Video Transcript: Bellevue Heights Nursery School raises money with Election Day bake sale
Nate Polite: The Bellevue Heights Nursery School has been around for 50 years alongside the Bellevue Heights United Methodist Church. For much of that time, the nursery school classroom has been a polling place dedicated to serving the community. Every year on election day, parents bake all kinds of cookies, cakes and pies that voters can buy, with all of the money going back to the school.
Brendan Smith: It’s a huge benefit for us. It definitely sets up the rest of the year for us. It’s one of our better ones.
Polite: Voters like Beth Eischen make this annual fundraiser possible. Eischen is a professor at Hamilton College and she made sure that she got enough to share.
Beth Eischen: I’m actually taking this in to share with my students.
Polite: Eischen has been coming to the Bellevue Heights polling location for years, making sure to grab something every time.
Eischen: I want to support the local folks, you know, that host… host the election.
Polite: Voters supporting their community by filling up on homemade treats and filling out their ballots. In Syracuse, Nate Polite, NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Bellevue Heights Methodist Church has long served the South Syracuse community as a polling place, and every year voters are greeted by homemade baked goods courtesy of the parents of the Bellevue Heights Nursery school.
The school has been around for 50 years, and the classroom is where votes are cast every November. For much of that time, the bake sale has been right along with it. Cakes, cookies, pies and more fill tables with two goals: to feed voters and to raise money for the school.
“It’s a huge benefit for us,” said bake sale organizer Brendan Smith. “It definitely sets up the rest of the year… it’s one of our better [fundraisers].”
The bake sale is something that voters look forward to every year, buying desserts for themselves and others. Beth Eischen, a professor at Hamilton College and an adjunct professor at Onondaga Community College, bought an extra loaf of pumpkin bread for her students this year in an effort to encourage them to go vote.
Eischen’s first election was in 1996, and she makes sure to come to Bellevue Heights every year to vote so she can support her community and buy herself a sweet treat.
“I want to support the local folks that host the election,” Eischen said.