PIONEERING SPIRIT
Collegeville Bakery and Dock Mennonite Academy team up for fundraiser
LOWER PROVIDENCE >> Even a pioneer can make a pizza.
That was the spirit that forged a partnership between Collegeville Italian Bakery Pizzeria Napoletana and the Dock Mennonite Academy.
Dock Mennonite Academy operates two locations, an elementary school in Souderton and a high school in Lansdale, both of which may be a long way from Collegeville. But when the school’s director of marketing Kathy Gordon, found out about the bakery’s unique fundraising idea, it was goodbye hoagie day, hello pizza day.
“It’s a private school, so we don’t have tax dollars. For years we sold hoagies as a fundraiser because we raise money for scholarships and other things, but because of COVID we couldn’t make hoagies and we couldn’t have volunteers,” Gordon said. “Then someone told me about what Steve and Collegeville Bakery does, so I gave him a call and he asked me how many pizzas we thought we could sell. I had no idea but we said we’d put it out there and see how it goes. I think because of COVID people liked the idea of making a pizza at home; it gave them something to do. We have 300 families and sold 1,150 pizzas.”
Collegeville Italian Bakery owners Steve and Patrizia Carcarey have been selling the fundraising kits — which include a fresh pizza dough ball, sauce, mozzarella cheese, flour and in
“They really did a great job as an organization. It’s a family activity and the money is going to a good cause. As we say, ‘you can make it, bake it and eat it too’.”
— Steve Carcarey
structions — for a few years now, but the Dock Mennonite Academy students now hold the record for the most kits sold, Steve Carcarey said.
“The amount they sold, 1,150 pizza kits, was pretty amazing. A lot of groups sell 400, 500, 600, but we were shocked when they came back with that number. The kit sells for $15 and they make $5 on every kit for the school,” he added. “They really did a great job as an organization. It’s a family activity and the money is going to a good cause. As we say, ‘you can make it, bake it and eat it too’.”
The Dock Pioneers mascot joined the fun on Tuesday when the staff picked up the pizza kits.
“We’re the Dock pioneers and the Dock Pioneer is our mascot. We normally take him to soccer games and things like that but we thought it would be fun to bring him when we picked up the pizza kits,” Gordon noted. “We had a video of the pioneer making a pizza on our website, dock.org. They showed everyone that making a pizza was so easy even a pioneer could do it, and that’s how we got the kids excited about making their own pizza. We couldn’t believe how many people stepped up to the charge and I can’t believe they made that many pizza kits for us. In addition, our chef makes homemade soup,” Gordon added. “If you ordered two pizza kits you also got a quart of soup and chocolate chip cookies. We called it a pizza deal, for $45. I think people really liked that meal deal. We also sold Wawa hoagie coupons, and made a dollar each on those, and Landis hoagie coupons, so it worked out pretty good. We raised $18,000. We’re just so excited how it all worked out.”
For more information about the fundraising kits, call 610-4893354.