Pound Cakes, Pies and a Morning of Bidding: Mt. Juliet’s Sweet Tooth Auction Returns for Its 21st Year Oct. 29
There are fundraisers built around galas and silent-auction clipboards, and then there are fundraisers built around a caramel cake. Mt. Juliet has had one of the second kind for two decades now, and it is coming back this month.
The 21st annual Martin Cummings Sweet Tooth Auction is set for Thursday, Oct. 29, and the format is as simple as it sounds: homemade desserts, baked goods, gift baskets and other donated items go up for bid, and the money stays in the community.
When and where
- Date: Thursday, Oct. 29
- Light breakfast: 8:30 a.m.
- Auction: 9 a.m.
- Location: Crye-Leike Realtors, 1285 N. Mt. Juliet Road
Jimmy Deatrick will be calling the bids. Anyone who has watched a good auctioneer work a room knows that is half the entertainment: the rhythm, the friendly pressure, the moment two neighbors realize they both want the same chess pie.
Where the money goes
Proceeds benefit local United Way charities, including the Mt. Juliet Help Center and the Senior Activity Center. Both are the kind of organizations that do steady, unglamorous work most residents never see.
The Help Center is a client-choice food pantry on North Mt. Juliet Road serving west Wilson County, the stretch from Highway 109 to the Davidson County line. Households there fill out a list of what they actually need rather than taking a pre-packed box, and the center also helps with hygiene items, clothing and emergency utility assistance. We wrote about how it works, and how to volunteer a single weekday morning, in our guide to the Mt. Juliet Help Center. Cash is the most flexible gift a pantry can get, which is exactly what an auction turns a pound cake into.
Why a bake auction works
A dessert auction has a quiet genius to it. The bakers donate something that costs them an afternoon and a few dollars in butter and sugar. The bidders pay well above what the cake is worth, because they know where the money is going and because a homemade pie from a neighbor is not something you can buy at a store. Everyone goes home with something, and the charities go home with the difference.
Over 21 years, that arithmetic has become a Mt. Juliet tradition, the sort of small-town event that keeps going because families come back every fall, some to bake, some to bid and some to do both.
If you go
Come early for the breakfast, bring a way to pay and plan to stay for the whole auction. If you bake, the auction runs on donated desserts and baskets, so ask around your office, church or neighborhood about contributing one. A Thursday morning in late October is a fine time to remember that a community is, among other things, a group of people willing to overpay for each other's cake.
Image: illustrative, AI-generated – not the actual location.
