All across Mount Prospect there were DVRs set and WGN streaming on the televisions of many Made By Mary volunteers and fans. At the encouragement of a friend, the “original” Made By Mary team hosted a small gathering of people at our house to watch together.  When we glimpsed the first image of pink cupcakes on the screen we all screamed with excitement and Mary yelled, “Hey! Those were the cupcakes we baked for my friends!” Soon, however, the room that was once cheering in anticipation was filled with tears as we all realized the impact small gestures of kindness can have on real people.

Erin Ivory placed a request Wednesday afternoon on the Made By Mary Facebook page for anyone who had been a recipient of our deliveries to reach out to her if they would be willing to do an on-camera interview. Two people responded: Steve and Brenda (Brenda is the person who reached out to Erin at WGN initially with her story about Made By Mary). As you can see in the segment, Steve received his delivery after the loss of his father and Brenda after her sister’s passing. There are dozens of other stories like Steve and Brenda’s and certainly they would have been equally compelling because, as Steve relayed in his interview, the simple fact that a stranger would take the time to serve a neighbor is memorable. Thank you, Steve and Brenda, for taking the time and courage to serve Made By Mary in this way!

Celebrating WGN Viewing Party

In the WGN segment you will also see Dana and her beautiful family who were the recipients of our filmed delivery of homemade whipped cream and organic berries.  Dana is fighting breast cancer for the second time and kindly agreed to help us by being on camera (and home for the delivery!). Through Made By Mary and the filming process I’ve gotten to know Dana a little bit and her sarcastic optimism has provided me with tons of smiles and laughs at the perfect moments.  Dana, we are cheering for you and, in the moments when the optimism subsides, please know that we are here.

Because we knew we were going to see Pat, the Mount Prospect resident who is also a WGN cameraman, and Erin Ivory the morning of the segment airing, I reached out to our baking team to see if anyone had the time to pull something together to send down to the newsroom.  Big thanks to Lindsay, Jeanne, and Lisa (and of course Mary) for adding some goodies to the dessert table at WGN!

Yesterday was a day our household will remember for a lifetime. Thank you to everyone who has joined our team and to the neighbors who have nominated people that could use some TLC — ultimately, it is the names provided of friends and family that allow us to do what we do best — spread kindness and compassion.

By the end of the day the WGN piece aired, we had crashed our website. Twelve hours after a short segment about Made By Mary was posted on the WGN Facebook page it had 20,000 views.The concept is so easy to like. Let’s continue to think of people we can serve, bake for them, encourage them and do it all in the name of the TEAM at Made By Mary.

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