We knew the best way to prove how amazing Holland Bloorview is, was to show just what their kids who go there were capable of. So with Baking Good, the kids were at the centre of the entire idea. There is an expression that, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” We took this expression and turned it on its head. After all, these kids were not lemons. Thanks to the therapies and technology granted them at Holland Bloorview these kids are endlessly capable. Our lemon bakery would show that lemons are actually bright, sweet and full of potential.

You can’t have a lemon bakery without lemon treats, so to start our kids travelled to Liaison College, a prominent cooking school in Toronto, and together they created an original lemon square recipe. Next they worked with a carpenter to design, build and paint our Baking Good bakery cart. Naturally, the kids made sure it was designed to be fully accessible so every Holland Bloorview kids could participate with the bakery. And then once it was just right, the kids took the cart all over Toronto, handing out their lemon squares – but these treats had an important twist.

Inside the custom designed box were actually two lemon squares. People who bought a square were encouraged to share the second square with a friend or family member and then tell them about Holland Bloorview. Our activation was designed to really get people talking (between bites).

Over the course of our campaign, the kids handed out more than 1,500 lemon squares and sparked hundreds of conversations. With a budget of less than $20,000 we were able to generate some very positive results:

The Foundation saw traffic to their website increase by 300%. And thanks to

18 separate news stories on tv and radio, we generated over 9 million media impressions. With another 4 million impressions being created on social media.

Media companies inspired by the campaign donated over $600,000 in free space for our campaign. Members of Parliament, Robert Oliphant and Adam Vaughan visited the cart and added even more exposure. Finally we achieved our last objective of attracting large corporate donors. In the weeks after our Baking Good activation, BMO, and TD, two of Canada’s largest banks, LEGO, Fabricland and Metroland Media all signed on as permanent corporate sponsors.