Some people are into oozing, chocolate centers. Others would do anything for a good draft pour. One team heads to the bakery and the other the brewery, but not this time. On Saturday, March 10 from noon to 3:00 p.m, Dangerous Man Brewing will host High Five Bakery, merging beer, blondies and high fives together.

 

In case you need an excuse to go drink beer and eat sweets, 10% of the proceeds from the bakery sales will go to Courage Center to support adaptive sports for special needs athletes, which is a cause close to home for the father-son pair in the kitchen: Bill Koch and Frankie Lennander.

 

“They train volunteers to be excellent coaches and encourage these amazing athletes to do everything they can,” Koch, the father of the duo, said. “[Lennander] has skied with them for 3 years and loves it. We also did adaptive water skiing with them last year — it was a blast! We’re proud to support them and all the adaptive programs they provide.”

 

It was around the same time when Lennander started in the kitchen too, though it wasn’t for business then.

 

“He’s helped with Christmas cookies for a few years, then we just started baking more and enjoying the results. Now [Lennander] also enjoys the other aspects of the business — packaging, writing names on the bags and of course giving high-fives when people pick up their orders or attend events!”

 

Lennander had always been interested in the work happening in the kitchen, according to Koch, and baking together gave Koch a way to bring him into the action.

 

“Plus, the incentive of making fresh cookies is motivating for both of us.”

 

That motivation lead to some new techniques to make baking more accessible for Lennander.

 

“I had to spend some time figuring out a way that he could visually see how a recipe works. So I adapted one of his apps on his iPad to tell the ‘story’ of a recipe. It’s an app that creates a slideshow with voiceover that you can use to share pictures and tell a story. I added in photos of each of the ingredients. [Lennander] can scan through the ingredients and then he finds them.”

 

That dedication of a parent has led to a confidence boost in Lennander and a business for them both.  The shift to selling their products came out of Koch’s background in marketing.

 

“Marketing our own business, playing by our own rules, was really exciting for me. I was intrigued by how other people have started businesses in the social media age just by building a social media presence and telling a story and building a brand over time.”

 

Through the support and help of friends, including the particular gift on Lennander’s 18th birthday of a professional logo and packaging materials, the hobby became a business.

 

That business has improve things in both their lives.

 

“It’s given him a lot more confidence,” Koch said of Lennander. “He’s more and more interested in helping around the kitchen…. I’ve adapted what he has for breakfast into things he can do himself [and] I’m not sure I would have made that leap, and broken out of our daily routines, without the experience of making cookies on a deadline for other people.”

 

Lennander, though he doesn’t say a word, is great at selling their wares at events like the one upcoming with Dangerous Man. By Mar. 10 he will have Oatmeal Stout Cookies and Butterscotch Bourbon Blondies to sell, high five included free of charge.