Sweet Blessed with a Great Semester

Sweet Blessings has truly been a great experience.  All of the people I met there, Ashley and fellow volunteers, and gaining the opportunity to make unique cakes has had such a positive impact on my life.  Also, knowing that the enjoyment that I experience while volunteering goes to benefit another child's life, makes my time spent there that much more rewarding.  I absolutely plan on going back next semester when I return to Lexington to volunteer again!

See You Soon, Sweet Blessings

Serving at Sweet Blessings surely has been a sweet blessing! I have enjoyed working with the volunteers and Ashley (founder). It has been a very positive experience and I look forward to serving with Sweet Blessings in the future!

Reflecting But Looking Forward

Photo from
sweetblessingscakes.org 

My time at Sweet Blessings was productive and very satisfying. I am glad I got to be a part of such a great organization. The people there truly care about bringing joy to the lives of underprivileged children. I hope I can continue to volunteer at Sweet Blessings in my future semesters at UK.

Below is a link to sign up for a 5K Race that Sweet Blessings is hosting as a fundraiser. Check it out if you are a runner competitively or recreationally.
The Great Cake Race on May 1, 2016

Learning About Cakes and Giving Back

During my time at Sweet Blessings, I have learned a lot. Not only have I learned about cakes, but I have also learned about giving back. The non-profit organization strives to share love and put a smile on each child's face that they help. They are extremely successful in this mission! The organization has grown, and there are many regulars that volunteer with Sweet Blessings. I have become passionate about their mission while serving there and I have also picked up some cake decorating techniques! In the summer, I hope to get more involved with the baking and delivery of the cakes. I have included some photos (below) that show some of the cakes that I have worked on. To view the Sweet Blessings video that I mentioned, please visit www.sweetblessingscakes.org

Crafting a fence for the horse themed cake.

Creating a pixelated logo and adding text to the video themed cake.

Adding paw prints, stripes, and text to the UK themed cake! Go cats!

A Sweet Farewell

Unfortunately, my last post was about my last visit to Sweet Blessings for the semester. I wanted to reflect on volunteering with Sweet Blessings and the organization throughout the semester. I hope you guys will watch and enjoy my video! Thanks for keeping up with my blog!

It's NOT about the cake t-shirt

Dalton's birthday cake taken from sweetblessings.org

Birthday Joy taken from sweetblessings.org 

Dalton with his birthday cake taken from sweetblessings.org

Sweet Blessings Influence

Photo take from Sweet Blessings Facebook page

During my time at Sweet Blessings, I have learned a lot about what it takes to run a nonprofit.  Ashley, the owner, is a very inspirational lady in the way she started Sweet Blessings, and has turned it into the place it is today.  Every time I have gone to volunteer she is available to guide beginners, and help out the people who have been there before.  Ashley is just one of the reasons that I have enjoyed working at Sweet Blessings thus far.

Another reason I love Sweet Blessings is because I have the knowledge that every cake made goes to a child who otherwise would no get one.  This makes me excited to go volunteer because I know I am making an immediate difference in that child's life, even if it is only for one day.  The fact that each child's individual interests are taken into account before making it is something that makes Sweet Blessings so unique.  I have been lucky enough in my life, where I have always felt special on my birthday, and I have never had to worry about whether I will receive a cake or not.  Being able to help children not so lucky is a very rewarding experience.  As seen in the picture on the right, Sweet Blessings has such a positive influence on each child who gets a cake for their birthday.  This child received a Cars themed cake, one of his favorite movies, and clearly he was overjoyed to see it on is birthday.

Cake made during last visit

At my most recent visit to Sweet Blessings, Lanie and I had the privilege to make a UK cake for a boy with very good taste in teams.  Before we even got there, the cake was baked, layered with cardboard in between the two cakes, and covered in a layer of fondant.  The fondant is basically a thick layer of icing to make the cake smoother and look nicer before adding details.  The process that we contributed to this cake involved cutting out the letters for his name, using a ribbon cutter to form stripes, and hammering a dowel into the cake to stand up the UK symbol.  These may sound like daunting tasks, but with the other volunteers' guidance, the cake turned out great.  Once it was steamed, we boxed it up and it was ready to go the child on his birthday the following day.  Unfortunately with finals approaching, my last visit is most likely my last visit of the semester.  That being said, I had such a great experience volunteering here, I plan to come back next semester and bring my friends so that they too can help out.

Blessed to Serve at Sweet Blessings

Ashley Gann, founder (from sweetblessingscakes.org)

I have continued to enjoy my time serving at Sweet Blessings. As time has progressed, I have formed a better relationship with Ashley, the owner, along with the other volunteers. I always feel lucky to have so many helpful people around to help when I go to Sweet Blessings on Tuesday. Each person is willing to jump in and lend a hand even though they already have their own tasks to work on. The dedication that I see while I am at Sweet Blessings is inspiring.

Ashley puts in very long days in order to make sure each child in need receives their birthday cake. Sometimes, if she has a lot of orders in one week, this means she is coming in early in the morning and leaving late at night. Considering she has her own family and children at home, the sacrifice that she makes is huge. The work that Ashley and the other volunteers put in is very inspiring and causes me to wholeheartedly support their cause as well.

UK themed cake that Haley and I decorated.

I have learned a lot about cakes in my time at Sweet Blessings. A Tuesday at Sweet Blessings consists of cake baking, freezing the cakes, and lots and lots of clean up. Then, the cakes are constructed depending on the number of people that they are supposed to serve. It might be a small classroom or designed just to serve a family. The cakes are covered in fondant depending on the interests of the individual that the cake is going to, and that’s where I come in. The volunteers that are able to come in the evening complete the decorating of the cakes. I have learned to do various things that I did not even know existed! A lot of it is just jumping in and thinking of your own creative ideas regarding what might look good. I have learned a lot about what’s “in” with kids these days. This includes decorating video game cakes and decorating cakes based off of TV shows I have never heard of (and I have never felt so old)! I cannot wait to see what I learn next week.

Fun with Football

On my most recent visit to Sweet Blessings, there were over 70 cakes that had to be made! Needless to say, the motto for the day was "cute and quick." I had already decorated a football cake on a prior visit, so I was asked to decorate another one to save time. The cake was double layered, and it already had the brown and green fondant over it. I grabbed the cake and immediately started working.

Cutting out the lines

I began by making the yard lines for the cake. To do this, I had to roll out white fondant and cut straight lines. Then, I used water to stick them to the sides of the green bottom layer. The yard lines went all the way around the cake. Next, I added the numbers to the lines. This was done in the same way, except I cut out the numbers from the fondant instead of lines. The numbers are actually very hard to cut out without messing up the fondant. I think I had to redo every letter at least once before I got them perfect! 

 Adding the Lines

Adding the Numbers to the Yard Lines

Once I had finished decorating the bottom layer, I had to decorate the top layer. This was the brown layer, so I made this look like a football with lines of white fondant. I found a jersey made of gum paste to add to the top of the cake. I added navy fondant to the jersey to make it look more decorative. I attached the jersey to a stick and pushed it down through the top of the cake. To complete the cake, I had to add grass. I used green icing and decorated around the top and bottom layer of the cake. 

Finished Product!

Finished Product!

I spent two hours working on this football cake, and I loved every second of it. I was sitting next to a lady who has been coming to decorate cakes for years. I was able to talk to her about the cake she was decorating, and I was amazed at her creativity. She turned a cake with orange fondant into a beautiful Hello Kitty cake. She was such a natural at cake decorating! I was also able to hear some stories about her grandchildren, which was both sweet and interesting. 

I always enjoy my visits to Sweet Blessings. There is never a dull moment, and I always learn something new. I am so glad that I was able to become involved with this organization. I hope to continue working with Sweet Blessings throughout my time at UK!

Busy Blessings

The Rainbow My-Little-Pony
I colored at Sweet Blessings.

During my most recent visit to Sweet Blessings, my friend Sam and I both went together. It was the first time we had gotten to go in a while because of tests and previous engagements. When we first arrived, the founder, Ashley, wasn't there. We found another lady to help us get started on a job. Sam began stacking cakes. After the cakes had been covered in fondant, it was Sam's job to align the smaller cake on top of the larger cake. To secure it, she had to put skewers into the bottom cake and then slide the top cake onto the skewers. She said it was a very tedious job to do.

At first, the lady couldn't find anything for me to do (which was ironic because there was a sign on the front door saying they were very busy that day). She was going to have me box cakes so that they would be ready to be delivered, but there was no camera to take pictures of them first, so they couldn't be boxed yet. I ended up doing what I did the last time I went, which was coloring cut-out pictures that would be put on the cake. I colored a Rainbow My-Little-Pony, Joy and Sadness from Inside Out, and three Olaf heads.

The Olafs I colored.

There was only one other lady working on these and she seemed to be thankful for my help, because she seemed to be getting stressed. Not long after I began helping her, another volunteer brought one of the completed cut-outs back to her and told her it had broken. This only added to her stress, but the girl got the materials and made a new cut-out herself. After I began helping the lady, she was able to get done faster and head on home. She had been there for nearly eight hours that day! So I was glad that I got to help her and maybe make her job a little easier.

Reflecting on Sweet Times

During my time volunteering at Sweet Blessings I have learned a lot of information about their whole process.  Being able to see how the cakes come together and seeing first hand how passionate everyone is about this organization makes me even more happy to be there every week.  Every week since I have started volunteering I have been given more freedom to decorate these cakes to the best of my ability.  In this video, I talk about my experiences at Sweet Blessings so far and why I enjoy the work I do there so much.

As seen in the video, I was able to work on one specific cake, horse themed, and learned a lot of new techniques. Another cake I worked on was video game themed.  This cake also gave me an opportunity to take responsibility and decorate the cake how Lanie, another girl in our group, and I felt would look best.  Overall my experience at Sweet Blessings has been really inspiring, and I encourage anyone else looking to volunteer to check out their link and get involved.

           

Fondant pieces for fence on horse cake

Adding "grass" icing to horse cake

Fun with Friends

During my latest visit to Sweet Blessings, I got to try something new. I worked with a lady to color cut-out fondant pictures to put on the cakes. While working on them, it seems like they may not turn out very good, but it is surprising to see how "life-like" they are, even when you make a couple of mistakes. The best part was who I got to share the experience with. 

During the two weeks that Sam and Kendra got to go by themselves, they got to work on these cakes. I think they turned out great, especially for only their second time! On the red cake, you can see both the shoe on the top and the Air Jordan symbol, which are examples of the cut-outs that Sam and I got to make when we went together (not these specifically).

Sam and Kendra worked on this cake together.

Kendra worked on this cake by herself--
this was before it was finished.

Sweet Involvement

Sweet Blessings Header taken from www.sweetblessings.org

Hi, everyone! Today I wanted to talk about my experience with Sweet Blessings through a video post. I can't emphasize enough how much this organization has positively impacted my life. Working with Sweet Blessings is a true blessing, and I love being able to make cakes for children who may not otherwise receive a birthday cake. Watch my video to find out more about my experience and my latest visit!

(https://youtu.be/rzzh0oGDJDQ)

Cheerleader Decoration

Space Shuttle Decoration 

If you'd like to see more of the environment of Sweet Blessings, check out this YouTube video by Kristin Martin: https://youtu.be/OFvhlp3hXww. Thanks for watching my video post! If anyone would like to learn more about Sweet Blessings or volunteer, check out www.sweetblessings.org! Also, Sweet Blessings is holding a Great Cake Race on May 1, 2016 at the Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky! If you would like to sign up for this event, be sure to visit https://runsignup.com/Race/KY/Lexington/TheGreatCakeRace5K1M! 

Information on the Great Cake Race taken from Sweet Blessing's Facebook page 

Until next time, 

Rachel

TED Talk Analysis: "Childhood Poverty"

Bert Lubin
Google images

Dr. Bert Lubin delivered his TED talk titled “Childhood Poverty” on October 3, 2013 at a TEDx conference in Golden Gate Park.  Lubin is the CEO of Oakland Children’s Hospital, where children are not required to pay for treatment, so the audience most likely assumed that the speech would involve many health statistics and explanations.  Most members of the audience probably had a basic understanding of what poverty is, but they lacked the ability to see all the details of how poverty could have a direct correlation with health.  Before watching the speech, I expected a well-researched description of how poverty relates to health in children because Lubin is a healthcare professional.  The purpose that Lubin gives for delivering this TEDx talk was to persuade the audience into believing that poverty is all citizens’ responsibility in order to improve the healthcare in America.

Screenshot Taken during speech

Lubin’s delivery of the speech had its ups and downs.  What he did effectively was show how passionate he was about the topic.  When he repeated that “poverty should be considered a disease,” it was easy to see that he believed what he was saying and wanted everyone else to think the same.  Another good thing about the delivery was the PowerPoint visual aid.  The slides displayed facts, and drew the audience’s attention to keep them engaged.  That being said, Lubin read straight from the slides and struggled with changing them at the correct times.  Overall, his delivery was well executed but not the most effective it could have been.  I think it could have been improved by more practice with the PowerPoint, and perhaps by extra rehearsals of the speech to eliminate the extra pauses.

Screenshot of Lubin's slides

As for the content of the talk, all of the information provided was researched and relevant.  There were many times throughout the speech that Lubin offered a new statistic to shock the audience.  The main topic of the health effects developed through poverty was explained through sub details such as America’s poor use of healthcare money.  Lubin remains persuasive throughout the speech that poverty needs to be better funded and examined in terms of being a disease.  He mentions that children cannot help what income they are born into, but he counters that if America were to better relocate funds in healthcare, then these children would not have to live such unhealthy lives.  One way that Lubin could have improved the speech is by keeping the speech more on topic.  His use of stories is an effective way to keep the audience engaged, but not all of the stories easily related back to poverty and children.

This TEDx talk relates to my service learning organization because it deals with children living in poverty.  Most of the cakes made by Sweet Blessings go to underprivileged children, and learning about these children’s lives helps me to better appreciate the service that Sweet Blessings is doing.  By showing these children compassion through a personal cake, Sweet Blessings is essentially following what Lubin mentioned about helping those living in poverty directly.  I found this TED talk online at:

Childhood Poverty

A TED Talk Analysis: Living Beyond Limits

Photo from Google Images 

Recently, I watched a TED talk entitled, "Living Beyond Limits." The TED talk was presented in May 2011 by Amy Purdy at an independently organized TED event, TEDxOrangeCoast, in Costa Mesa, California. Amy Purdy lost both of her legs below the knee at age 19 due to meningitis. Although Purdy was depressed for months, she eventually created a pair of prosthetic legs that allowed her to continue her love of snowboarding. Today, Purdy is a world champion adaptive female snowboarder, has appeared on dancing with the stars, and has co-founded an organization that helps athletes with injuries adapt. 

Photo from Google Images

Purdy started off her speech by describing how her imagination ran wild as a child and how she couldn't wait to "write her own story" in life. When she was 19, however, she was hospitalized with meningitis and, over a two month period, lost her spleen, kidneys, the hearing in her left ear, and both of her legs below the knee. Purdy described how she laid in bed for months, thinking about how she could never travel like she had always wanted or have an incredible story. She eventually realized that she had to "let go of the Old Amy and embrace the New Amy." Four months later, she started snowboarding again and created her own prosthetic legs that enabled her to snowboard. Purdy won two back to back world cup gold medals, becoming the highest ranked adaptive female snowboarder in the world. She helped create an organization for other people with disabilities and even traveled to South Africa to help children attend school. Purdy ended her speech by saying, "Imagination can be used as a tool for breaking through borders." Her message was that facing fears and believing in dreams are what allow people to live beyond their limits. Limitations should be considered blessings because they allow for challenge and imagination to run wild. 

Photo from Google Images 

I really enjoyed this TED talk because of the inspirational message that Amy Purdy delivered. Life is filled with limitations, but imagination and effort can allow us to live beyond them. I believe this TED talk can be related to Sweet Blessings. Sweet Blessings is an organization that sends God's message to children to show them that they are loved and not alone. The children that Sweet Blessings sends cakes to are each faced with limitations, whether it be poverty or illness. Just like Amy Purdy, Sweet Blessings believes that children are more than these limitations and are capable of anything they imagine. 

Photo from Google Images

Based on the title and knowing the basic information about Amy Purdy, I believe that the audience of her TED talk was aware of her situation and challenges she had faced in life. I also believe that the audience expected to hear about her situation and feelings in depth and to be inspired to live beyond their limitations, just as I expected.

Amy Purdy did an exceptional job delivering this TED talk. She made great eye contact and her body language added to the effect of her speech and showed her passion for the topic. It was very evident that Purdy had strong feelings about her overall message. For example, as Purdy began talking about how she was "physically and emotionally broken" after losing her legs, tears were streaming down her face. However, she asked herself, "If my life were a book and I was an author, how would I want this story to go?" There was excitement in her voice, face, and gestures as she began to talk about how she didn't let her limitations stop her. Her passion is what made this speech great, and it was very appropriate as an inspiring TED talk. 

Photo from Google Images

To improve her speech, I believe that Purdy could have incorporated more visuals. This would have added more emotion and passion to her speech. For example, when she displayed a picture of herself laying in bed from depression, it was very effective in displaying how emotional the experience was for her. More visual aid in her presentation would have created a more inspirational speech. 

Overall, Amy Purdy's TED talk was very inspirational and a must watch. 

 https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_purdy_living_beyond_limits?language=en

TED Talk Analysis - A Human Approach to Child Poverty

Metiria Turei; retrieved from tedxtalks.ted.com

Metiria Turei gave her TED Talk on December 7,2013 at Ted x Homebush Rd Women Conference in Willington, New Zealand. The purpose of the conference is to spread diverse ideas about, for, and from women from different walks of life. Turei is a New Zeland Parliament member and the female co-leader of the Green Party. She advocates for and creates policy for issues including social equity, education, electoral reform, housing, and children. Going into the TED Talk, the audience would expect for her to speak on the same issues and further dive into why she supports a specific topic. On the other hand, I viewed the speech with little knowledge of Turei or her ideas. I simply expected a speech that would address the issue of child poverty outside of the United States.

Turei excelled in certain areas of her speech. The content was appropriate for the audience, and she started off with a personal story to engage the audience. She displayed images that accompanied what she was speaking about. Examples of the images that she showed include a photo of what she perceived her childhood house to look like, and a photo of a playhouse that is similar to what she thought she had growing up. In addition to showing relevant images, Turei was effective in explaining theories that might not be previously known by the audience. She explained the theory of headology by saying that what you believe is real, is real. She further ingrained this idea in the audience by providing examples and metaphors. Finally, I believe that Turei presented her personal beliefs in an effective manner.

Turei started with logical ideas and theories to introduce her line of thinking without bringing up specific policy issues. As a parliament member, she could have easily gone off track and tried to garner political support. Instead, she challenges the audience to look through the eyes of a child to truly understand them. She provides examples such as children blaming themselves for their parents' divorces and being affected by family finances. The opposition was presented when Turei noted that New Zealand IS a great place to grow up as a kid, but not all children have the same positive experience.  In support of her own thoughts, she calls on the ideas other worldwide thinkers such as Roberto Unger's stance on freedom. Her perspective is effectively communicated when she refers back to a specific child (Amber) who wears her grandmother's old shoes. Turei concludes her speech with a powerful line. She says, "If it's what our kids need to be deeply free, then that's good enough for me." While there are many areas of her TED Talk that Turei did well at, there are parts of her delivery and content that could have been improved upon.

Turei uses video clips of speaking puppets to convey New Zealand children's real thoughts.

The visuals incorporated into Turei's TED Talk were relevant to her speech, however, they were used too frequently that they became distracting. She used video clips of speaking puppets as a representation of real children. This was a great idea that allowed her to protect the children's identities, but Turei failed to introduce the clips. Sometimes, they would even cut her off before she finished speaking. Turei could improve the delivery of her speech by varying the pitch and tone of her voice. By failing to add voice variation, she lost my attention throughout her speech. Overall, Turei was able to convey her stance on child poverty in a well organized manner without pushing political policy.

To view Metiria Turei's TED Talk, visit http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/A-Human-Approach-to-Child-Pover

TED Talk Analysis: "Meet the Future of Cancer Research"

Screenshot taken from TED.com

The TED Talk I chose to watch was of a 19-year-old girl named Eva Vertes who is a cancer researcher and has already made some major discoveries in the science field. This Talk she gave was in February of 2005 (so she is currently thirty years old) in Monterey, California. The purpose of her presenting this speech was to discuss her findings so far in the field of cancer from reading others' work and to present her hypotheses she plans to research in the near future. I chose to analyze this Talk because my topic for my argument essay was childhood cancer. At Sweet Blessings, many of the children that we make birthday cakes for are suffering from life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Although Vertes does not specifically speak about cancer in children, she speaks of a way in which she believes cancer can be cured and maybe even prevented. 

Screenshot taken from TED.com

I don't know specifically, but I assume many of the audience members in this TED Talk were researchers themselves. These audience members more than likely knew quite a bit about the current cancer research that has been done in the past and currently. These researchers probably came to this TED Talk expecting to broaden their minds on the possibilities of future research in this field, and perhaps to even spark some ideas in their own minds. However, I also suspect there were some audience members who may not have known as much about this topic. When I clicked on this TED Talk, I didn't expect Vertes to present a cure for cancer (seeing that this was 2005 and there is no cure today), but rather I expected to learn new ways in which researchers have tried or are trying to defeat cancer.

Screenshot taken from TED.com

One thing I believe Vertes did well in her speech was providing adequate explanations. Every time she would talk about a process in the body, she would be sure to describe what it was and how it worked. This was very beneficial to audience members like me who are unfamiliar with many of these. For example, she talked about metastases, which I personally had never heard of. But after she explained that it is when a piece of a cancer tumor breaks off and travels through the blood stream to a different part of the body, it was easy to understand the rest of the Talk. Another thing that I thought Vertes did well was to use her hands to make gestures as she spoke. Although this may be distracting to some people, I personally think it was helpful to keep the audience focused and to not drift off. Also, it showed that she really understood and was passionate about what she was saying.

Vertes' hypothesis was that somehow cancer cells could be used to treat cancer if they were manipulated in the right way. Of course she likely didn't know how exactly at the time, but I think it would have been interesting to hear her thoughts of how it should be manipulated so that it can heal itself. Also, although I likely would have been the same way, Vertes stuttered often during her Talk. If she could have slowed her speech just a little, I believe she could have avoided this. Overall Eva Vertes gave a very compelling speech. It was very inspiring to see such a young woman who had already done so much in her lifetime. Below you can find the link for her TED Talk. 

"Meet the Future of Cancer Research" by Eva Vertes