December 25, 2024

Fort Myers Publix Employee Doesn’t Let Hurricane Ian Stop Her From Making 3-Year-Old’s Birthday Cake

happy birthday ian #happybirthdayian

Publix Birthday Cake Hurricane Ian

Caroline Rollins

A Publix employee made magic happen for a little girl whose third birthday was threatened by Hurricane Ian last week.

Natasha, a baker at the Publix location in the Sky Walk Shopping Plaza in hard-hit Fort Myers, pulled out all the stops to make sure Caroline Rollins’ daughter Anna had a cake for her third birthday this past Sunday.

In a now-viral Facebook post, Rollins recalled inquiring about a birthday cake for Anna on Friday— just two days after “the worst hurricane this side of Florida has ever seen.”

“I knew it wasn’t likely and honestly it would take a miracle to get a cake,” she wrote. “I went to the counter and the workers mentioned that they hadn’t gotten any supplies so most likely it wouldn’t happen.”

Rollins said she thanked them and continued shopping. Then, about five minutes later, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“One of the women (who I learned later is Natasha ) told me that in her culture, ‘it isn’t a birthday without cake!’ and she checked and found some supplies to bake Anna a third birthday cake.”

On Sunday, mother and daughter returned to pick up the cake.

“Natasha was beaming, Anna was happy tapping, and I was near tears! Talk about an above and beyond moment,” Rollins wrote. “Natasha went out of her way to make sure Anna had the perfect day even in the middle of rebuilding our decimated community. Thank you Natasha, thank you Publix.”

How sweet is that?

Leave a Reply