Minnesota bakery gives away more than 1,000 cakes to celebrate high school graduates

(Image credit: iStock)

published 11 June 2020

More than 1,000 high school graduates in Minnesota were able to end their senior year on a sweet note, thanks to Hanisch Bakery.

Owner Bill Hanisch wanted to do something to celebrate the graduates at his alma mater, Red Wing High School, and decided to make a small, personalized cake for all 200 seniors. Once word spread outside of Red Wing, donations began coming in so Hanisch could bake cakes for other graduates in the area. Over the last several weeks, he had been able to give away more than 1,000 decked-out cakes to students in 12 towns.

"It's been awesome," Hanisch told People. "It's been so fun to tell the story of how it started, from just making cakes for my own town to how it's grown. Now I've seen other bakeries doing it, too. It's been really cool." Because of the generosity of his customers and other people who heard about what he is doing, Hanisch has been able to keep all 21 of his full-time workers employed during the pandemic.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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