Our Story
Gracie’s sweet treats was officially set up in July 2019 even though the name was not chosen until a couple months later. Mandy joined up with our sister site Southeast Tunerz and began making hampers to raffle off to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society. These hampers and prizes ranged from Chocolate Bouquets, Valeting Products from Meguiar’s, Autoglym, Auto Finesse and Quantum, to Tool Kits, Dash Cams and Champagne and Chocolate Hampers. Whenever Southeast Tunerz had a car meet, Mandy would put together a selection of hampers, and they all went down a treat on the night as prize giveaways for the raffle.
Raising just over £1300 in 2019 after doing a Half Marathon Memory Walk (13 miles) for the Alzheimer’s Society dedicated to her mother in law, Mandy along with her partner wanted to continue raising funds, and Southeast Tunerz was a great team to join. With her partners love for cars and Mandy’s skill at creating and putting together great prizes the journey began.
As most of you will know, three months into the year 2020 things changed for the world, as we all now had COVID-19/Coronavirus to deal with, and this put a halt to people meeting up together. Southeast Tunerz made the right decision and followed government guidelines which restricted any form of gathering, but as a team, Southeast Tunerz decided to continue doing the raffles online using their Social Media platforms. In the first wave lockdown, we managed to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society and put smiles on the faces of adults and children throughout London and the surrounding areas.
The design and care Mandy put into her hampers and prizes, and Southeast Tunerz constantly raising money for such a great cause, touch the hearts of many and more people locally and online started requesting Mandy to make Chocolate Bouquets and Hampers for them to also raffle off, or give to family members, kids, or loved ones for Birthdays, Easter, Halloween, Christmas or any special occasion.
This was the start and the next level for Gracie’s Sweet Treats to now take on, and today we are proud to be able through our website to offer our services to everyone. If you don’t know, Southeast Tunerz is a Car Club, that was also set up in July 2018, and by September 2019 won an award at Brands Hatch Car Show Tunerfest for the best Club Stand. Working with so much positive people has been a great benefit to everyone, and supporting the Alzheimer’s Society will be both Southeast Tunerz and Gracie’s Sweet Treats first priority, making people more aware of Alzheimer’s, Dementia and Mental Health.
Mandy chose the name Gracie’s Sweet Treats to honour her Mother in Law, Ms Grace Winola Bowen. Grace originally Born in St Peters, Barbados, to Arthur and Estherline Bowen, came to London as a teenager and was the back bone of her family, growing up with her older brother Alfred Bowen and younger Sister Mary Bowen. Loving and caring to all, in Grace’s days the best place to get sweets was from Woolworths, and every Sunday without fail her front room table would be full of sweets for her son Patrick and his friends to eat while they played games or watched TV not to mention some great tasting West Indian food. Grace loved cooking and making cakes, and would sometimes cook food for parties and other events. At Christmas time her work colleagues could not wait to get their hands on her food or her rum cake, with some making orders for their very own portion. I always said to Grace she should have opened her own shop, but she done it, as she liked to make people smile, and a full stomach has that effect.
Grace always put her family first and would do anything for her family as well as her friends. All of her son’s friends called her Mum and she was always laughing and joking with everyone.
In 2015 at the age of 60, Grace was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but she had spent the previous years looking after her parents who also had this condition. By August 2019, Grace’s Alzheimer’s had progressed rapidly and she had now lost everything she had worked so hard for. Today and even with Alzheimer’s, Grace is still always smiling, laughing and joking. She still loves her food, especially a sweet treat.
Most of the members in Southeast Tunerz, have had grandparents, parents and other love ones who are living with Alzheimer’s/Dementia or Mental Health or have passed away from these conditions.
We are proud that Southeast Tunerz and Gracie’s Sweet Treats has been set up as something we all love to do in our spare time as a hobby, away from the pressures of the real world, that great escape.
We are glad that through Gracie’s Sweet Treats we can put a smile on loads of faces as Grace done in her community for 40 years, as no matter how bad things get in our life’s, everybody loves a sweet treat, and we are here to provide you that great service with Gracie’s Sweet Treats.