Incomplete design on specialty cake order leads to controversy on social media - KWCH

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A photo posted on Facebook this week shows a cake purchased at Wichita’s Costco store for a law-enforcement appreciation event. That cake appears without the blue line on the flag and omits the word “Blue” from the pro-law-enforcement slogan, “Back the Blue.”

Wednesday, Eyewitness News spoke with the woman who ordered cakes for the event. She is asking for people to be forgiving and to focus on the sheriff’s office they wanted to serve.

Set up in the Sedgwick County Jail lobby, the Kansas Bail Agents Association wanted to say “thank you” to the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office by providing food for its employees.

“Show our appreciation for them and all the hard work that they do,” said Sara Recheck, representing Owens Bonding in the Kansas Bail Agents Association.

The focus of the event shifted to the dessert following the photo of the cake shared on Facebook.

“What was supposed to be a wonderful, uplifting, (encouragement) to our Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office has been tainted,” Recheck said.

This all began when Recheck went to Costco to purchase 10 sheet cakes for the law-enforcement appreciation event at the Sedgwick County Jail. She asked that those cakes include the American flag with a blue line through it and the words, “Back the Blue.” She said a store employee told her they couldn’t include the blue line or the word “Blue.” She said the store was also hesitant with her request to make the flag in the design black and white.

“(The employee) says, ‘well, I’m just trying to stay neutral. I’m trying to accommodate both sides of it,'” Recheck said. So I asked her, ‘how are you accomodating my side at all?’ She said she would get the managers."

Recheck said while she was disappointed, the arrangement they agreed to was to decorate the cake with the gray and white flag and then the store would provide blue frosting for the Kansas Bail Agents Association to add the rest (the blue line and the word “Blue” in “Back the Blue").

While setting up for the event at the jail, Recheck said someone who wasn’t with the association saw the cakes and asked what happened. From there, it turned into a Facebook post that generated a strong reaction. Recheck said Costco reached out to her a couple of times on Wednesday and has apologized.

“Told me in the future she would be more accomodating to law enforcement and apologized deeply. It’s just unfortunate it had to come about,” Recheck said.

She said she’s asking people to be forgiving and to instead focus on supporting the sheriff’s office.

Eyewitness News also reached out to Costco, both the local store and corporate. The company has not released an official statement, but a representative of the local store explained that they only make cakes based on specific templates and try to avoid using designs that could be seen as carrying a political message.

Let's block ads! (Why?)