Batter Up! Sugar Showdown Serves Up Frosting and Fundraising

Carrie Jones

Feb 16, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.

---

BAR HARBOR—By the time you stepped in out of the wind to head into the Sugar Showdown, your cheeks tingled and, if you’d parked half in a snowbank, your boots were damp clear through; it was the kind of February chill that rises gently from the Maine coast and lingers just long enough to remind you that you’re alive.

Outside the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel, the harbor lay deep blue and stubborn. Inside, at long folding tables dressed up and gorgeous, there were red velvet crumbs and almond slivers and cakes standing tall and proud as courthouse columns. Plus, it was Valentine’s Day.

It would’ve been easier to stay home.

But people didn’t.

They came, one after another. Some carried sheet pans wrapped in foil, Tupperware heavy with frosting, tiered stands balanced as carefully as parents hold newborns. They came with flour on their sleeves and stories on their tongues. They came because the Mount Desert Island community loves this event, and because loving something, around here, usually means you show up for it.

Volunteers, Island Connection employees and board members, as well as hotel staff hauled tables into order. Lights were strung and a donated room at the Atlantic Oceanside morphed into something lovely. Bakers had already stirred and baked and piped and hoped over their creations, not just for glory, but for the simple, stubborn pleasure of feeding one another and helping an agency that helps the community every single day.

And if you stood still long enough by any one of those tables laden with treates, you could hear it—the low, steady murmur of kindness.

“Those are so cute.”

“These are so good.”

“Try these. You’ve got to try these.”

In a season when the sky hangs low and the headlines often hang even lower, Island Connections’ Sugar Showdown wasn’t loud or flashy or angry about anything at all. It was sugar and butter and neighbor meeting neighbor. It was a room full of people deciding, together, that even in the hardest middle of winter, there ought to be something sweet eaten and celebrated.

“This community loves this event,” said one of the event judges, Lori Bartlett last year.

It’s true and every year there is a lot to love.

Table after table offered up selections to sample with some intended to be show stoppers.

The event didn’t happen because it was easy. It happened because folks showed up. It happened because in the long, hard middle of a Maine winter, when the sky sits low and the wind often comes knifing off the water, people decided not to stay home.

They brought their hands and their know-how.

They made a small kind of miracle, the way ordinary people do, quietly and generously, feeding each other, clapping for each other, proving that even in the coldest season, there’s still heat and happiness to be found if you’re willing. They were willing.

“We are once again so incredibly appreciative of all of the bakers who joined us this year and made this such a scrumptious event, we couldn’t do this without them!” said Island Connections Executive Director Carissa Tinker. “There are so many people to thank for helping make this event possible.”

Stand by a table and you’d hear the murmurs of praise.

“Try these. Try these! They are awesome.”

“Wow. You’re talented.”

“These. Are. Incredible. So. Incredible.”

In a world where local and national politics often only speak in polarities, events like the Sugar Showdown illustrate something entirely different than the loudest social media posts and newspaper headlines.

It illustrates what a community actually is.

It’s this: It’s generosity. It’s meeting each other. It’s making acquaintances into friends. It’s praise. It’s delicious treats. It’s coming out of a cold Maine February day and into a place of warmth.

The voices rose up over the scrape of boots and the murmur of heaters and cell phone notifications, not loud, not showy, just earnest: the kind of praise that costs nothing and means everything.

“Last year was a record year for Island Connections, we coordinated 150 more rides to grocery shopping and medical appointments than ever before, and the support we see at events like the Sugar Showdown reminds us just how much this community shows up for one another. We want to keep showing up for our neighbors all year long, so our need for volunteers right now is critical,” Tinker said.

In a time when the conversations—local and national both—so often comes sharpened at the edges, carved into sides and camps and corners, a gathering like the Sugar Showdown says something quieter and truer.

It doesn’t argue. It doesn’t posture. It doesn’t trend. It doesn’t insult. It simply shows you what a community is and how it shows up for each other.

The Sugar Showdown is generosity formed as delicious treats passed hand to hand before those treats are happily devoured and shared. It is strangers leaning close over paper plates full of sugary morsels and leaving as something closer to friends. It is sugar and butter and flour (or gluten-free ingredients) made almost holy by kind effort. It is stepping in out of a hard Maine February, weary, and finding in the bright hum of a crowded room a warmth that has nothing to do with the thermostat and everything to do with their neighbors.

“This event is all about spreading love just like our volunteers do year-round, so there’s no better time than right before Valentine’s Day!” said Island Connections Executive Director Carissa Tinker previously. “Winter in Maine can feel isolating and dreary, so it is exciting to hold an event that not only brings some spring colors into the darkness of winter, but also allows our year-round community to come together.”

Island Connections, a nonprofit that “provides free transportation and other services to seniors and people with disabilities from MDI and the surrounding islands” usually focuses on connecting volunteers with people who need rides and services.

But a couple of times a year, Island Connections becomes a connecting moment for community in a much bigger way. The Sugar Showdown, which is only in its third year, brought many to the Atlantic Oceanside on February 14 to help raise funds for the organization.

Founded in 1997, Island Connections transports seniors and people with disabilities. It also provides grocery shopping and other services as well as delivers Meals on Wheels. Each year, it coordinates over 5,500 rides. Volunteers give those rides. Neighbors help neighbors. And donors help keep it going by funding the vital service.

The demand is there. And it’s growing. But the nonprofit always needs volunteers to meet that increasing need. The Sugar Showdown helps bring in money and also raise awareness of the organization, too.

“We are so grateful for all of the time and effort that the bakers put into this event. We couldn’t have a Sugar Showdown without them, and it’s just such a fun way to bring the community together. We love this event because we get to use all of the spring colors during a time of year that is normally dark and dreary—bringing joy to our year round community brings us joy in return,” Tinker said last year.

---

HOW IT WORKS

People purchased tickets to taste the treats. The public votes chose which three sweets from each category went to the judging round, and then the judges chose which of those received first, second, and third places. The judges chose the Most Dazzling Cake Award on their own with no weight on the public votes, and the Community Choice Award is the one with the most public votes.

Cakes in the showstopper category were raffled.

The event space and charcuterie were generously donated by Atlantic Oceanside, Tinker said. Tinker was grateful for that support and kindness as well. Bo Jennings emceed the event. Bar Harbor Savings & Loan was the event’s title sponsor. The judges were Lori Bartlett, Tasha Higgins, Emily Homer.

Atlantic Oceanside Hotel & Event Center, Star 97.7 and Bar Harbor/MDI Rotary Club, Bark Harbor, The Knowles Company, and Jordan-Fernald Funeral Home and Willis’ Rock Shop all sponsored the event with donations of services and prize packages from: A&B Naturals, Bark Harbor, Hidden Barn Books, Luxury Picnics Acadia, Memories In Focus, My Darling Maine Island Boutique, The Nor’Easter Pound & Market, Spruce & Gussy, The Flowered Apron, and Window Panes.

Bakers competed in three categories. The winners are included below.

Sweet Surprise

• 1st: Nanaimo Bars by Della Kiers
• 2nd: Two Taste Eclairs by Michelle Brzezowski
• 3rd: Signature Cinnamon Rolls by The Maine Crumb

Cookie Creations

• 1st: Ube Crinkle Cookies by Baked by Joy
• 2nd: Millionaire Shortbread by Kelly O’Laughlin
• 3rd: Taylor Swift Chai Cookies by Elizabeth Barnhart-Sweeney

Showstopper

• 1st: Hazelnut Bliss by Rylee Goller / Slice of Eden
• 2nd: The Enchanted Forest by Mary de Koning
• 3rd: Joyful by Carol Schaefer

Community Choice:

• Joyful by Carol Schaefer

Most Dazzling Cake:

• Memento Mori by Beyond Scraps of Flour

---

WASHBOARD REBELLION

One of the highlights of the event was Washboard Rebellion, a local band of rebels that’s recently been rocking locations all across Mount Desert Island.

The band bills itself as “a rebellious New England trad band, layin’ down fancy American folk, bluegrass, Celtic and country fiddle tunes. We play fiddle, washboard, uke, bass, guitar and keyboard.”

The band plays a lot and plays it well, creating a lively and lovely sound to the event.

---

LINKS TO LEARN MORE

Island Connections

Learn more about volunteering

Washboard Rebellion’s Facebook page and to watch a clip.

---

Follow us on Facebook or BlueSky or Instagram. And as a reminder, you can easily view all our past stories and press releases here.

Bar Harbor Story is a mostly reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks for being here with us and being part of our community too!