Jeanette Bolden-Pickens’ legacy needs to be strong gold. She received a gold medal for the US as a sprinter within the 1984 Olympic Video games, a victory for the house workforce.
Bolden-Pickens struck gold on the monitor on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. From there, head east on Martin Luther King Boulevard, then flip north on Central Avenue till reaching the nook of twenty seventh Road. The drive takes about 10 minutes, and it takes Bolden-Pickens again to her childhood.
She grew up on the 27th Street Bakery. Her grandparents bought baked items within the entrance of the shop and lived within the again. If she was not in class or on the monitor, you possibly can discover her on the bakery.
The bakery opened in 1956, two years earlier than the Dodgers arrived in Los Angeles, 4 years earlier than the Lakers. It’s nonetheless there, and nonetheless within the household, with an internet site that embraces a distinct sort of legacy.
“What’s your loved ones legacy?” the web site asks. “Ours is making Do-it-yourself Candy Potato Pies!”
After 24 years coaching at UCLA — her alma mater — and Central Florida, Bolden-Pickens now’s a third-generation proprietor of the beloved bakery, faithfully producing peach cobbler, pink velvet cake, pecan pie and the signature candy potato pie.
Her mom, Alberta, was identified within the neighborhood as “the pie girl.” Bolden-Pickens, 61, is coaching a fourth era of household bakers.
“It’s actually a godsend to have the bakery in our household for such a very long time,” she stated. “I’ve a grandson, and he’ll be the fifth era. We’re actually attempting to ensure it stays alive.”
Jeanette Bolden races on the The Instances Indoor Video games on the Discussion board in February 1986.
The NFL might present an help. With the Tremendous Bowl scheduled for SoFi Stadium subsequent 12 months, Bolden-Pickens has signed up for a league program established to advertise variety amongst companies bidding for a share of the company {dollars} surrounding the sport.
The Business Connect program, administered regionally by the Los Angeles Sports activities and Leisure Fee (LASEC), hyperlinks small corporations owned by minorities, girls, veterans and members of the LGBTQ group with Tremendous Bowl enterprise alternatives — in a roundabout way with the NFL, however by means of occasions related to the sport.
For example, a VIP celebration would possibly want meals, drinks, leisure, tables, chairs, tents and staffing. Bolden might pitch the celebration planners on pie.
“You possibly can go to the Tremendous Bowl and have your sizzling canine and your cotton sweet,” Bolden-Pickens stated. “However most of us are going to go over to the road with the barbecue and the big turkey drumsticks. Turkey drumsticks and barbecue don’t go together with cotton sweet. Pie goes. And what sort of pie? Candy potato pie.”
Pitching pies is a bit of cake for Jeanette Bolden-Pickens, who was the top coach of the U.S. girls’s monitor and subject workforce on the 2008 Olympics.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Instances)
LASEC president Kathryn Schloessman stated her group plans to create an identical program for main occasions headed to city this decade. That calendar consists of the 2022 baseball All-Star Sport at Dodger Stadium, the 2023 nationwide school soccer championship sport at Sofi Stadium, the 2023 U.S. Open golf match at Los Angeles Nation Membership, and the 2028 Olympic Video games.
“This isn’t a one-and-done for us,” she stated.
The Enterprise Join program offers publicity, networking and coaching. Neither the NFL nor the LASEC guarantees that corporations chosen for this system really will generate enterprise from it.
“We are able to put you within the room with the proper folks,” Schloessman stated. “We are able to’t assure you enterprise.”
Jeanette Bolden-Pickens, left, delivers pies order to Clarence Ellis, a longtime buyer from Sylmar.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Instances)
In these pandemic occasions, Bolden-Pickens wants all of the alternatives she will be able to discover. Her bakery delivers to mom-and-pop eating places, and people orders dried up as folks stopped consuming out. She needed to lay off some staff and scale back hours for others. She partnered with supply companies like DoorDash and GrubHub, and arrange a curbside pickup space.
“What will we do once we’re all at dwelling?” she stated, laughing. “We eat!”
Public talking comes simply to Bolden-Pickens. She was the top coach of the U.S. girls’s monitor and subject workforce within the 2008 Olympics. As a school coach for 2 dozen years, recruiting comes simply, too.
However pitching pies in a pandemic presents a peculiar downside. In particular person, she will be able to hook potential clients with a style of pie. On a Zoom pitch, all she will be able to do is maintain up a pie and throw out speaking factors.
Absolutely, she is going to discuss concerning the distinction between pumpkin pie and candy potato pie.
“Candy potato pie,” she stated, “is like having slightly bit extra of an angle.”
For info, go to the Tremendous Bowl Enterprise Join website.
