Sweetest Surprise
By Cailtin Fillmore
Winter 2023
Everyone has a birthday—a special day dedicated to the moment that they entered this world. Birthdays carry symbolic significance and are celebrated with enthusiasm in most global cultures. But many children living in Monterey County do not experience the warmth, love, and individualized celebrations that most of us enjoy on our birthdays.
Cake4Kids began in 2010 with a sweet and simple mission: making sure that all children can celebrate their birthdays with cake. Since then, the nonprofit has delivered 40,000 cakes to children in refugee camps, group homes, foster care, and other settings associated with the 750 Cake4Kids partner agencies across the country. In Monterey County, children have blown out candles on 700 Cake4Kids creations since Jen Ibarra took the leap to start a local chapter of the nonprofit in 2020.
Ibarra serves as an operations manager for Cake4Kids and is a volunteer ambassador for the newly formed Monterey region of the Sunnyvale-based nonprofit. Ibarra got hooked on cake decorating after attempting a Winnie-the-Pooh cake for her first child’s first birthday. In the years that followed, Ibarra made birthday cakes for her four children’s special days as well as for other local children from her church or community who didn’t have a birthday cake.
When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared and many volunteer opportunities were unavailable, Ibarra discovered Cake4Kids and quickly established the Monterey chapter. “We recognize these kids have bigger needs, but that’s not all that’s needed for a child to have a full and happy life,” explains Ibarra. “They need to know they matter. During the [first waves of the] pandemic, one of our agencies told me it was the single most important thing they did because they were cut off from the kids as well. [The cakes provided] a crucial bridge to kids.”
More than 160 Monterey-area volunteer bakers sign on to an online portal to review the types of cakes that children have dreamed up.
Birthday boys and girls can choose the theme, colors, icing, and flavors they want, and the child’s name is always on the cake.
Volunteer Kiska Icard discovered Cake4Kids as a way to improve her baking skills while helping others during the initial waves of the pandemic. Icard was impressed with how simple it was to make a difference and cherishes the thank-you sentiments she received from a teen who loved her red velvet creation. “Go to the website and register. Do it now,” says Icard. “There is zero downside. You may volunteer as little or as much as you would like. It will make you a better baker, and a better person.”
Bakers of all skill levels come together to do something special for a child they will never meet. Instead, agency partners, such as Lori at Rancho Cielo, deliver the Cake4Kids creations on the volunteers’ behalf. Lori explains that many of the children she works with either never experienced getting a birthday cake or never received one that they did not have to share with other children in their group-living environment.
For Lori, Ibarra’s work to organize Cake4Kids in Monterey was perfect timing, as the children had become increasingly depressed and isolated during the pandemic’s shutdowns. A cheerful cake celebrating all of the child’s favorite things, from sharks to social media, was helpful. “A thank you is not enough,” says Lori about the volunteer bakers, who put so much love into the birthday cakes. “It can be hard for these kids to share emotions,” she says. “When you surprise them with something they’re not expecting . . . that they’re not forgotten, and someone did something just for them . . . wow, what an amazing feeling.”
For more information, visit cake4kids.org.
LInk to the article