The past Labor Day weekend, the Cookie Brigade raised money at PAX West in Seattle. This was our second time having a booth on the show floor, and we made good use of that space; bringing thousands of cookies, pins, plushies and new interactive booth elements to the show. We had a great booth location in the middle of Tabletop in the Summit building and were right near some of our favorite partners’ booths. We had a great time interacting with brigade supporters and cookie enthusiasts from around the world, and with your help, we were able to raise a record-breaking $64,000 for charity, surpassing our previous most successful PAX West by over $20,000.
Pins
We had several new pins available at this PAX West: the Cookie Druid made its first US appearance, having been unveiled at PAX Australia last year. The long-awaited Cookie Necromancer pin also made its first appearance at a convention. We also unveiled the Cookie Rogue as this show’s Pinny Arcade pin, which features two separate pin sections connected by a chain. All three of these pins will be available at future shows while supplies last.
Pin sales are one of the primary ways that we fund our operations throughout the year. Whether it’s paying for thousands of cookies each PAX, booth space, merchandise, interactive elements, or other fun projects, we couldn’t continue what we do without the support of attendees who buy our pins. We can’t wait to show off what we’re planning for this year’s PAX Unplugged!
Interactive Booth Elements
We always try to have a fun interactive booth element for the different shows that we do throughout the year. Since we were unveiling the Cookie Rogue pin for this PAX West, we thought it would be fitting to bring in claw machines, so our booth visitors can try their hand at “stealing from the cookie jar” to get a variety of prizes, ranging from small toys to larger plushies and games.
This was one of our most successful interactive booth elements that we’ve ever done, and we’re super happy to see our community and booth visitors enjoying a booth element, while also raising money for charity. We gave out hundreds of prizes over the course of the weekend, and couldn’t be happier with the turnout of the claw machines, and watching the fun people had while playing them.
Cookie Doe Plush
While plushies have been one of our most popular giveaway and prize item over the last several years, we realized that it was time for us to have our own plushie available! Over the past several months, we worked hard with Tasty Peach Studios to bring the Cookie Doe to life! The Cookie Doe was a big hit at PAX West this year, and will be available at future events as well.
Also at PAX West, we ran a giveaway for a cookie doe plushie, where attendees could visit our different social media accounts for a chance to win a plushie. We’re super happy with how many people participated, and are hoping to run similar giveaways at future events as well, to help people discover our socials, and get the Cookie Doe in more hands!
T-Shirt Campaign
This PAX West was our second show working with one of our favorite partners, Take This. We had partnered with Take This at this year’s PAX East to supply their volunteers with cookies and spread information about each of our missions, but we deepened our partnership for this PAX West by collaborating on a brand new T-Shirt campaign, “It’s Okay to Crumble”, which emphasizes the importance of knowing when to ask for help, and that it’s okay to not be okay, while also raising money for both of our organizations.
This shirt was a huge hit at PAX West, and will be available for a limited time through October 18th on our online webstore.
Partners and Other Acknowledgements
We couldn’t have raised anywhere near as much money as we did at this PAX West without the help and support of our many partners.
Our cookie Partners are Feed Your Soul Bakery, CookieMom’s Cookies, and our new gluten-free cookie partner for PAX West, WOW Baking Company, who very generously donated gluten-free cookies for this event. Our cookie partners’ delicious cookies are at the core of our presence at PAX and other events, and we’re thrilled to be able to continue providing cookies for attendees to raise money for charity, year after year.
We’d also like to thank Tasty Peach Studios for helping us bring the Cookie Doe plushie to life, and Take This for their partnership on the It’s Okay to Crumble T-shirt campaign, and promotional assistance throughout the entire show.
Our friends at Nomnivore Games are always amazing partners in promotion, creative collaboration, and just being great convention friends at every event we do.
We’d also like to thank our partners at The Storyteller Squad for fun and successful first co-promotion at this event. We can’t wait to see and work with you at future events!
We’re extremely fortunate to have a fantastic team of volunteers at each event, to staff our booth and help us with various tasks around each convention. We had an amazing group of volunteers for this PAX West, and we absolutely would not have been able to have a booth or any PAX presence without them. Our charity is 100% volunteer-run, and we could not do what we do without you all! If you want to get involved with the Cookie Brigade at a future event, you can do so here.
And lastly and most importantly, we’d like to thank you! We rely on community members to help us raise money for charity by getting cookies at events, as well as support our merchandise and other fundraisers to help us be able to continue providing fun and community-focused fundraising efforts at other events. It’s through your generous support that we’re continually able to do what we do. Thank you, and see you at PAX Unplugged!