Free Sweet Victory by Sheryl Berk Page A

for Cancer into their life and become an angel or fairy. They get to be in charge of their own cupcake sales, and all the profits go toward national cancer research. We have over twenty-five cupcake angels or fairies out of state and even one in Africa and one in Brazil!
    Carrie: How has your mission evolved, especially now that you’re not a teenager anymore?
    Blakely: I have been able to take on more responsibilities without having to rely on my parents to help me out. Also, I have become very aware of health and how important it is to our lives…especially in preventing cancers and diseases. I am currently working on transforming Cupcakes for Cancer into a health promoter too, through the option of sugar-free cupcakes and various styles of more health-conscious cupcakes that still taste just as amazing!
    Carrie: Who has helped you with your organization?
    Blakely: My parents have been the most help. My mother especially since she was always the one driving my friends and me to the sales, helping with setting up, baking, cleaning up frosting messes, and helping with fees for the start of the nonprofit. My friends have always endured the long cupcake days with me when selling. It hasn’t always been the most successful sales at times, but my friends always helped with their humor and sugary giggles to help me through. Also the community has been the best support. Without them, Cupcakes for Cancer would not be where it is today. They deserve just as much credit as I do.
    Carrie: Since 2007, how much money have you raised and what does it go to?
    Blakely: We have raised about $160,000 selling our one-dollar cupcakes! That is a lot of baking, if you can imagine! Every dirty kitchen mess was worth it though! We have been able to fund over ten wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, provide for individual families coping with cancer, and donate over $25,000 to the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation in Santa Barbara and national cancer research!
    Carrie: Do you think that kids can make a difference in the fight against cancer?
    Blakely: Absolutely! Raising funds to fight cancer can seem hopeless or overwhelming at times. But it is important to focus on what you are doing and what you can do. Even if the money raised is not significant, it is about what you bring to others around you. People are hugely impacted by charity work and a passionate effort to fight cancer. It will only feed their desire to help as well. You can spread hope so easily! That’s the key to fighting cancer, in my opinion.

This book was written for a very special person in our lives, Elizabeth Maria Walsh. She was Carrie’s ballet teacher and favorite babysitter. We knew her from the time Carrie was in diapers. She was a ray of sunshine in everyone’s life she touched. No matter how dark things got, she stayed positive and light. She was diagnosed in 2012 with Stage IV adrenal cortical cancer. It’s one of the rarest forms of cancer—and Elizabeth was a rare individual.
    She vowed to stay strong, fight it with everything she had and, above all, keep dancing. She started a foundation, Dancers with Cancer, to reach out to children in hospitals who were battling this deadly disease as well. Not for one moment was she sad or hopeless; she believed (just like Coach Walsh in this book) that you don’t know how strong you are until strong is your only option.
    She loved cupcakes, going to Broadway shows, tutus, toe shoes, and especially tickle wars. She was full of surprises—like showing up for a visit in NYC on a whim. She never let anyone feel sorry for her or pity her. In her mind, she was lucky. This cancer gave her an opportunity to reach out and help others. It gave her a voice to be heard. In fact, she told us how grateful she was for every single day—the bad ones as well as the good ones.
    Elizabeth was an inspiration, not just for this particular Cupcake Club book, but to everyone who knew her. We hear her voice in our