A Tale of Two Kickstarters
By Shelby Nalepa
The reality is that big dreams sometimes have big price tags, which is where crowdfunding comes in. We think these two local Kickstarter campaigns deserve a nod and we want to make sure that they get the acknowledgment they deserve. So if a vegan bakery and a TV pilot sound like projects you can get behind, get ready to read more about them and consider helping them reach their goal.
Pretty Baked
Baker Melody Davis has been perfecting her vegan treats for the last 10 years and she’s ready to have a space of her own.
You may remember her sweets from Sluggo’s, but since they closed she’s been working on the first phase of Pretty Baked, a vegan bakery concept. She has started a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising $17,000 to cover all the costs that come with opening up the bakery.
“About 10 years ago I decided I wanted to open a vegan bakery,” Davis said.” I’d been working in local bakeries and restaurants from here to Atlanta. I had always talked about wanting to open a cafe type place. It is just the one thing I have always seen myself doing.”
Davis has been baking for 15 years and started teaching herself vegan baking when she couldn’t find anything sweet to eat in Pensacola.
“A lot of people are allergic to eggs and dairy products, so it’s not always a lifestyle choice,” she said. “There is nothing worse than your friends wanting to go get dessert and you can’t eat anything on the menu. With Pretty Baked, the entire menu will be vegan but so delicious your non-vegan friends won’t mind eating there.”
Davis’s Kickstarter will have two phases, the first to sell her baked goods wholesale to local restaurants and bakeries, and the second will be to eventually open her own storefront.
“I’m starting from scratch,” she said. “I work full-time and have fair credit, but there’s no way I could come up with this amount on my own. This first phase is to get me the building, equipment, license and insurance. The full $17,000 would go entirely into that.”
Davis said that once she starts selling wholesale, she will feel confident enough to be able to open a small storefront fairly quickly.
“Included in that amount is six months’ worth of rent so instead of focusing on coming up with that I can really just go full speed into letting people know Pretty Baked has arrived,” she said.
Davis’s baked goods, especially—her oatmeal “creme” pies which she calls Yeti Cakes—became popular at Sluggo’s.
“Not a day goes by where I don’t miss my little baking nook at Sluggo’s,” she said. “I have a small mixer and oven at home but it’s just not set up for mass production, so when I get large orders it’s a bit of an ordeal. I’m in the process of looking for a commercial kitchen to use until I can get my own space. I have a few I’ve been scoping out.”
Davis said that she hopes she can bring her baking to customers on a larger scale very soon.
“I can’t tell you how many times people have approached me out in public and literally asked ‘Aren’t you the girl that made those cookies at Sluggo’s? Do you have any on you?'” she said. “I actually met up with a guy a few times in a parking lot at like 5 a.m. and sold him Yeti Cakes. Whenever I have sold at a flea market or even when chizuko has them for sale people are so excited. It’s really an amazing feeling when something you create makes people so dang happy.”
As well as selling a wide variety of vegan cookies, cakes, puddings and ice creams, Davis said that the Pretty Baked future standalone store will offer vegan sandwiches and sides at an affordable price.
Davis has currently raised over $1,000 and the final day to pledge is March 1.
“Having seen the reactions from when I was baking at Sluggo’s and the way people freak out when I sell things at local markets confirms to me that this needs to happen,” she said. “For years I have been boring people with my day dreams of an arty community space, cat friendly bakery that has occasional shows and vegan food. Cases full of so many vegan desserts you’ll always have something new to try. This is my destiny. I have so much love I want to share with Pensacola, one cookie at a time.”
If you want to try a Yeti Cake before you donate, you’re in luck. Davis is hosting a fundraiser at chizuko on Saturday, Feb. 24. There will be bands, a cookie photo booth, treats for sale, information about the Kickstater and even some cookie raffles.
Kickstarter: “Pretty Baked”
Instagram: @pretty_baked_in_pensacola
Facebook: facebook.com/PrettyBakedinPensacola
Scam County
This Kickstarter campaign is raising money for the production of a thirty-minute sitcom pilot called “Scam County,” which tells the tale of three friends trying to ‘scam’ their way out of poverty.
“This project has actually been a very long time in the making with Aubrey Nichols, Michael Daw, and myself formulating and growing this tiny idea into a full world of colorful characters and extreme situations based on what we were seeing happening around us,” co-creator Grant Tyson said. “Aubrey passed away very suddenly and tragically several years ago, and we wanted to make sure we followed through on bringing our vision to life as a testament to his extremely hard work ethic creatively.”
The title is a play on words, short for Escambia County, and the show will spotlight some of the darker sides of Pensacola.
“Growing up in this particular part of the country has sure been interesting and everyone seems to make fun of Florida in particular,” Tyson said. “We feel that we’ve at least earned that right and most definitely are putting our own local and regional political issues in the spotlight. We definitely won’t be holding back.”
Along with “Hobo Prince” Jack Daw played by Michael Daw, and infamous conman Max Murphy played by Max Rowe, is Tyson’s character, Graham Tyson. Graham won big on a scratch off ticket in his late teens, blew it all on pot and frivolous spending and is now living with the consequences brought on by his refusal to pay taxes on his mega millions. He’s now “back where he started, dirt poor with zero experience in adulting.”
“These three main characters actually are representations, although extreme ones, of people you may find in this area,” Tyson said. “We took a lot of time with character development, so each one definitely has certain unique oddities. It’s just such a corrupt and unjust world that our characters are completely fed up with, they abandon their own moral code and slowly become what they always hated. It’s going to be really fun exploring this dark side of human nature in a comedic way.”
Tyson said that as they get further into future episodes, they are going to be playing with regional stereotypes and how vastly different types of people interact with each other.
“Everything is driven by money, as most things are,” Tyson said. “We want to show this in a very desperate way while keeping it fun. This show is definitely a comedy but it’s influenced by gangster, heist and con artist films with our characters eventually progressing through these different spectrums of crime and having to do some things they didn’t expect they would ever have to do.”
Director of Photography Chris Jadallah, Tyson said, takes the production of Scam County to the next level.
“When we met and started working with Chris and the Kitty Get A Job crew, we knew we were blessed with something special by finding an amazing group of fellow artists who realized the initial vision we had and are helping bring it to life,” Tyson said.
Tyson said that Michael Daw took the lead on the script, with himself, David Cooke, and Chris Jadallah working closely in weekly writers meetings over the last several months.
“Getting involved with Kitty Get A Job has been such a rewarding experience for me, and I know Daw would say the same,” Tyson said. “It’s amazing working with such talented folks, who all do it purely for the love of creating and keeping that dream alive despite there being no money involved. Having a minimal budget at least will help offset what we have already put into this.”
Tyson said that their goal of $5,000 is small for a television pilot budget, which will just cover the basics.
“Everyone is contributing a great deal of time and hard work for free,” Tyson said. “We need to at the very least be able to feed everyone on set, pay for props and costumes, cover post-production costs and get the finished pilot into as many film festivals as possible.”
Tyson said that contributing to this project is investing in a lot of talented people coming together to create something special. The last day to pledge is March 5.
“We have a stretch goal of $10,000 and anything beyond our initial goal is going towards paying our hardworking cast and crew,” he said.
Kickstarter and Facebook: “Scam County”
Instagram: @scamcounty
