Cake decorated by worker with Autism goes viral
GAINES TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) – Lisa Aldrich didn’t even look at her cake until she was almost to the checkout at the Gaines Township Meijer last weekend. But once she did, she realized it wasn’t your typical cake.
“After looking, I nervously laughed and headed to checkout – it didn’t really matter to me that it looked so bad – I thought people would think it was funny,” Aldrich wrote in a Nov. 29 post on her Facebook page. “The cashiers at the self check out didn’t think it was so funny though.”
As of late Tuesday night, that post had garnered more than 55,800 shares on Facebook alone because of who was behind the quirky decoration: a worker with Autism.
Picked out a cake at Meijer. Asked bakery-looking-employee if she could write on it for me. She said she would, and…Posted by Lisa Sarber Aldrich on Sunday, November 29, 2015
It all started when Aldrich said she had asked a “bakery-looking-employee” to write a message on the blank cake for her, and thanked her before even looking at it.
While standing in the checkout, Aldrich wrote that several cashiers and a manager came over to check out the cake with the words “Happy Birthday Mandy,” scrawled across it. Some even began taking pictures.
That’s when Aldrich said she learned who was behind the design.
“To my surprise, after they discussed it, one cashier put her arm on my shoulder and said, ‘The girl who wrote that has Autism. Thank you for smiling and thanking her – even though she’s not supposed to write on cakes, you probably made her day,’” Aldrich wrote in her post.
Since posting the picture to Facebook, Aldrich posted that she has received hundreds of messages from people all over the country, thanking her for her kind actions. Even Lt. Governor Brian Calley, a long-time advocate for Autism awareness, shared the original post.
“I just feel the need to say again – I didn’t do anything special,” Aldrich wrote in a separate post late Tuesday. “Be nice. That is all.”