
Put a cake in front of kids, and they’re not thinking about being sick. They’re focused on the bright, cheerful cake that was created especially for them. It lets them experience the joy and lightheartedness of a normal childhood – if only for a little while.
This is when a cake becomes more than a cake. And this is why Icing Smiles is committed to serving every eligible family that requests a cake.
Spreading The Smiles
ePromos is pleased to name Icing Smiles the inaugural winner in our ePromos for Good charity program. We want to help the organization use custom logo products to continue to spread smiles among kids and families who need it most.
Cher Bork, Development Manager for Icing Smiles, is eager to use promotional products to show gratitude for volunteers and also to spread the word about the organization.
She plans to distribute promotional bags and branded baking utensils to Sugar Angels.
“We have close to 6,000 bakers across the country who donate their time and talents to provide the cakes for our kids,” Bork says. “We try to have small tokens of appreciation for them. Without them, there would be no Icing Smiles.”
To learn more about Icing Smiles or to make a donation, check out www.icingsmiles.org.