Girl Scouts bake goodies for a good cause
NEW BREMEN — As part of a troop service project, Minster Girl Scouts learned some new skills on Sunday afternoon and worked together toward a good cause, baking candy to be sold, with all the profits going to a local organization.
The candy making took place at the New Bremen Coffee Company, which will sell the candy out of their store and donate all the proceeds to Tailgate for Cancer.
“The Girl Scouts is a great organization for girls to experience new things, build leadership and confidence skills and be of service to our community,” said Troop Leader Cindy Wuebker. “This was perfect for them to come out here and to learn a life skill.
We also want to do good for our community. This is kind of women helping women.”
The Girl Scouts made 12 kinds of candy on Sunday, being taught by Thelma Topp, who has been baking and selling candy since the early 1990s.
Thelma is the mother of Carla Topp, who is one of the co-owners of the New Bremen Coffee Company.
According to the Topps, the candy making adventures have grown tremendously since they initially began.
“We were getting the Taste of Home magazine and we used to do sugar cookies when we were little and she found that it just made a giant
mess,” said Carla. “She found a couple of fudge recipes and she thought, ‘Oh, I’ll give that a try.’ So we started with that and each of us kids all picked out a recipe and it went on from there.”
Thelma bakes candies each year and the single day that was set aside has grown into three to four days now.
“I went from about two batches of candy to last year where I had over 40 different varieties,” she said.
“It went from one day to three or four days with family, friends, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, grandkids, the whole nine yards,” said Carla. “Last year, she made 150 pounds of candy and sold it. She ended up donating all the proceeds to Tailgate for Cancer.”
She has been donating proceeds to Tailgate for Cancer since 2016.
The candy-making day was canceled this year because the coronavirus but Thelma still wanted to donate to Tailgate for Cancer; that’s where the Girl Scouts came in.
“When these girls came to us with the idea of doing this, we thought it was a really great opportunity to teach them how to do what we do,” said Carla. “Also they did not want to sell what was left themselves so we decided to go ahead and sell it and donate the proceeds. It’s a great opportunity for us so that we can still donate to the Tailgate for Cancer as Mom has every year and these girls get to learn some new tricks.”
Wuebker said the partnership between the two organizations began when she asked Carla who made the candy that the coffee shop sells. Carla replied that it was her mother.
“I asked, ‘ Would she be interested in teaching a group of girls?’ and she asked her,” said Wuebker. “Her mom was excited to help us out. She’s done this for many, many years. She has an entire binder full of recipes. We came up with these 12 different recipes. They had everything laid out. They’ve gone above and beyond to make this happen for us so we couldn’t be more thankful.”
Candy making was just one of many projects the group of Girl Scouts currently have going.
They are also doing a scarf, hat and glove drive for the St. Vincent de Paul homeless shelter in Dayton.
“That’s part of our Silver Award project for one of our groups. Each of them have completed their Silver Award project this year,” said Wuebker.
Other projects include providing Hometown Hero banners for families that couldn’t afford them; recycling 200 pounds of plastic lids into a bench that’s going to be installed at Minster’s sled hill and Crayola’s ColorCycle, which involves recycling markers from area schools and sending them back in to Crayola who, in turn, donate to schools with low income.
“We’re definitely a service organization but this was definitely a fun event for them,” said Wuebker.
“I’m appreciative to the Girl Scouts for donating their time and helping us make this candy so that we’re able to donate a larger amount,” said Carla. “We really appreciate partnering with the Girl Scouts and I think it’s a great opportunity for all of us.”