Feeling hungry? This February saw the fourth anniversary of Yeshiva University’s most popular event: the YU Sharsheret Cake Wars. The Wilf Campus auditorium filled up as teams of students from both colleges competed to form the most creative designs on forty slab-like sponge cakes. Standing attendant at the doors, members of the student organization collected money for Sharsheret, a Jewish organization aimed at helping people suffering from breast cancer and survivors.
Just as in prior years, Cake Wars garnered plenty of student attention. At least 500 members of Yeshiva College and Stern College attended, with 350 signed up on teams and another 150+ spectators. Hadassa Holzapfel, event coordinator, stated that without room size constraints, the event would attract as many as 800 students. The event’s popularity is matched by its financial success. Though the club prefers not to disclose the total, the event earned thousands of dollars for cancer victims.
A large portion of the money earned came from direct student contributions, but the bulk of the donations came from the club’s generous corporate sponsors. Ice cream vendor Sixteen Handles contributed food and sent an employee to judge the event, while StateFarm Insurance helped cover the costs of the cake. Stern clubs also helped out, including Stern College for Women Student Council (SCWSC) and from Yeshiva College, the Yeshiva Student Union (YSU).
Sharsheret representatives Ellen Kleinhaus and Shera Dubitsky were also present. Shera Dubitsky congratulated the students for increasing awareness and helping those in need, and spoke eloquently about several of the success stories that Sharsheret has helped to inspire in the fourteen years since the organization’s formation. Dubitsky encouraged students to spread awareness of Sharsheret in their own communities, in recognition of the fact that breast cancer is prevalent amongst Ashkenazi Jews.
Though only one team won the confectionary competition, the true win was for Sharsheret beneficiaries and the students who came to crush cancer.