When we began the $100,000 Challenge, our original deadline was September 20th, or six months after the challenge started. Now that that date has past us, we figured now would be a decent time to take down the proverbial streamers and confetti. But while we do that, let’s take a second to reflect on what happened during the past six months.
We had a lot of optimism going into this challenge, but a lot of worries too. We thought interest would die down after the first twenty thousand we raised. We thought we would have to scramble at the end to reach the goal in the allotted time. We thought, if we were to complete the challenge, that it would have been just barely– or not at all.
When all was said and done, the grand total came to $145,512.58… That’s almost halfway to doubling the original goal.
We’ve spent a lot of time thanking our donors profusely for every penny they’ve sent in, and perhaps we’re a broken record at this point, but it was only because of YOUR support that we were able to shatter our original goal. God has truly blessed us with a friendly, supportive, and generous community who loves what we do, and we couldn’t be happier about it. You’ll be hearing us say this a lot, but we mean it when we say:
THANK YOU!!
In particular, we’d like to shout out some organizations that have greatly helped us reach our goal and beyond:
- While we were nearing the $100,000 milestone, Holtkamp Heating & Air hosted a “SuiteStakes” featuring several wonderful prizes, all benefitting us. We hosted their raffle drawing in house, and their support pushed us over the threshold and even further– over ten thousand in total alone.
- The challenge also gathered attention from some big outlets, such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and 11Alive. Coverage like this helped keep our momentum going, even going late into the challenge.
- Some of our sponsors and partners also appeared to help give a hand. The Committee for Missing Children, Inc., The Snell Family Foundation, and Cable East, Inc., among others, all provided a wealth of support– no pun intended.
- Perhaps most of all, thank you to everyone who chose to give what you had! We had so many people leave change in the donations jar up front or just tack a few extra dollars to a purchase, and it’s easy to forget how quickly that adds up. Seeing this kind of incredible response at every level reminds us of why we do what we do.
So now that the challenge is over, what does this mean for the bakery? Well, it can mean a lot of things. Not having to worry about our mortgage payments means all that extra money can go elsewhere, helping fund the payrolls of our special needs staff, maintaining our equipment and facilities, doing remodels and upgrades on the building to help us do more, or continuing to work through our waitlist, to name a few things (we’ve already made great strides in that last one). We already have several big ideas in the works to give us a bit more elbow room – stay tuned for more about that!