Scarlet’s Bake Sale to mark 50th anniversary

Feb. 12 charitable event to benefit HIPS

By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | lchibbaro@washblade.com

The D.C.-based Scarlet’s Foundation will celebrate its 50th annual bake sale to raise funds for local LGBTQ community nonprofit organizations on Feb. 12 when it holds its Scarlet’s Bake Sale at the Crucible nightclub at 412 V St., N.E.

Oriana Collins, a member of the Scarlet’s Foundation board of directors, said this year will mark either the 52nd or 53rd year since the nonprofit foundation was founded in 1970 or 1971. But she said due to the cancellation of the annual Scarlet’s Bake Sale from 2020 through 2022 in response to the COVID pandemic, the organization is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bake sale itself this year.

Like past years, dozens of cake and pastry donors will be arriving at the Crucible between 1:30 and 3 p.m. to bring their mostly home-baked cakes along with store or bakery bought cakes, according to Collins. She said a social gathering will take place at 3 p.m. to be followed by the start of the bake sale, which takes place as a live auction for each of the cakes up for sale, at 4 p.m.

“The bake sale is always on the Sunday before Valentine’s Day,” Collins said. She said many of the cakes donated for the event are beautifully decorated to reflect a theme, which this year will mark the 50th Scarlet’s Bake Sale since the charitable event first began.

In past years, Collins said, cakes have sold for as much as $3,000 in an auction that participants know will benefit a charitable LGBTQ organization. She said the last one held before the pandemic hiatus in 2019 raised about $16,000.

This year’s recipient will be the local organization HIPS, which states on its website that it “promotes the health, rights, and dignity of individuals and communities impacted” by sex work and drug use through “compassionate harm reduction services, advocacy, and community engagement.”

For most of its years since its founding, according to Collins, Scarlet’s Bake Sale took place at the D.C. Eagle, the iconic gay leather bar before the Eagle closed its doors, like all other bars, during the peak of the COVID pandemic. Due to the sale of its building, the Eagle announced in 2020 it would not reopen. Collins said the Crucible succeeded the Eagle in becoming the host for the bake sale.

She said many participants and cake donors are from the leather community, including several longtime motorcycle clubs.

“Our organization is small and it’s volunteer run,” said Collins about the Scarlet’s Foundation. “The proceeds of the bake sale have always been donated to an organization in the DMV area that supports LGBTQIA+ populations,” she said. Among them, she said, have been the former LGBTQ charitable group Brother Help Thyself, SMYAL, and Casa Ruby before it ceased operating.

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