In Her Words: Erin Robinson, Baking A Better Community
Pharmaceutical rep & mom of three teaches her children to love themselves by loving their neighbors
It was June 2018, and I had just attended a church service where we talked about using your skills to connect with other people; using your passions, using things you like to do, to minister in your own communities. Meanwhile, I was concerned about my daughter, Mary. She was in fifth grade, and, as is typical in that age group, she was struggling with her group of friends. They were going separate ways, and we were heading into summer.
Mary loves to bake. She was always baking, and we always had more than enough baked goods around our house. Inspired by the message I had just heard at church and with the thought in mind that sometimes the best way to help yourself feel better is to help other people, I said to Mary, “We have to find a better purpose for this stuff. Maybe there’s somebody that needs a little bit of cheer. We could take your cookies and wrap them up and deliver them with a little note that says: hope your day gets better.”
Initially, our efforts were focused on people we knew, but then I created a Facebook page where I asked for nominations from people in the community saying, “If you know somebody going through a challenge, we’re interested in supporting them with a gift of homemade baked goods and an encouraging note. There’s no charge. This is just our way of giving back to the community.”
Today our Made by Mary community page on Facebook has more than 2,200 followers and our volunteer page has almost 200. We’ve been doing this for six and a half years. I would say at this point we’re getting two to three requests a week. Our record for the most requests fulfilled in one week is 11.
We created a 501(c)(3) for Made by Mary because my husband and I thought it would be a good experience for our daughters to see what goes into that process. I don’t know that we’ll maintain that structure for very much longer though because the overhead is almost as much as we get in donations. When Mary goes to college, we may retire Mady by Mary. But then again, we may decide otherwise.
A Community Effort
Mary is now a junior in high school, and she still does a lot of the baking. She loves to experiment and will try to find new recipes. Whereas, if I’m pitching in because she’s busy with school or cheerleading or something else that she’s in, you’re going to get chocolate chip cookies or brownies. Kelly, my eldest daughter who’s now away at college, used to make a lot of cards. But now we have cards made by a lot of high school volunteers, which I appreciate. In fact, just last night, I got a text from twins who have baked for us a number of times, saying “We’re available this weekend to bake if you have any requests.” When that happens, I will do my best to dig up a request so they can fulfill it.
Mary recently completed her application for the National Honor Society, and to be part of that, you have to have 10 hours of community service. I received requests from other students saying, “I need 10 community hours. What can I do?” and I said “Well, if you grocery shop and bake and make a card and do a delivery, I'll give you three or four hours for that.” We would have a request for someone who was diagnosed with cancer or their dog died or something, and these kids would do the delivery, and it was a great lesson in compassion. They get to utilize their skills, whether they are culinary skills or art and graphic skills. Some of the kids would say “Can I make 10 cards?” and the cards would be gorgeous. I could tell they spent a ton of time on this, and it was wonderful.
Our very first volunteer was our next-door neighbor. We had a personal scheduling conflict, and we were going out of town. Our neighbor loves to bake, so I asked if she could handle it, and she said “Of course. I’d be happy to help.” We’re literally the stereotypical neighbors who call one another and say, “I’m out of eggs, do you have eggs?” Or “I’m out of flour. Can you help me?” She volunteers with us still to this day. We have some people who want to just do deliveries. We have some card makers. And then we have a lot of volunteer bakers.
Beyond Baked Goods
While we continue to do the front porch baked goods delivery, we have gone beyond that mission. As my girls have aged and matured, they have developed different interests, so we've asked the community to support us in various ways. During the pandemic we also created Amazon wish lists, collected snacks for the local homeless shelter, and supported our mailman. We’re also pretty involved with another local organization called Feed My Starving Children.
My daughters have both done pretty extensive fundraisers for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. During Covid, my daughter Kelly, who was working on bringing awareness to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, knew that there was a huge need for blood donations, so she started doing blood drives. Because they had typically been held at churches and workplaces, blood drives had been halted during that time.
Because our community page has 2,200 followers, we have been able to use it to support other organizations in our community too. For example, another local group, Good Neighbors Network, was collecting packages of valentines for kids who couldn’t afford to buy them to share with their class. I made an Amazon list of Valentines, shared it with our community, and let them know that everything could be sent directly to me and I would deliver the Valentines. We collected more than 40 packages. People like to contribute in little ways.
Connecting Through Service
Service is how I connect with people. I’ve been always very service oriented in my career and my personal life. Professionally, I’m a pharmaceutical representative. I’ve always liked talking to practitioners and doctors about which pharmaceutical option was best for their patients, always keeping the patient in mind. No matter what your issue is, what disease you’re managing, what illness you’re struggling with, we’re all people, real people, with real stories, just getting through life. I also appreciate that my current role provides a ton of flexibility for my family. I can still go to all my kids’ activities, and if they may have a dentist or a doctor appointment or I get called because they’re sick, I have the flexibility that I need.
What advice would you give your 25-year-old self?
I would say “Success looks different at every age.” What you think being successful looks like at 25 is not what you think successful is going to look like at 40. Yes, it’s about paying the bills, and yes, it’s about not having debt, and yes, it’s about having a career, but it’s also about having connections with your family and in your community and mattering to people and having people matter to you.
Belle Curve Stories is about women navigating life with grit, grace and growth. What do those three words mean to you?
Grit means you’re quite capable of accomplishing anything you want. You just have to figure out the best path to getting there and setting realistic expectations for how and when. Sometimes you have to give yourself the grace to know it’s not going to happen on the timeline you originally envisioned, and real life happens, and you have to have that flexibility. But it doesn’t mean that you need to give up on your goals. So grace is giving yourself the space to evolve and realizing that priorities change, life happens, and those two don’t always happen at the same time.
As for growth, everybody always says, “Don’t stop learning.” I agree with that, but sometimes you just have a lot going on, and it’s okay to take a pause and learn to just enjoy. I like the word “contentment.” My husband and I struggle because he’s always wanting to do things bigger and better, and try new things, and do a million new hobbies. And I’m like, “I am perfectly fine with how things are right now. Let's just enjoy this phase.” It’s okay to just be content. You don’t always have to be growing.
We’re always focusing on being better, or doing more, or having more. Who you are is okay. Maybe in six months, you’ll want to be a different person, or maybe you want to learn a new skill. That’s all okay. But if you want to just stop and enjoy today, that’s quite all right, too.
As told to and edited by Teresa Bellock and Sandra Ditore.
Erin Robinson, 48, is a pharmaceutical sales representative, as well as the co-founder of Made by Mary, a 501(c)(3) organization. Erin, her husband and her three children live in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, where they enjoy dedicating their time and talent to a variety of charitable causes.
