This is part of a series that highlights young entrepreneurs, under 30 years of age, in Bourbon County. If you would like to nominate a young entrepreneur, submit to [email protected] the name and email/phone number of the person, along with why you are nominating them and your name.

Delynn Abati, 26, first dabbed in cake creating, that has become her livelihood, when she became engaged.

“When my husband and I got engaged, my parents sat us down and gave us a choice: they would give us a set amount of money to pay for our wedding OR we could pay for the wedding ourselves and they would give us a bigger gift on our wedding day,” Abati said.

“We decided we’d give the second option a try,” she said. “As I planned our wedding, I saved money wherever I could, somehow we managed to do that without sacrificing anything we really wanted.”

“I decided I’d use that year to learn how to make my own wedding cake,” she said. “It wasn’t a perfect cake. There are some birthday cakes that I do now that look better than our wedding cake looked, but it was cool to be able to say I did it myself.”

She was married in 2018.

Once the wedding was over, she never stopped making cakes.

Out of that challenge by her parents, came  For Goodness Cakes, offering custom cakes, cupcakes, cake truffles, cake pops, and French Macarons. 

“I started selling cakes originally, as a way to gain funds to go back to school,” Abati said. “The more cakes I did, however, the more I just wanted to do cakes… So I made a business of it.”

The business was technically formed on January 1, 2019.

“I did cakes informally for about six months before I started calling it a business,” Abati said. “I wanted to make sure I had a good chance of at least breaking even before I threw everything I had into this business.”

Abati works from home at her bakery business.

“I work out of my home for now,” she said. “I do not have any plans of moving my operation any time soon but that option is also always in the back of my mind.”

She loves creating and working from home.

“I have always loved creating so it’s great to be able to use my hands to create new things every day,” Abati said.  “The part that I love about owning my own business is that I get to create my own hours. I am a night owl so most days of the week you’ll find me baking in my kitchen or making cake videos in my living room at 2 a.m. People think I’m crazy but I come alive at about 8 p.m. every evening. It’s great to be able to do something I love, at such a peaceful time of day.”

Abati is the only paid employee of her home business.

“It’s just me right now.,” she said. “My husband, Tony Abati; mom, Amy Drake, and mother-in-law, Sandy Abati, are always willing to help and have jumped in several times to help me deliver, set up, or sometimes even finish decorating things. I’m lucky to have them! I couldn’t do it 100% on my own.”

Recently, Abati started offering new products and services.

“Thursday, August 15th, I released a lot of new changes to FGC,” she said. “The most exciting of which, in my opinion, is the fact that I am now offering French Macarons and I am introducing a cake cutting service. The rest of the changes are listed in a Facebook and Instagram post on my page @ForGoodnessCakesFS.”

Abati’s contact info:

Call or text: 6207041315 (texts preferred for orders)

Facebook and Instagram: @ForGoodnessCakesFS

Fort Scott Washateria,  a new state of the art laundry center, will open Sept. 7 instead of mid-August as originally planned, said manager Lori Lovelace.

But this Thursday on Aug. 15 at 6 p.m. she and her mother Carol Oakleaf, who is the owner of the business, will be having an organizational meeting for a Fort Scott Community Closet Association.

Volunteers are needed to be board members for the new philanthropic organization.

“We will collect clothing donations to distribute to those in need in the community,” Lovelace said.

“We’d like to get people who have worked at the Beacon,” she said. The Beacon is a helping agency who recently quit handling clothing distributions.

“We will need people to set the hours to be open, the qualifications for receiving donations and other needed decisions,” Lovelace said.

She and her mother will be on the board, but others are needed.

Their church, Hammond United Methodist, is a sponsor of the clothing distribution association.

Lovelace and Oakleaf have worked to attain a 501 (c)3 and a Federal Tax ID for the association, she said.

“The broader the organizational experience, the better it will be,” Lovelace said.

Volunteers are also needed to help with the distribution of clothes to those in need.

“We will launder donated clothing, and clothing will be sorted and stored in the grey shed, just north of the laundry facility,” Lovelace said.

Washateria Grand Opening Sept. 7

The laundry center’s opening has been pushed into September because of the death of an employee of  Laundry Solutions, that sold them all the machines, Lovelace said.

That business has been Speed Queen Distributor of the Year three times in the last six years, she said.

Some of the larger capacity machines will take bedding comforters and dog beds, Lovelace said.

They will have a “soft opening” of the laundry mat around Labor Day.

She will put a sign in the window to indicate the preliminary opening.

Two people have been hired and the hours of operation of the laundry mat will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.

Home delivery service will be provided as well, if needed.

For more information: [email protected] or call Lovelace at 620-215-1314.