One man’s passion project sends kids to college, the story of Keep It In The Valley
In the five years since opening the Cakes for College concession stand at the Apple Blossom Festival food fair, it has generated enough in…
In the five years since opening the Cakes for College concession stand at the Apple Blossom Festival food fair, it has generated enough in sales for the Keep It In The Valley Foundation to give away 60 $1,500 scholarships to local students attending Wenatchee Valley College. This year they plan to make it 75.
Cakes for College is the brainchild of Ben Paine, a 1995 WHS grad who was looking for a way to give back to his hometown. So he secured the contract to sell funnel cakes at Apple Blossom, bought a used stand from the “funnel cake King of the West” and drove it from Texas to Wenatchee with his mom and dad, Bob and Nita Paine.
“He came to me with this idea and I said, ‘Oh boy, I hope that falls through,’” Bob said. “Because I knew how much work that would entail.”
It is a lot of work, but in just five years Ben, his parents and hundreds of volunteers of all ages have generated enough funds to nearly reach their goal of $400,000 for an endowment fund, which is managed by the NCW Community Foundation and will continue to generate scholarships for kids to attend Wenatchee Valley College in perpetuity.
A side effect has been a strong core group of volunteers who have stepped up to help and who keep coming back year after year. The stand has grown, too. They’ve expanded the menu and now offer lemonade and cotton candy in addition to the original Pennsylvania Dutch Funnel Cakes with toppings that have proven so popular with Apple Blossom crowds. They gross more than $100,000 per year and after the expenses are paid, every dime goes to scholarships.
“The money is cool, but the value is the volunteerism,” he said. “I think we’re building kind of a body of volunteers for years to come.”
Bob said he’s in his 70s now and he doesn’t want to keep running things until he’s 80. That begs the question: What will happen to Cakes for College when the Paines want to retire from their retirement project?
He said they’ll give it two more years, after that who knows?
The endowment will be in place to generate scholarship funds for years to come, but the fate of the funnel cake stand itself is still up in the air. It provides the perfect opportunity for the next generation of volunteer leaders to step up, take the stand into the future and as they say “keep it in the valley.”
Watch the entire interview series with Ben, Bob, volunteers and more on the Wenatchee World’s Vimeo channel here.
To learn more visit cakesforcollege.com or find them on Facebook.