Depending on how long you've been following this venture of mine, you're probably very familiar with my charity/non profit obsession. In the last couple years I've been pretty adamant about helping non profits local to Loudoun County and not just the big guys. I've had the privilege of working with several in the area as well as outside the area. Giving back and supporting my community has always been important to me. I plug all my favorite charities where I can.
While you know my cupcake side of life, you may not know that I also co-run the Loudoun County Jeepers group. Ya girl is a Jeep girl! Cupcakes is still a small business and that means I can't donate thousands of dollars a year to every charity like I wish I could. Instead, I do find ways to support where I can even if it isn't direct funds. This past Memorial Day I plugged in Veteran's Moving Forward to my club's annual Memorial Day Flag Ride honoring those who gave all. I listed one of the bouquets online as a fundraiser and donated a second one for their booth at our final destination. One of those bouquets sold for $100! The other one, I'm not sure about, but lots of raffle tickets went into the cup for it.
"It's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving." - Mother Theresa
This isn't my first time working with them, though. I have an American Flag pull apart cake on the website and $5 of each one ordered gets donated directly to VMF. Why are they so special? In a nutshell, they provide service dogs to veterans at no cost to them. They are not funded by the VA and rely heavily on support from the community. These service dogs are life savers to vets assisting them in basic physical needs and are such an emotional support to them. I strongly urge you to check them out and consider supporting them in any way you can. Whether it be a monetary donation, your time, services, etc. It is a worthy cause and they are a great group to work with.
That's just the first charity that cupcakes are helping out this week, though. Later this week I am sponsoring the dessert activity table at Echo's Day Out event organized for their participants. More on that to come and with pictures! The week ends with cupcake donations for a Jeep Safari event at what used to be the Reston Zoo. The new owners have put together an event to raise money for WorthWild Africa. While it's not necessarily a Loudoun County non profit, it's still worth helping.
It comes down to this, whether it's helping a local PTA event, a family that has fallen on difficult times, supporting our first responders, or one of my beloved charities, I'm always going to want to help. Sometimes that's donating cupcakes, time, fundraising, etc. I can't do it all myself, though. Thanks to the continued support from you guys, I am able to help. I promise to keep doing my part in giving back where I can. It's what brings me the most joy anyway ♥
I'll leave you with this final pic of Sealgaire, one of the service pups from VMF, at our event this past Monday. So cute! We had ~85 Jeeps flying flags all through Loudoun County! If we held you up in traffic at any point that morning - I'm sorry!!
