April 29, 2016 at 2:42 p.m.
St. Germain mom creates autism awareness with cupcakes
St. Germain mom creates autism awareness with cupcakes
By Michael Strasburg-
"Cupcake Wednesdays is an idea that I came up with a couple years ago," said Jen Hansen, pharmacist and mother of two sons - Jake, who is on the autism spectrum, and Nolan, who has Down syndrome.
The Hansens moved to the area four years ago and consider themselves very fortunate to be involved in Lakeland Area Special Olympics. However, since Hansen works full time at the St. Germain pharmacy, she has never been able to volunteer her time to the organization as much as she'd like.
"As a way to increase awareness for Down syndrome and autism, and also as a way to give back to an organization that's been so beneficial to [my sons], I decided to come up with Cupcake Wednesdays, which I hold every Wednesday of the month during April - to celebrate autism awareness - and October - to celebrate Down syndrome awareness," Hansen said.
Each Wednesday Hansen has homemade cupcakes available outside the pharmacy. In return she asks for a free-will donation.
"I bake the cupcakes from my home," she said. "They're not just from a box, they're from recipes I find or ideas that I get off of the Internet or wherever, but the cupcake is homemade."
Hansen gives all the money raised from the cupcake donations to the Lakeland Area Special Olympics. Most recently, the organization was able to use donations, from money Hansen raised as well as other donations, to help pay for transportation to a basketball tournament in Menomonie. Thanks in part to Hansen's donations, the kids were able to rent a coach bus for the trip.
"It's just been a really nice way I could give back and give my time to the organization in a way I'm not otherwise able to," Hansen said.
When exploring an alternative way to give back to the organization, the decision to make cupcakes was an easy one for Hansen.
"I enjoy baking and I am creative by nature," she said. "I do love to bake and cook and most people love to eat. It's really not something that's too hard to do. I have people ask me how I find time to do this."
Conveniently, Hansen doesn't work on Tuesdays, so she uses that day to research new recipes and bake.
"I get my ideas from many different sources and so far I don't think there's a flavor I made that people absolutely don't like," she said.
While she has a couple standard cupcakes, Hansen enjoys discovering and trying new recipes. One of her most popular recipes is strawberry margarita. Recently she tried a chocolate cupcake recipe topped with monster cookie dough frosting that was well received.
Hansen also tries to have fun with designs and experimentation.
"There's definitely some effort," she said. "There's more effort put into it than if I was just bringing cupcakes to school. There is definitely some extra time put in so they look nice and donation worthy."
Over the past couple years, the St. Germain community has certainly deemed her cupcakes donation worthy. At times, Hansen has received up to $20 for a single cupcake.
"This community has been so incredibly supportive of me and my efforts and my family and the organization," Hansen said. "They have really wrapped their arms around me as a pharmacist, as a member of the community and also as a special needs parent. It's so nice to come to work and have people ask about my boys and celebrate their achievements both in Special Olympics and in school and life ... and word on the street is I'm a very good baker and my cupcakes taste really good."
While the final Cupcake Wednesday of April was earlier this week, community members can still look forward to October, when Hansen will sell cupcakes to help raise Down syndrome awareness.
In the meantime however, community members can always support the Lakeland Area Special Olympics.
"The people that head up the organization in our area, Brian and Rhonda Baldwin, they put so much of their time and effort into building this organization into what it is," Hansen said. "I just feel so blessed and fortunate that we were able to get connected with the organization in so many ways. It's helped my children and others like them so much."
But above all else, in October and future awareness months, Hansen wishes to use the fun activity to point out the similarities, rather than the differences, that special needs individuals have with their peers.
"What we as special needs parents would like to let people know is these individuals are actually more like their peers than they are different," Hansen said. "They have feelings, they have emotions, they do a lot of the same things that your 'typical' individual can do. Special Olympics and raising awareness isn't about raising awareness of their disability - it's more about raising awareness of their ability."
Michael Strasburg may be reached at [email protected].
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