Perhaps nothing on Earth is sweeter than pie. The only thing that might be sweeter than eating pie is using pie to make someone smile, which is what Sweet Briar’s business management lab students did at Pie-A-Senior, a fundraiser for Operation Smile.

Headquartered in Norfolk, Va., Operation Smile is a medical charity that corrects facial deformities, particularly cleft lips and palates, in children all over the world. Last year alone, its volunteers performed nearly 11,000 surgeries in 51 countries. Each surgery costs $240.

On Thursday, Oct. 15, Prothro dining room was pie central. Tins of whipped cream, donated by Sweet Briar’s dining services, were readied to be smashed in the faces of willing victims. Thirty-five seniors, nominated by their classmates, staff and faculty, stood waiting to be “pied” for a good cause.

Sweet Briar senior Melissa Ramos, complete with pearls, prepares to be “pied.”Some of the victims … er, seniors … like Melissa Ramos — complete with a strand of pearls — draped themselves in plastic sheeting. Others, like Jasmine Jones, put shower caps on their heads. When asked if she was nervous about the imminent pie-ing, Jones said, “Yes, very much so.”

Last spring, the business management lab hosted “Pie-A-Professor,” a similar event that raised money for Amherst County Habitat For Humanity. “Some of the professors expressed a desire to get revenge on the seniors,” Tom Loftus, who teaches the lab, said, adding that the turnout for Pie-A-Senior was “huge.”

A list of nominated seniors was compiled earlier this month and a silent auction was held to bid on the right to pie the senior of your choice. Bids started at $5, and after the silent auction, two students — Jones and Maxine Emerich — were tied with a top bid of $20 each.

The tie was broken when event emcee Alexandra Herrera ’11 gave those in the audience the opportunity to outbid the winners. After reminding the winning bidders there would be “no throwing” and not to break anyone’s nose (“It should be fun, but don’t hurt them”), Herrera called each senior to the plastic-covered stage and played auctioneer.

Bidding was furious at times with some seniors going for $40 or more, and several times, the pie-er became the pie-ee, making the fundraiser look more like “Revenge of the Pied.” Whipped cream was everywhere.

Pie-A-Senior raised $576.02 for Operation Smile, enough for the organization to do more than two surgeries. The group had a goal to raise more than $350 — what Pie-A-Professor brought in last spring.

“The event went incredibly well because we surpassed our goals and everyone — those managing the event, the audience, the seniors being pied and those pie-ing the seniors — had a great time,” Mary O’Donnell ’11, who was responsible for marketing, said.

“Managing this event was an amazing experience and I am very glad that I had a part in the success of the event.”

O’Donnell said several people have already told her that they’d like to see the event repeated.

“I was very impressed by the number of seniors who were willing to ‘take one in the kisser’ for Operation Smile, as well as the number students who turned out to bid so enthusiastically to plant a pie in the face of the favorite senior,” Loftus said.

“There were a few moments of concern when some of the seniors seemed a bit overly energetic in sharing their face full of whipped cream with their pie-ers — I got a head full of whipped cream myself from [senior] Sara Sheppard — but everyone ended up clapping and hugging and having a great time.”

Each semester at Sweet Briar, business management lab students gain real-world experience planning events to benefit a charity. Past beneficiaries have included Habitat For Humanity, Make-A-Wish Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Guided by Loftus and their teaching assistants, the lab students are required to take on all aspects of event organizing, from accounting to marketing. The students, in groups of four, also will submit a formal report at the end of the semester about their events.

Other fundraisers on the horizon include the Rockin’ for the Smile benefit concert on Friday, Nov. 6, and a dining hall fast on Thursday, Nov. 19. Students also are working on a cookbook of student, faculty and staff recipes that will be sold to raise money for Operation Smile.