Hundreds of runners climbed, balanced and went through an obstacle course in order to help less fortunate families that face much harder challenges every day.
The inaugural Rebel Donut Dash’s 5K run raised money for The Storehouse so it can continue to support many of Albuquerque’s homeless and poverty level citizens.
Carrie Mettling, owner of Rebel Donuts, said she had the idea of hosting a food related fundraiser as she made doughnuts in her local shop on morning.
“Storehouse was an entity I was aware of, but I had never helped them in the past,” Mettling said. “So I called them up and said ‘Can we raise money for you’? And they were like ‘Okay’!, So We kind of just put two and two together.”
Mettling and her team put the run together over six months, albeit with a few bumps along the way, she said. On Saturday, runners finally got to attempt the course at the Balloon Fiesta Park.
“Our first date got pushed back, we were going to have this in June, but the Balloon Fiesta got us confused with another race, so we had to change the date, which is actually really good because we had more time to work on it,” Mettling said.
The turnout for this fundraiser was phenomenal, she said. More than 500 runners signed up in support of the cause. Tiffany Sicklin, owner and event coordinator for Bravo Alpha Events, said the amount of the funds raises will be determined next week.
“Everybody seems to be in a good mood and they’re liking the course,” Mettling said on Saturday. “I’ve just been asking the runners ‘Are you having fun, are you having a good time?’”
The night before the run, Mettling said she spent five hours frying doughnuts after the sore closed. Rebel Donuts donated an approximate 2,060 doughnuts for the runners as a reward at the finish line.
“I would like to do this annually … as a matter of fact, we’ve already secured our date for next year,” Mettling said. “It’s going to be bigger, better, and we already know exactly how we are going to improve everything.”
Amy Lavender, an event coordinator for The Storehouse, said she was excited by the idea of a 5K doughnut dash as way to raise awareness for her organizations cause. “We provide about three million meals to people over the course of the year.” Lavender said. “I think this is a great idea for an event … I think Albuquerque is ready for more unique offerings as far as events go.”
The idea of this 5K becoming an annual event presents the possibility for charitable expansion, she said. The Storehouse is appreciative that they were the charity being represented for this first time run, she said.
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“We have our food pantry. People can come and, instead of serving them a meal, we give them the choice of what kind of food they want to feed their families over the course of a month,” Lavender said.
The Storehouse provides more than just food – a clothing bank has been set up to aid families at all times, but especially at the beginning of the school year, she said.
“We have a lot of great community partners come in and do things like health check-ups, and dentist check-ups making sure that we help people with whatever needs that they have,” Lavender said.
Getting the message out that there is a place that can help the hungry is the main goal of the whole event, she said.
“I know that Carrie, the owner of Rebel Donuts, is really passionate about hunger and this is one of the causes she really is a champion for,” Lavender said.
Peggy Graham, one of the 500 hundred runners in attendance, said she does four 5K runs a year in support of good causes.
“When we do the 5Ks, we like to do charity races,” Graham said. “We do them for something that we like and we think is a worthwhile cause and I was excited to see that this was for The Storehouse and then you get doughnuts, which is a good combination.”
Each running tag, per runner, costs between $35 to $40 dollars when bought on-line, she said. After buying the tag runners are set up in waves, or groups to run at different times.
“I would like to see awareness for The Storehouse and what they do and what they are doing for our community… hopefully this raises a lot of funds and food donations,” Graham said.
Doughnuts and obstacles weren’t the only attractions at the event, though. Some, like Joseph Perez, showed up in costume.
Perez, garrison commander of the 501st Star Wars cosplayers, said he put his costume on in order to show his support for this event. Boosting moral and showing support is what the Albuquerque chapter of the 501st is all about, he said.
“The Storehouse does a lot of good for the community, I mean they feed a lot of people and the times that we’re in we need that kind of situation for people to come to and they can have a place where they can get food,” Perez said.
Q&A: Trading blueprints for ‘Blue Sky’
The Daily Lobo sat down with Rebel Donuts owner Carrie Mettling about her meth-odology on creating the Blue Sky doughnut, inspired by the AMC show “Breaking Bad” filmed in Albuquerque, and how she got into the pastry business in the first place.
DL: Why did you decide to do doughnut with so many established businesses in town that already have a corner on the market?
Mettling: “I think that Albuquerque was an underserved community in the eyes of a doughnut lover. I think there were only two local doughnut shops and then Duncan was the only chain that was left and I just thought I could do it better. I used to own Cake Fetish, so I sold that and I went back into what I thought was going to be my career and hated it. So I thought ‘what can I do that’s close to cake, but not cake’ because I had a no compete (agreement with Cake Fetish) and so we picked doughnuts because it was close to cake and is actually way more fun.”
DL: What was the career you tried pursuing?
Mettling: “I was an architect. I have a master’s degree in architecture from UNM and I make doughnuts now. I designed my own doughnut shops though (Laughs).”
DL: How many job applications does Rebel Donuts get on a regular basis?
Mettling: “If I put an ad out I literally get hundreds. On a regular basis we get a few a week at each store, so I have a really, really large stock-pile of applications (laughs). I think people like to glamorize what it’s like to go to work at four o’clock in the morning,”
DL: Where do ideas for the doughnuts come from?
Mettling: “Everywhere. Mostly pop culture I would say. For Balloon Fiesta we are going to be doing balloon shaped doughnuts and then we are going to pull out all of our local favorites like blue corn piňon, and green chile apple fritters, and then our Azteca, which is our Mexican chocolate cinnamon and red chile doughnut. So we are going to bring out all the spice to scare the tourists.”
DL: What is your best-selling doughnut?
Mettling: Still Blue Sky. Yeah we hate it … we hate that doughnut … don’t say that (laughs). I order the candy for that 50 pounds at a time because we go through it so fast. If we run out, people get so pissed. This doughnuts’ success was completely accidental, which is so funny, but we’ll take it. It honestly put us on the map and saved me from going under. It’s major, it really is, that doughnut was on the cover of the New York Times business section.
Stephen Montoya is culture editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @StephenMontoya9
