It’s a bird.
It’s a plane.
It’s … a sugary cupcake headed straight for you. And it’s all part of Plant City’s newest fad, The Cupcake Challenge.
At the Superhero-themed Plant City Relay for Life Kickoff party Oct. 6, the event chair Linda Herman challenged her committee to complete the challenge to help raise money for the 2015 walk to fight cancer.
Each member lined up to have a cupcake smashed in their face by this year’s honorary survivor, Ava Raab. The elementary student jumped up and down in excitement before getting the go-ahead to cream the committee in front of a packed room of relay team captains, survivors, caregivers, and, of course, cameras.
As she went down the line, she took each cupcake from committee members’ hands and pied them on their faces. They, in turn, donated $10 each to the Relay cause.
After the mess was wiped off, committee members challenged every attendee at Kickoff to complete The Cupcake Challenge and go out in the community to challenge more.
If you are challenged, you have two options: take the cupcake and donate $10 to the person or team who challenged you, or skip the sugar and donate $20 to the person or team that challenged you.
“As far as getting involved, we would love for everybody,” Herman said. “We would love to see the mayor doing The Cupcake Challenge, we would love to see city people doing The Cupcake Challenge. Getting everybody involved. Schools getting involved. It will be a blast.”
Relay for Life Specialist Allison Martinez watched from behind a cellphone camera, laughing and cheering, as Ava pounded the cakes.
“The challenge went great,” Martinez said. “We have a great group, who saw the fun in allowing a survivor (who happens to be the cutest thing ever) bring awareness and fundraising to an event we all love in a new and exciting way. I think our committee, who would do anything for the Relay For Life of Plant City, took it so well knowing the greater good they were doing this for.”
The kickoff was held at Plant City’s First Baptist Church. In addition to the main event, that committee members hope will go viral, attendees enjoyed learning about Relay, picking out their team superhero theme, making superhero masks and munching on pizza and cupcakes.
“The end goal for this challenge is to get people engaged in Relay For Life, shed light on what the American Cancer Society is doing to bring more birthdays (hence the cupcakes), and ultimately save more lives,” Martinez said. “We wouldn’t mind more local participation either. Plant City is one of the top ten Relays in the state out of over 300, so any challenge that gets more people involved in this great community event is just such a win.”
