The Hebrew Club gave patrons at New York Bagels Inc a sweet surprise when they hosted their annual bake sale right outside the restaurant from 8:30 to 12:30 this past Sunday, Nov. 8th. The club, led by seniors Barrie Skalsky and Will Faour and sponsored by longtime Hebrew teacher Devora Borik, set up the bake sale to raise money for various Israeli organizations.

“When we send [the proceeds] away we just really enjoy helping the Israeli organizations, because a lot of the time people in America don’t know a lot about these organizations,” Skalsky said. “They’re doing really great things.”

The bake sale featured classics like chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes and delicious homemade brownies, while more interesting items like bearclaws, sugar-free banana bread and powdered mini donuts also caught people’s attention.

“We sold kosher and nut free and sugar-free things,” Skalsky said. “We wanted to do as much for everybody so that everyone could enjoy the baked goods.”

Every year, the club finds success with the sale. Sometimes they have competition, ranging from Girl Scouts to BBYO (a Jewish youth organization). But the baked goods are popular with everyone visiting the bagel shop.

“Most of the people who buy stuff are just people from the community,” Skalsky said. “Since the bagel shop has a restaurant attached to it, a lot of people will come and stop by before or after they eat. We especially like the people with little kids, because the little kids can never take their eyes off of [the cookies] and so the parents usually feel bad and buy their kids a cookie.”

The club members try to raise as much money as possible every year and usually reach their goals. This year they raised $366.09 in just one day. The sale was donations based, so the customers were asked to spare whatever they could in exchange for the baked goodies.

“We usually raise around $500-$600 dollars every bake sale,” Skalsky said. “People are usually very generous. Ultimately the goal would be around $1,000. We’ve almost reached it before. I think we’ve gotten as high as $800 from just one morning at the New York Bagel shop. So $1000 would be awesome!”