Hicksville's Sarah Grace Foundation Launches Bake-Less Cake Sale, School Supply Drive

HICKSVILLE, NY — The Sarah Grace Foundation for Children With Cancer has announced a pair of initiatives: its Sizzling Summer Bake-LESS Cake Sale and School Supply Drive.

As the school year ends, Matt and Marissa Weippert, along with their son, James, their board of directors, and dedicated volunteers, are working diligently to provide positive outlets for many families going through a cancer diagnosis.

The Sarah Grace Foundation was founded in 2003 and is named in honor of Sarah Grace Weippert, who died of leukemia in November 2002 at the age of 12.

The Hicksville-based not-for-profit corporation is dedicated to improving the quality of life of children with cancer and to provide comfort and support to the families of children suffering from cancer.

Despite the 2025 school year just ending, the foundation is already collecting school supplies for the upcoming school year.

"Many children with cancer cannot attend their regular schools due to severely compromised immune systems, but school supplies are still necessary for their home schooling or in-patient tutoring," Matt Weippert said. "There is a tremendous need for backpacks, notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, glue, pocket folders and more to provide for these children. Parents need to focus on caring for their sick child, and not about trying to provide the right supplies for the school year."

Supplies can be donated online by visiting the Sarah Grace Foundation website and following the school supply link. Locally, donations may be dropped off at Ray Leventhal Clothing, at 355 S. Oyster Bay Road, Plainview.

Over the summer, the foundation is again hosting its Sizzling Summer Bake-LESS Cake Sale.

"The concept is simple: Instead of firing up the oven to bake on a hot summer day, instead make a donation to the foundation for the value of what you would have baked — OR what you would have bought to donate to the sale," Matt Weippert said.

The benefit is "great and the calories are none," Weippert said. To a child with cancer, supporting this sale is delicious.

"The pediatric cancer centers we partner with depend on the services and assistance we can provide," Matt Weippert said. "We’ve always been in a position of 'not wanting to say no' when a referral comes, and this year, when so many were already struggling, we know we have to do all we can to help these children and their families."

Fundraising events such as the current Bake-LESS Cake Sale, this past April’s Evening of Magic and the charity's annual November Holiday Extravaganza provide for the programs sponsored throughout the year, as well as end of year holiday gifts for children with cancer.

On the back end, Weippert discussed how the foundation is looking to improve its internal processes to allow supporters to interact easier with the organization.

Over the summer months, the foundation plans to update to its website to enable supporters to better understand what the foundation does and how important community support is to its mission, Matt Weippert said. The new website will provide better detail of programs the foundation sponsors as well as contain access to annual financial filings.

Never ones to be content with just their current efforts, Sarah Grace volunteers are already looking ahead to fall and preparing for the annual distribution of more than 500 Halloween goodie bags to the pediatric cancer centers they serve, as well as preparing for the annual Holiday Extravaganza raffle in November.

"We’ve met so many amazing people along our journey," Weippert said. "They have helped to shape and further Sarah’s mission. All of them have become a part of the foundation story, one that began
tragically but continues to create wonderful and healing moments for so many kids."

The Sarah Grace Foundation was started by parents Matt and Marissa Weippert of Hicksville. It is an
all-volunteer network of family, friends and loved ones whose mission is to provide child cancer sufferers with laughs, smiles or a momentary escape from the reality of daily cancer treatments.