Occasionally Cake turns 1!

To celebrate one year in business we decided to do a Free Cupcake day where everyone who came in the store got one free cupcake and we asked for donations to donate to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which is a charity we really believe in and have donated to personally.
We really weren't sure what to expect. We put out a press release to some newspaper media and it was picked up by a few local papers and also the Washington Post - that was super exciting. We also put out some signs in strategic locations around town. In addition to all that, we took out an ad in a local paper to make sure we reached as many people who lived locally as possible.
We usually go through a couple hundred cupcakes a day so we made 600 cupcakes thinking that might be enough. Boy were we ever wrong. The minute we opened the door at 10 AM, we had a line out the door and it stayed like that all day until we closed the doors at 7:30 PM - which is a half hour after we normally close. I would say it was a HUGE success.We had a great set-up to highlight the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - we gave out DVDs to the first 25 people who came in. It was a DVD about internet safety for kids aimed at kids and it was excellent. We also gave out child ID kits, pencils, magnets, summer safety tips and a representative was on hand to talk to everyone.Through donations and giving a percentage of our proceeds that day we were able to raise $1435 for them. I thought that was pretty great! We also managed to go through over 1500 cupcakes! So many people would get their free one and then buy a bunch. Mod was constantly baking all day and Marcia iced cupcakes all day.My brother Rory came in to say hi and quickly found himself running out to go buy more cupcake liners and ingredients because we ran out. It was insane! Lorne was also called in a couple of times. It was an insane crazy amazing day. We learned a lot and will make sure we open the store with 1500 cupcakes next year!