At $3 a pie, that might seem like a bargain and enough pies for dessert for a week, but Ballard didn’t get to eat any of them.

Instead, they found their way onto the faces of five staff members.

That means somebody got extra pie from Ballard.

One was Wendy Daniel-Wiseman. She organized the event Thursday and, after 58 pies, ended up with quite a bit of the fluffy whipped cream filling on herself.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Morgan Bodholdt, 11, at left, along with her sixth-grade classmate Jaeciera Brown, 12, react after they both got to plant a pie on Fort Dodge Middle School sixth-grade teacher Sevond Cole.

To keep the mess down, the students got to walk up and apply the pie directly to their chosen teacher.

“We don’t want them to throw them,” she said. “This is out of kindness.”

She did admit to a bit of pastrophobia, which is the fear of pies.

“I’m shaking,” she said.

Teacher Shelly Keith came well prepared to the event.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Tessa Ballard, 12, walks away in triumph after smearing the last of the seven pies she purchased onto the smiling and sticky faces of several of the teachers and staff at the school Thursday afternoon.

She wore a bright pink spotted shower cap and easy-to-wash attire.

“This is not my Sunday best,” she said.

The shower cap was a gift.

“My husband bought it for me today,” she said. “I don’t know where he got it, probably Target.”

Jaeciera Brown, 12, and her friend Morgan Bodholdt, 11, both sixth-graders, made smashing a pie in their teacher’s face a shared activity.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Fort Dodge Middle School sixth-grade teacher Sevond Cole samples the first of what would become many other pies Thursday afternoon during a fundraising event at the school.

It was, for both of them, a very satisfying moment.

“It’s like payback for all the homework,” Brown said.

Bodhold shared her sentiment.

“It’s fun,” she said. “They give us so many assignments and homework.”

Their target was their very own teacher, Sevond Cole.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Fort Dodge Middle School teacher Wendy Daniel reacts to one of several pies to the face she got Thursday afternoon during a fundraiser at the school. Shelly Keith, at left, who brought her own shower cap, watches.

“We’re both in his grade,” Brown said. “I’ve been waiting for this all day.”

Of course, to make an omelet, one must break a few eggs. To get pie all over one’s teacher, there is the risk of backspray.

Brown found that out.

“I got it down my boot,” she said.

She expects her mom to ask her how she got whipped cream there.

At the end of the day, Cole seemed to have gotten the majority of the pie filling. The conspiracy to cover him with canned whipped cream even extended to his wife, Jennifer Cole, the school’s media specialist.

She went last, but was looking forward to her turn.

“I had a 20,” she said. “I asked myself, should I just do one?”

She did just one pie, but made efficient use of it.

“I thought she would show mercy,” Sevond Cole said. “She didn’t. A lot of it got in my ear.”

The protective plastic he was wearing did little good; she pulled it away during her efforts.

“She made sure it got down there,” he said of his whipped cream-covered shirt.

Will Cole find himself giving out more homework for the weekend?

“It should be the case for a few students,” he joked. “Maybe I should.”

Jennifer Cole expected him home in a rather messy condition.

“I’m used to doing laundry,” she said.

“I think I am going to have to do this load of laundry,” he said.

Building custodian Kelly Erickson decided against buying a pie.

“I can’t do it,” she said, surveying the mess. “I’ll just give the team the money.”

She did have one idea that turned out not to be needed for the cleanup.

“I should get a hose,” she said.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to do much. Helpers quickly got to work with a wet mop and bucket.

“I’ve got great team members,” Daniel-Wiseman said. “They were troopers.”

The day also helped proved the value of covering up with a shower cap.

“It worked wonderfully,” Keith said.