Here's How Pie Can Bring Someone Back to Life

It's not just dessert

“When somebody is in the depths of their addiction, you have lost them,” Jamie Buelt told me. “They’re not dead. But you have lost them.”

Jamie hopes that her homemade pies help find them.

(Dessert is served! Photo courtesy: Jamie Buelt)

It started with a request from a friend last year. The friend wanted a pie for her 92-year-old mother for Thanksgiving.

Let’s be honest: If you are fortunate enough to see your 92nd birthday, you deserve a high quality pie for the holidays. But not just any pie. Her mom wanted a sour cream raisin merengue pie.

“I can do that,” Jamie told her friend.

Jamie has made pies for years. She is well-known at the Iowa State Fair for her baking prowess and has been a pie lover since she was a kid. “Pie has always been my favorite dessert,” she said.

No one knew at the time that a sour cream raisin merengue pie would rise into this: “Buy a pie and dough nate.”

Jamie’s friend wanted to pay for the pie. “No,” Jamie said, that wasn’t necessary. But her friend insisted. So Jamie got an idea. What if her friend instead made a donation to a cause that meant a lot to Jamie, Bridges of Iowa?

The non-profit is a drug and alcohol addiction treatment and recovery facility in Des Moines. But it’s not a place that you check in for a month and then return to your life.

Most treatment programs may be similar to the one that Sandra Bullock’s character checked into in her movie, “28 Days,” in 2000. The problem is that many people don’t overcome their addiction in a month.

Most people stay in Bridges’ program for 9-12 months. It’s designed to not only help a person get “clean” but to also learn how to stay that way and provide for themselves financially.

Jamie’s friend decided to make a donation for $85. Why $85? The non-profit’s founder was turning 85. The founder is Don Lamberti, the same man who founded the Casey’s convenience stores. Over the years, he has donated millions of dollars to keep the operations going because of the personal importance: His late son, Tony, battled addiction.

Jamie turned that sour cream raisin merengue pie request into an end-of-the-year fundraiser for Bridges. Other friends also wanted pies. There were requests for apple, chocolate cream, pear blackberry, cherry, peach, lemon meringue, strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, mixed berry, maple pecan and pumpkin, too. 17 pie requests in all. Some people paid $85 for their pie; others paid far more.

(Jamie Buelt with one of her creations. Photo courtesy: Jamie Buelt.)

There’s now a second slice of this commitment. Jamie once again has her oven working overtime. The pies have gone up a buck. No, it’s not inflation. Don Lamberti turned 86.

Jamie isn’t back making pies for that friend who inspired this fundraiser last year. She isn’t doing it again for Don Lamberti either. Yes, she cares greatly about both of them. But this effort is even more personal. Jamie had a family member who struggled for a while with addiction. Bridges helped him defeat that addiction. Finally.

That’s why her pies are back this year. Because her family member came back. “When they’re going through Bridges, you are slowly getting them back…the person you knew they were all along.”   

I’m ordering a caramel apple. What will you have?

Use this link to order a pie and make your “dough-nation.”

Dave Price’s Perspective is part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, a group of independent journalists. Please check out the other writers.

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