Breast cancer awareness has always been a cause near and dear to our heart ever since we were in high school. Not for any particular reason. Not because we personally knew someone who suffered from breast cancer. We simply realized we could be a part of something larger and it doesn’t get much larger than the Susan G. Komen foundation. There are several other causes we do support in addition to the Susan G. Komen foundation and from time to time you will see us highlight a few of them across on our blog.

We don’t do it for the publicity or to get our name out there, we do it to show solidarity and support. My father always told me, “if you can help somebody, you should.” And every time I think of just minding my own business or continuing throughout my days meaningless tasks, it’s my dad’s voice that subtlety reminds rings around my head until I listen; “Casey, if you can help someone, you should.”

This year, we realized we could do more, we had the ability to contribute more, share more and so we made it our mission to commit to something even larger than we had ever done before in the past. We were committing to 500 decorated sugar cookies for the survivors tent at the Miami, Fl Breast Cancer Awareness walk.

For those of you who don’t know our little boutique style cakery, we bake everything fresh and up to the last possible moment for best quality and taste. Not only were we committing to 500 cookies for these remarkable women, we were committing to 500 cookies that must be baked fresh and darn it, they had better taste good.

This required all hands on board. Business partner, sisters and mom; no one was safe from being enlisted into the cookie army. Each cookie was to be hand cut, decorated and individually packaged. These women are worth it. All of this was to be done within 48 hours before the beginning of the Race for the Cure. We ran ourselves through the night based on a solid diet of sugar cookie scraps and icing.

So it all began with the idea that each individually bagged cookie would have a tag with a different saying attached to it.

Some had saying’s like,

“Real Men wear Pink,”

“Hope- Faith- Cure,”

“To the bravest women we know,”

“Keep calm and Fight on”

and “Think Pink”

A million thank you’s to our dearest family members because they put in the long hours and worked alongside Erin and I, we were able to pump out 500 cookies and meet our commitment for the survivors tent.

Erin and I met the volunteers at the survivors tent at 5am the next morning to set up our table. Here we are after only one hour of sleep. Cookies for breakfast is the only way to go.

I couldn’t do any of this without her an I pray I never have to know what it’s like.

Here’s Erin modeling a somewhat convincing pose of what a morning person would look like (please read: she is not one of them).

Erin is my right hand, left hand, and sometimes my feet (sounds strange, I know but she steers me straight when I get that glossy look in my eyes as it glistens with creative juices; to which Erin refers to as insanity).

Commitment. Nothing says you are committed like a grown man in a pink tutu. Kudos to the Fountainblue Hotel and their stellar employees.

As the women survivors began and finished their race for the cure, they would enter the specially decorated survivors tent that was created in their honor. These women and their families are strong and inspiring individuals,we could not help but feel like we were the lucky ones to have been able to participate on their day.

We heard stories of remission, strength and courage. When we asked one woman how long she had been in a remission she replied 13 years, another replied only a day.

All our love and support to the women and men battling cancer throughout the world. You are all some of the bravest and toughest people we have had the pleasure to meet. Keep strong and fight on.

If you were at the Race for the Cure and in the survivors tent, we have shared all of our photographs on our website here and if you would like any copies of your photographs simply let us know which ones you are in and we would to love to send you the hi-res images.

We look forward to seeing all of you ladies again next year!