Bound To Stay Bound Books, Inc.

2010 is Bound to Stay Bound Books’ ninetieth anniversary and in 2009 we realized we needed to figure out a special way to celebrate our 90th with our customers at the American Library Association Conference in June 2010. Fortunately, after several pretty lame suggestions, an employee in our information services department, Andy Martin, had an inspiration. He is a fan of the reality television show, Ace of Cakes, on the Food Network Channel. This show follows Duff Goldman and his employees at Charm City Cakes as they make incredibly creative cakes in their Baltimore shop for all kinds of customers. Baltimore is not far from Washington, D.C., where ALA was going to be held, and we were sure if we had a Charm City Cake at our booth in the exhibits it would be an experience none of us would soon forget!

So late in 2009 we got started. First we made sure Charm City Cakes could schedule us for the last week of June. Then we talked to Harpercollins Publishing. They had just published a book by Duff Goldman and we thought they might want to be involved. They agreed to help pay for the cake from their advertising budget as long as we used characters from Harpercollins children’s books. It was easy to choose some great classic characters like the Wild Thing, Lily and her Purple Plastic Purse, and Flat Stanley for Charm City Cakes to pick from.

The next big step was when Andy Martin and Lori Smith, our Manager of Customer Satisfaction, went out to the East Coast in March 2010 to visit some customers and to go to Charm City Cakes in Baltimore. Andy and Lori met the whole crew at CCC and gave them sample books to work with. They soon sent us a very rough design sketch but they wanted to keep the details of the cake secret from us until we saw it in our booth.

In the months leading up to ALA Mike Brady, our Sales and Marketing Manager, finalized arrangements with ALA and the exhibit company to allow for the delivery and serving of the cake. Mike also needed to do special advertising and mailings to make sure as many librarians as possible knew about the special event at Booth #2600. We contracted with Bright Room Photography to have a photographer at our booth to take pictures of librarians with the cake.

Finally, it was Saturday, June 26 and the cake was scheduled to be delivered before 11 a.m. so we could start taking pictures at 11:00. 11 o’clock came and went. 11:15 came and went. The tension and the waiting crowd kept growing. Finally, a bit after 11:30 the cake rolled into our booth. We had hoped that Duff Goldman himself would help deliver it but we found out that he was in some other part of the country taping the Ace of Cakes television show. But it was fascinating to watch the cake being put together in front of our eyes and it was a truly amazing, beautiful cake.

Librarians were soon in a big long line to get their picture taken with an actual Charm City Cake. In two hours over 125 librarians and several children’s book authors had their picture taken with the cake. Then, at 2 p.m., we started serving sheet cakes in a variety of yummy flavors and finally, somewhat reluctantly, we cut up the beautifully designed cake and ate it too. Over 500 librarians had a piece of cake and some champagne with us, we sang happy birthday BTSB, and then, by 3:30 in the afternoon, it was all over.

We are left with the great pictures you can see in the following slide show and one big question – What in the world are we going to do in 2020 for our 100th anniversary?

ACE OF CAKES BOOK WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Congratulations to the following ALA attendees who registered to win one of five copies of Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes by Duff Goldman and Willie Goldman. If you missed it, Charm City Cakes prepared a special cake for Bound To Stay Bound Books to help celebrate our 90th birthday at ALA’s Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. The books were autographed by the entire Charm City Cakes staff.

Cari Albarelli
Johnson County Library
Shawnees Mission, KS

Gerry Casterline
Ferberbar Elementary School
Feasterville, PA

Bonnie Gaus
May B. Leasure School
Newark, DE

Dennis LeLoup
Sycamore Elementary School
Avon, IN

Alecia Marcum
Natcher Elementary School
Bowling Green, KY