I made some welsh cakes last weekend - about 240 of them in all. It took me most of an afternoon to get them all made, and I have to say I'm not hankering to repeat the process soon, but I'm glad I did it.
I made the welsh cakes for the staff at our local secondary school, and I made that number because I wanted to ensure that there were enough for every one of the 219 members of staff to be able to have one. Teachers, admin staff, learning support, grounds and maintenance staff - I wanted them all to be able to have a welsh cake - hence the massive bake.
The thought came about when I was chatting to a friend who works at the school and who mentioned that the staff were all so very tired - as is the case in most staff rooms across the land due to the impact of cost cutting and curriculum-based changes being imposed year after year. There's not a lot I can do about stopping the cost-cutting, or the requirements of curriculum changes, but what I could do was make welsh-cakes, and write a card with encouraging words.
So I did!
They went in on Monday, and I didn't think anything more about it. Life moved on to other items on the to-do list. But what I hadn't anticipated was the response to the welsh-cakes.
E-mails from staff I don't know, as well as staff I do know, saying thank you, and commenting how special it was to them that someone from outside school was thinking about them. And texts and other messages from friends within the school commenting on the conversations that have come about as a result of the appearance of the welsh cakes.
Apparently, the fact that I had gone to the effort to make the cakes, and not just buy them, made a big impact. And some staff members who don't know me at all were particularly impressed that it was the mayor who had gone to all that trouble! I have also been told that there have even been conversations off the back of the welsh-cakes about faith, and some staff who are of no faith linking my actions to the fact that I am a Christian, in a very positive way.
It hadn't occurred to me to blog about the welsh-cakes, because for me, making cakes to bless people is just what I do. But this past week, the response has been such that I felt it was worth sharing. Not to big me up, but to put the idea out there as a simple example of how we can bless others.
I'm not suggesting everyone needs to start making hundreds of welsh-cakes. But is there a staff room in a school / doctors surgery / hospital near you where you know there are lots of hard-working, beleaguered, 'hanging in there' staff, and who could benefit from knowing that they are remembered, and loved and thanked. Cakes (especially if they are home-made) can go a long way in saying all those things.
Just putting it out there!!!
I made the welsh cakes for the staff at our local secondary school, and I made that number because I wanted to ensure that there were enough for every one of the 219 members of staff to be able to have one. Teachers, admin staff, learning support, grounds and maintenance staff - I wanted them all to be able to have a welsh cake - hence the massive bake.
The thought came about when I was chatting to a friend who works at the school and who mentioned that the staff were all so very tired - as is the case in most staff rooms across the land due to the impact of cost cutting and curriculum-based changes being imposed year after year. There's not a lot I can do about stopping the cost-cutting, or the requirements of curriculum changes, but what I could do was make welsh-cakes, and write a card with encouraging words.
So I did!
They went in on Monday, and I didn't think anything more about it. Life moved on to other items on the to-do list. But what I hadn't anticipated was the response to the welsh-cakes.
E-mails from staff I don't know, as well as staff I do know, saying thank you, and commenting how special it was to them that someone from outside school was thinking about them. And texts and other messages from friends within the school commenting on the conversations that have come about as a result of the appearance of the welsh cakes.
Apparently, the fact that I had gone to the effort to make the cakes, and not just buy them, made a big impact. And some staff members who don't know me at all were particularly impressed that it was the mayor who had gone to all that trouble! I have also been told that there have even been conversations off the back of the welsh-cakes about faith, and some staff who are of no faith linking my actions to the fact that I am a Christian, in a very positive way.
It hadn't occurred to me to blog about the welsh-cakes, because for me, making cakes to bless people is just what I do. But this past week, the response has been such that I felt it was worth sharing. Not to big me up, but to put the idea out there as a simple example of how we can bless others.
I'm not suggesting everyone needs to start making hundreds of welsh-cakes. But is there a staff room in a school / doctors surgery / hospital near you where you know there are lots of hard-working, beleaguered, 'hanging in there' staff, and who could benefit from knowing that they are remembered, and loved and thanked. Cakes (especially if they are home-made) can go a long way in saying all those things.
Just putting it out there!!!
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