NMS Interact Club Preparing For Annual Bake Sale

By Eliza Hallabeck

Just after announcing the homerooms that raised the most money during its Leukemia & Lymphoma Pennies for Patients fundraiser, the Newtown Middle School Interact Club began preparing for its upcoming Bake Sale on Tuesday, May 4, during the school’s Celebration of The Arts event, which will be conducted from 6 to 8 pm.

Tom DeBenedetto’s homeroom in room C-9 won the club’s Leukemia & Lymphoma Pennies for Patients fundraiser by collecting $310.78 over three weeks; a pizza party will be held for the winning classroom students. Phil Cruz’s homeroom in room C-2, came in second, raising $246.19, and in third place was Brooke Unger’s homeroom in room A-16, which raised $168.84. The homerooms will also be receiving pennants for placing first, second, and third in the fundraiser.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Pennies for Patients ran at the school from March 15 through April 1.

According to club advisor Bruce Moulthrop, this is the third year the group will be holding a bake sale to work with Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, one of the leading organizations dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America.

According to Share Our Strength, more than 14 million children in America live in poverty and nearly half of American children will receive food stamp benefits at some point in their life. Raising $25 can help feed one child three healthy meals a day for a month through the organization, and $500 can help to give up to 12 low-income families a six-week nutritious cooking and food budgeting course, according to the group.

During the Celebration of The Arts event Interact Club members will be with Mr Moulthrop in the school’s cafeteria selling scones for $3, orange squares for $2, and brownies for $1 each. Signs will be posted to guide visitors viewing the displayed artwork to the school’s cafeteria.

The bake sale at the school came around, because, Mr Moulthrop said, the club first held a bake sale to raise money to purchase musical instruments for students at Merryhill Child Care Center. The next year he saw Sandra Lee of the Food Network promoting Share Our Strength, and  since then, the Interact Club’s annual bake sale has been working toward raising funds for Share Our Strength.

People at the school, he said, have already started asking him about his wife’s scones. Cheryl Moulthrop has been baking the scones for the program, and her recipes are based King Arthur Flour’s recipes, which can be found at www.kingarthurflour.com. Mr Moulthrop said Ms Moulthrop’s recipes are enhanced from the original recipes.

This year, like each year of the program, the students will be working with the Moulthrops to bake the goods that will be on sale for the event.

“Because we are selling to the public, we have to have a licensed kitchen,” said Mr Moulthrop. “So we use St John’s Episcopal Church Kitchen because I have it licensed under my name. It has been a commercialized kitchen for a while.” 

Work on some of the goods, like the scones, he said, is done by Ms Moulthop before the students arrive, because scone dough is tough to work with.

Students will be working with the Moulthrops and parent volunteers to prepare the goods on May 3, and on May 4 Mr Moulthrop will transport the baked goods to the school for the sale.