By Lisa Carolin
Entrepreneurs Kendall and Lia Spink have combined their baking and business skills with community service and created Bon Bon’s Bakery.
The sisters, Kendall, a freshman at Chelsea High School, and Lia, an eighth-grader at Beach Middle School, launched Bon Bon’s Bakery in 2017.
They spent two weeks at the Chelsea Winter Farmers Market this holiday season selling their baked goods and displaying a sign that read, “Two Chelsea sisters who aspire to make a difference in their own community and beyond. We are honored to help fund missions carried out by a local service group called Chelsea Chicks Care (CCC). CCC has been known to spread love to Alpha House, St. Louis Center, Ronald McDonald House, Faith in Action and more.”
“I like to create things and the service part,” said Kendall Spink. “It started out as a bake sale for the service group and kept growing.”
“I like the business part, reaching out to others, designing the business cards and the website,” said Lia Spink.
They started CCC in 2014 with friends and have helped with missions around the community, most recently making crafts, blankets, and bracelets with women at the St. Louis Center.
Kendall was part of Chelsea’s Japan exchange program, and had a chance to raise funds with the group at the Chelsea Farmers Market. She got a taste of selling at the market, and Lia suggested the holiday season would be a great time of year for Bon Bon’s Bakery to have its own booth.
During their weeks at the Chelsea Winter Farmers Market, they sold out of their cookies, which included cut out, decorated sugar cookies, mint chocolate chip cookies, and thumbprints.
As far as balancing the demands of school with their business, Kendall covered for Lia one day at the market when Lia had field hockey practice and spent the rare quiet moment at the market working on homework.
“I’m really proud of them,” said their dad Scott Spink. “They have a real drive, and their mom (Jen) and I support them as much as we can. They do their homework when they get home from school and use their time wisely.”
Kendall and Lia credit their grandmother Bonnie Stein for teaching them to bake when they were little.
“They’ve always enjoyed being in the kitchen, and they always want to do more for others,” said Scott Spink.
As far as the future goes, Kendall says, “I don’t know how big Bon Bon’s Bakery will get, but maybe it will be a career and we’ll have a storefront in Chelsea and maybe other places too. I also hope to keep CCC going, and our next project will be to adopt a family for Easter.”
You can order a variety of baked goods including cupcakes and cookies from Bon Bon’s Bakery by contacting Kendall and Lia at [email protected].
