by Ebony L. Morman 

In 2015, Charlotte hosted its first Chefs for Kids’ Cancer fundraiser, a spinoff of the New York City gala where chefs cook multi-course meals to support pediatric cancer research. Over the years, Charlotte’s version has evolved from small bites to dinners featuring chefs who each served 180 plates at a time. Last year, the focus shifted yet again, this time highlighting Charlotte’s talented pastry chefs, all baking for a cause at Cookies, Cocktails & Canapés.

This year’s Cookies, Cocktails & Canapés takes place Oct. 22 at The Casey on North Tryon. Guests can expect sweets, chef-curated canapés, the signature cookie jar take-home treat, cocktails, and live music from The Parks Brothers band.

In total, 23 chefs are participating this year: Brittany Cochran (Chef Chair) / Stagioni , Sam Diminich (Chef Chair) / Restaurant Constance, Hannah Neville (Chef Chair) / Honeybear Bake Shop, Amy Fortes / The Flipside Café , Ann Marie Stefaney / Restaurant Constance, April and Scott Franqueza / High Hampton, Becca Rankin / Tart, Callan Buckles / Rada, Eric Gabrynowicz / Tupelo Honey, Gabe Pascuzzi / Bistecca Wood Fire Steakhouse, Jamie Barnes / Serving The Culture, Larry Schreiber / Bao and Broth, Maria Kremer / Swirl Dessert Bar, Mary Jayne Wilson / Thoughtful Baking, Nicholas Daniels / TPC Piper Glen Country Club, Norma Zuniga / Dulce Dreams Café, Oscar Johnson / Jimmy Pearl’s, Perry Saito / Dozo, Preeti Waas / Cheeni, Robin Anthony / Prime Fish, Robin Goodrich / Red’s Scratch Made, Sadie Noh / Littl Madeleine, and Savannah Foltz / Supperland.

“We’ve raised $2 million in Charlotte,” says Amy Christenbury, a Charlotte resident and community outreach coordinator for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. “We’re one of the top fundraising cities for the charity.”

Bake sales and large-scale events aren’t the only way they fundraise either, Christenbury says. 

“We’ve branched out,” she says. “We’ve done 5Ks, brewery events — anything and everything to raise awareness — and September is actually Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.”

We spoke with Christenbury to talk about how the event has grown, what makes Charlotte’s version stand out, and her hopes for the upcoming fundraiser. 

Unpretentious Palate: How did you get involved with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer? 
Amy Christenbury: I lost my son to pediatric cancer in 2013. He was diagnosed when he was almost three years old, and it was stage four neuroblastoma. 

I grew up in Charlotte. My family is from here, and we wanted to help him, because we didn’t realize that cancer was the number one disease killer of children.

I got involved with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer through a grassroots bake sale. A friend of mine, who’s the founder, lives in New York. I met her there back when we were traveling back and forth from Charlotte to New York for different treatments for neuroblastoma for my son. It made this journey not feel so lonely, because I knew another mom with the same prognosis as my son. She started Cookies For Kids’ Cancer by baking 96,000 cookies in one weekend. She worked in PR at the time, gathered some friends from her preschool and had volunteers bake and shipped them out one holiday season, and they raised more than $400,000. That money ended up funding a trial. 

Fast forward, she asked for everybody to have a bake sale. Here in Charlotte, it was Festival In the Park weekend at Freedom Park. My daughter and I had a two-day bake sale and raised about $2,000. Months later, we had another bake sale to fund better treatments for children. We raised $15,000. Now this December will be our 18th year having a bake sale in front of Blackhawk Hardware [in the Park Road Shopping Center]. On average, we’ve raised about $150,000. Even though my son died in 2013, I think it’s important I’m still involved. 

UP: What’s your goal for this year’s Cookies, Cocktails & Canapés?
AC: The goal is to bring people in a room, have them enjoy amazing food, and continue to support these restaurants because they can see others who are also supporting children battling this horrific disease. Plus our goal is for them to support us, knowing that our funds only do one thing—we fund research that gets to children’s bedsides the quickest as possible. We don’t want to fund something that’s going to be available in 10 years. Kids don’t have 10 years to wait, and we just want to make the biggest impact for the most people. We want people to realize we are a national nonprofit that really has made a difference in this world of pediatric cancer research. We’re small but mighty. 

UP: How do you all go about selecting participating chefs? 
AC: It’s all by invitation. We don’t want to be the average banquet fundraiser. We want something special. We want every chef to decide on their plate and what they’re cooking. We encourage them to think out of the box and to show off, because this is their time. We don’t want to just be like, ‘Hey, you’re going to come do our event.’ We treat them like royalty and they are, they’re the heartbeat of the community.

UP: What are you most looking forward to?
AC: We always look forward to seeing all the chefs, especially the ones who return year after year, like Brittany Cochran (Stagioni) and Hannah Neville (Honeybear Bakeshop), who are both chef chairs at the event. This year, we have a lot of new chefs like Callan Buckles (Rada) and Robin Anthony (Prime Fish). I’m really excited about Preeti Waas (Cheeni Durham). I haven’t met her, but through communication I’ve learned she’s the sweetest person ever. 

UP: How does this event impact Charlotte on a local level?
AC: Childhood cancer is not local, it’s a national issue, and you can’t treat it locally. We need all to work together to make the biggest difference in the quickest amount of time. And so you have two things going on. I think chefs can be local. I think the community that gets together can be local, but at the end of the day, you’re working for this bigger picture of a bigger problem, and if every city and every state did something that funneled the money into the right places, then maybe we could make better progress than we have in the last 40 years. 

UP:  What can guests expect to experience?
AC: They can expect to be wowed by the food. They can expect to be overcome by this ‘good cookie feeling’ that makes them actually feel the difference that we’re making. They can expect to be inspired to do something as small as a bake sale or as large as a golf tournament to support. But they will not leave without being inspired to help children battling cancer. And then they will also leave knowing how much these chefs in our area supported us, and hopefully they’ll get that reservation on the books to try the restaurants [where the chefs work] out in person.

For more information about the Cookies, Cocktails & Canapés or to purchase tickets, click here.