Final Tallies: Bake Sale for Japan San Jose Edition

This morning I received this note from Paige with the fantastic grand totals from the San Jose edition of the Bake Sale for Japan.

Without further ado…

Hello Bake salers!

Happy Tuesday! Wow…is it already Tuesday? I meant to get this out sooner, but, you know…sleep, work, my kids, and other things got in the way. I hope you are all feeling well-rested. We needed it after such a fabulously hectic Saturday, right?

I am sure everyone is waiting to hear how much moolah we made, so here’s the tally: The grand total for the bakesale was $8985.43!!!! Add that to the $4K the ukulele jam brought in, and the $2,384.17 Roy’s brought in (tips from baristas and 10% of sales) and we have a grand total of $15,369.60 we raised for relief organizations on the ground in Japan!

Thank you to everyone for all of your hard work to make this event a great success. I feel so honored to be around such amazing, caring, hard-working people. From the wonderful hosts at Roy’s Station, to the volunteers, those who donated, those who baked and those who purchased our delectable baked goods…we have an amazing community here in San Jose, and a lot to be proud of. Everyone was so helpful, I cannot thank you enough for all of your volunteer efforts. You kept the tables stocked, you pushed treats, you tweeted, facebooked and checked-in on foursquare. We had some volunteers who came from SF and Santa Cruz, and many companies who donated their goods.

I know I am going to forget some people, and for that I totally apologize. But here’s a few of the great local companies and people who supported our efforts:

First off, a HUGE thank you to Roy’s Station, who came through in spades by offering up their fabulous location for the event, as well as a bunch of last minute “things” like napkins (oh, why did I forget that we would need napkins with baked goods???).

Local Business Owners: Ukulele Source, Ukulele Jams, Deborah Levoy (music coach), Satori Teas, Serendipity Saucy Spreads, Marvelous Marshmallows,Baby Bootcamp South Bay, The Hole Cake, Rasteroids, San Jose Taiko, Li’l Puffs, A Spoonful of Sugar, My Dessert Island, Kree-ayt

Bloggers with the mostest: Magpies Recipes, Mira Cakes, Art of Cooking, A Foodie n Her Cooking Hat, Formerly Gracie, Suburban Bites, Chalk and Cheese Chronicles, Kitchen Gadget Girl, Random Walk Down Mommy Street, San Jose Ethnic Foods Examiner, San Jose Metblogs, She Posts, Parent Grapevine, and my blog, Canning with Kids.

Yuki Hashimoto, who put together a cool video of our event also wanted to make people aware of a charity concert for Japan, that he’s helping plan.

And Case-Rust Photography and Moms who Click who covered the event and put together a fabulous flickr album!

If I forgot to include a link to your business, your blog, or mention how much I am in appreciation of your amazing efforts, please forgive me and reply to everyone with your business/blog so that we can all be aware of the great people who supported this fabulous day.

Please keep an eye on our national Bakesale for Japan website for the total monies raised across the country, for Peace Winds Japan.

On a personal note, I would just like to quickly say that this was an event that was truly close to my heart. I was born in San Jose. I really love the people of San Jose, and I personally don’t think we get the credit we deserve as a city because, you know, all of the other “cooler cities” surround us. And I think we have an amazing community here. I also minored in Japanese in college. One of the few Americans who died as a result of the Tsunami in Japan, was a young girl who taught for JET (Japanese Exchange Teaching program), a program I almost enrolled in as well, many, many years ago. After the earthquake hit, she waited with the children until each one had been picked up by their parents, then got on her bike to ride to higher ground. Her body was eventually recovered. When I first heard that story, I thought, “That could have been a young me.” And I thought about each and everyone of the people of Japan, what it must be like to be at the mercy of mother nature, how all the preparation in the world is sometimes not enough. And I knew it really could be any of us. Natural (and unnatural) disasters will always be a part of life. But so will be the great efforts of everyday people, like all of us across the country, who ban together to do the best they can to help those in need.

And I feel very grateful and honored to have been a part of this event, and especially to be with all of you. It was a wonderful day and I hope the people of Japan know that they were in the forefront of our minds and hearts.

Best,

Paige

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