The staff at Watters Financial have fun while they support a great cause. In this photo, the group celebrated Betty White’s birthday and take part in the #Betty White Challenge. Left to right are: Patricia Guy, Henriet Pemberton, Kyle Gregg, Sherry Durocher, Liz Sharpley, Libby Pelkey, Erika Hilton, Angela Cotton and, Wolfgang front and centre. Courtesy Photo

WINCHESTER – Local businesses like Watters Financial like to support what they love and the staff at Watters Financial in Winchester all love animals.

After actress Betty White, an avid animal lover passed away on New Year’s Eve, the staff at Watters Financial decided to take part in the #Betty White Challenge.

White had been involved in the American Humane Society for the past 60 years.

The Ottawa Humane Society took up the challenge.

Sherry Durocher, the marketing coordinator for Watters Financial said, “I saw the #Betty White Challenge was trending all over social media. Betty White was a huge animal lover and advocate for animal causes, so the challenge asked people to give just $5 to their local animal shelter or rescue in her name on Jan. 17, the day which would have been her 100th Birthday.

When I saw this, I knew it would be something the team at Watters Financial would love to participate in and make a fun event out of it. We are huge animal lovers and even have our own furry office colleague, Wolfgang, who works right in the office with us.”

The group had the idea of having a special cake made honouring Betty White.

I contacted Jody Beaudry at Frostings who has made a number of fabulous cakes for my family in the past and told her what we needed. She came up with the idea for the cake and created the amazing bust of Betty White.”

Even though she had died a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday, the group at Watters wanted to celebrate it anyway with a birthday cake.

“We decorated, prepared Betty’s favourite food (hot dogs, of course) and enjoyed the delicious cake. We chose the Big Sky Ranch Animal Sanctuary in Kemptville to donate to,” said Durocher.

“For the past number of years, we have participated in the National Cupcake Day in support of SPCAs and Humane Societies, which is usually held in the month of February. The idea is to bake cupcakes and sell them to raise money for the SPCA, but we would bake them, and deliver them to local offices, schools, etc. and we make a donation to the SPCA ourselves rather than sell them. It was a great way to spread the word about the cause. For the past two years we have been unable to do that due to Covid, so when we heard about the #Betty White Challenge, we knew that would be a great thing to do and we could still support an animal cause.”

Jody Beaudry has a cake baking business called Frostings in Embrun; she was more than happy to make the cake and take part in the challenge.

“I am the one that created the cake but I am not the one to take credit for coming up with the idea. It was all Trevor Watters Financial,” she said.

“I do a lot of cakes for him and he asked me if I would mind doing a cake. It sounded like such a cool project,” said Beaudry.

The cake also has a picture of their office dog Wolfgang.

Beaudry will take on just about any cake project. She likes to make cakes that will have a special meaning for the people that will get them.

“You have to love what you do and be artistic as well,” said Beaudry.

“I enjoy painting and sculpting and creating, and so, I put it all into what I do. I make anything from sugar cookies to cupcakes to cakes. Anything and everything to do with any kind of celebration you are into,” she said.

She explained that anyone can get a cake at the grocery store.

“They are wonderful, but I want to give you that ‘wow’ factor.”

The #Betty White Challenge resulted in a social media trend that raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Ottawa Humane Society.