Inspiring Others to Smile, One Cookie at a Time
By Katie Chatham
Mandy Burton lost her sight at twenty-six. Now, three decades later, as the owner of Blind Faith Bakery in Prescott, she has found her passion.
Thirty years ago, she was teaching fitness and personal training in Sacramento when she lost her vision. This came with challenges, but she was determined not to let those challenges set her back. In fact, although she’d taught personal fitness classes and helped people set and achieve fitness goals during the 1980s and 1990s, it wasn’t until after losing her vision that she became a certified Personal Trainer in 2013.
She said learning anatomy, and being physiology blind, was “one of the most difficult things I have ever done.”
When Mandy and her husband moved to Prescott in 2016, she spent some time learning a new way of operating life—and then she decided to start a small bakery to supplement their income—and buy Christmas gifts for her grandchildren.
She’d always loved making baked goods, and in 2017, she opened Blind Faith Bakery.
“After being a PT, I moved over to the dark side,” she said. “Sugar!”
Named aptly for her faith and determination, Blind Faith Bakery has become Mandy’s sole focus and drive today. She feels that it is so important to have something to do, a reason to get up in the morning.
“Despite challenges,” she said, “I can do anything, as long as I try hard enough. If I can dream it, I can do it.”
Her greatest challenges today include not being able to drive, and desperately missing reading books in print.
Still, she said, “Technology has changed my entire life!”
She listens to almost everything, rather than reading. In the rest of her life, too, she’s had to learn to rely on all of her other senses (for example, she feels for a change in the air to know when she is walking through a doorway).
When it comes to baking, her sense of smell is her most reliable sense.
“I’ll know if it’s burning!” she said, adding, “The hardest thing for me is accepting that I can’t do everything that I used to when I could see. It’s going to take me 3-5 times longer because I’m dancing in the dark.”
Despite all of that, these things have become simply a part of life for Mandy, who takes great pride in her work.
She notes that her personal favorites are her persimmons and peanut brittle, both of which come from her grandmother’s original recipe.
“Those are my favorite because I know they make people smile. I am in the business of making people smile.”
Mandy has found her calling in doing just that.
Blind Faith Bakery makes local deliveries, and does mail orders anywhere from California to North Carolina and beyond! She offers gluten-free and sugar-free options. With the holidays just around the corner, she is excited to see her sweet treats bring about so many smiles!
To get in touch with Mandy at Blind Faith Bakery or to make an order, visit her website www.blindfaithbakery.com, email her [email protected], or call her at 916.882.3832.