Marketplace Foods, Minot, N.D., held a decorated cake auction last month, which raised more than $5,400 for the Minot Hospital Cancer Unit during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Marketplace Foods' cake department is renowned for its promotional events and has been awarded the MasterMarketer Award by the city of Minot two years in a row.

“This year I wanted to make it bigger and better, since we have two co-workers that have recently fought breast cancer,” said Nyla Stromberg, Marketplace Foods' cake department manager.

The supermarket invited area businesses to decorate half-sheet pink cakes that would be auctioned off to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. Representatives from 32 businesses had a half hour to decorate the cakes and were encouraged to add incentives and promotional items from their business to help boost auction bids. A professional auctioneer directed the auction, which drew as much as $525 for one of the cakes.

Marketplace employees dressed in special pink shirts, all store departments were decorated in pink and booths were set up throughout the store displaying information for the public about cancer. But, the cake department housed the action of amateur cake decorating and the live auction.

“We even had rodeo bull fighters decorating cakes, and our store was full of people who want to be involved again next year,” Stromberg said.