 I went back to Fisher House today, and this time I brought dessert! I baked some chocolate chip cookies for the families. I hope I was able to provide them some joy in light of the circumstances.
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 I was able to bake for Fisher House again, and I wanted to continue with the idea of an easy and delicious grab and go breakfast or snack for the families to enjoy. I went with muffins this time, and they loved them!
Last Day Dog Rescue recently hosted a garage sale to raise money for the shelter. They let me know they would love some bags of cookies to sell at the event. I gladly agreed! It was nice to reconnect with LDDR after having been away at college. They reported back that all the bags sold out!
 I am back home again for the summer, so I thought I would reach back out to PBJ Outreach. I made some chocolate chip cookies for them to hand out to the people in the Detroit community. I know the recipients are always incredibly grateful! I also hope I will be able to make it to another volunteering event soon.
 Another wonderful organization I have had the pleasure of working with in Ann Arbor is Fisher House Michigan. The goal of the Fisher House Foundation is to provide free housing for military and veterans families to stay in while a loved one is in the hospital. I went over to the Ann Arbor VA Fisher House and took a tour of the home. The thought and care put into every detail of the house was astounding. The walls were painted blue and the floors were a sandy tan wood to remind families of the Great Lakes. The kitchen was set up and fully stocked with ease of preparation (or none at all) in mind. Steven, the director of Fisher House, happily showed me right where my treats would go.
After visiting the home, I decided that banana and zucchini bread would be a great thing to donate for a quick and easy breakfast or snack for the families. Everyone was so appreciative! I am excited to continue this connection and bake for Fisher House again soon!  Now that I spend the majority of my time away from home in Ann Arbor for school, I have been reaching out to local businesses here for places where I can make donations. I discovered a great organization called Ozone House (www.ozonehouse.org). Ozone House is a community-centered organization that helps homeless teens lead safe and productive lives. They offer housing and support programs to runaway, homeless, and high-risk youth and families.
I reached out to them, and they were extremely excited and grateful to receive the cookies. It felt great to have the donation be so appreciated, especially since it was my first time baking for Baking a Difference while away from home, and it was a completely new experience baking in my college house kitchen. I am excited to continue baking here and continue helping Ozone House and other local businesses.  Today’s donation is very exciting because I was able to donate to one of the organizations that I am part of at UofM. Global Health Alliance is a public health organization that works to form sustainable partnership models with our partners Joy-Southfield Community Development Corporation in Detroit and Green Umbrella School in the Putsor Community in Cambodia. These partnerships are formed with the intention of the partener eventually becoming self-sufficient and sustainable independently. We run nutrition workshops, gardening programs, and education programs in order to provide healthy food and nutrition education to the community. We also work to achieve sustainable development, facilitate leadership programs, and lead livelihood workshops for adults and English classes for children.
We raise an annual amount of $6,000 to achieve all of these goals. One of the fundraising events we had this year is a bake sale. I saw it as the perfect opportunity to donate something to this great organization. I decided to bake blondies for the fundraiser, which were sold out after the first day of the sale! I had a great time baking for Baking a Difference again, and I will be back in the kitchen soon!  I was finally able to return to baking after my move back home from college for the summer. I was so excited to bake, and I decided to bake as much as I could for P.B.J. Outreach (www.pbjoutreach.org). I wanted to continue on the search for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, so I tried a new recipe that I found online after much research. After making a sample batch, the cookies turned out delicious, and 60 cookies later, I had a large donation ready to deliver to P.B.J. In addition to the new chocolate chip cookies, I returned to an old recipe for chocolate chip muffins that I had been wanting to bake again. They looked great, and I am proud of the two dozen muffins I was able to deliver. It was great to work with P.B.J. Outreach again, and I am always so happy that they enjoy receiving my baked goods!
 I am back home from college for winter break, and I was so excited to start baking again. I decided to bake a big batch of cookies for PBJ Outreach. It was great to get back into my old routine of baking and giving back to such a wonderful organization. I had a lot of fun! I am moving back to Ann Arbor shortly, but I hope to have the ability to bake again soon!
At the start of the new year, I am reflecting on the accomplishments of 2019 with Baking a Difference. I would like to start by saying that I am grateful for your support, and Baking a Difference would not be what it is without you. I was so excited to start Baking a Difference LLC in 2017, and thanks to all of your generous donations, it blossomed into something great, making 2019 a busy year.
This year has been very fun because I had the ability to help many worthy organizations. In total, this year I donated nearly 650 cookies (including chocolate chip and sugar), 70 cupcakes, and 52 muffins (including banana nut and chocolate chip). I also participated in some events for the charities I work with. Baking for and working with organizations like Last Day Dog Rescue, First Step, Vista Maria, P.B.J. Outreach, and the Ford Employee Christmas Fund helped me to learn and develop many new skills. I had to create and expand on partnerships and build relationships with the organizations I helped. I also had to manage my time, which was particularly important with the added obligations of Senior year. School work and extra-curricular activities had to be prioritized along with baking. Additionally, in the past year, I have learned more about money management and logistics. Now that I have my driver’s license, I am responsible for deliveries, as well as baking. Of course, I also continued to learn more about baking and improve my techniques this past year. Starting this organization has allowed me to learn so much and help many people. Last year was also special for me because I was honored with two volunteer awards. I received the Youth Recognition Award from the Farmington Youth Assistance as well as the 2018-2019 Outstanding Youth Volunteer of the Year Award from the Farmington Hills Commission on Children, Youth, and Families. I feel honored and proud to have been recognized for my efforts, and again I want to thank everyone who has supported Baking a Difference. I started Baking a Difference to help people while doing what I love, and I am glad that I have this opportunity. I have accomplished a lot in the past year with Baking a Difference, and I cannot wait to achieve even more this year! I could not have done it without your generous support, and I thank you very much! Please continue to check out my blog to see what I have been up to in 2019 and to follow my progress in 2020. Thank you for your continued support!
I recently baked for First Step for their Holiday themed birthday party. I baked sugar cookies in Christmas shapes for the residents to decorate with frosting and sprinkles. I have baked for First Step many times in the past, and I always enjoy the positive feedback. I especially enjoy when I am able to see the cookies the kids decorated, so I have shared some pictures here for everyone to see.
 This week I baked for the Ford Employee Christmas Fund (ECF). ECF has been helping needy families by providing food and presents for the holidays since 1959, and I am proud that I have the opportunity to help them in their 60th year. I discovered this organization a few years ago, and have been baking for their holiday auction ever since. Every year, they are really appreciative of the donations, and it makes me happy to bake for them again. I baked cookies and muffins for ECF’s auction to raise money for the food and presents. The money raised at the auction goes towards buying the presents and food. I am also excited to help personally deliver presents and food to the families again this year.
I recently baked for First Step’s Thanksgiving-themed birthday party. I thought the kids at the shelter would enjoy decorating their own cupcakes this time, so I baked white cupcakes for them. Since the party was Thanksgiving themed, I thought it would be great if the kids could decorate the cupcakes as turkeys, so I found some pictures online, provided them with chocolate frosting, candy corn, and candy eyes, and let them decorate. I heard that the kids really enjoyed it, and I received some amazing pictures of the turkeys the kids decorated, which I included above.
 This week I baked for First Step’s October Halloween themed birthday party. I decided to bake festive cookies in various shapes including, ghosts, bats, pumpkins, witch hats, and cats, and provided them with frosting and sprinkles so the kids could decorate them. As always, I am proud to be able to help add some fun to the lives of the families staying there, especially on a fun holiday like Halloween.
 I baked for Last Day Dog Rescue’s Lucky Squirrel event. This is an outdoor flea market for the community members to raise awareness and funds for the organization. I baked chocolate chip cookies for them, and they sold my cookies in packages. I heard that the cookies were well received.
This week I baked for First Step. The theme of this month's birthday party was slime. I decided to bake round cookies that the kids could decorate in the color of their slime. I am happy that I am able to provide the residents with treats often, as it brings joy mothers and children, and I am proud to continue being asked to bake for them month after month.
This month, First Step reached out and asked me to bake for their June birthday party for the residents. This month's theme was summer, so I decided to make fun summer-themed cupcakes. Nothing reminds me of summer more than enjoying a cool popsicle on a hot and sunny day, so I decorated the cupcakes like popsicles. I enjoyed baking for them this month because I was able to expand my horizons by trying new things. I had never used candy as a topping to cupcakes before, and I enjoyed being able to experiment.  Last Day Dog Rescue asked me to bake raffle prizes for a recent event. Last Day Dog Rescue is an outstanding organization, and I feel proud to be able to help them. I am humbled that they continue to ask me to bake cookies for their events, and I cannot wait to attend one of their events in the future. It will be so fun to pet the puppies.
 In addition to the event last week, Last Day Dog Rescue asked me to bake raffle prizes for their Vendor Fair. I love baking for Last Day Dog Rescue, and I appreciate the positive feedback I receive from them. I cannot wait to continue to work with them.
Last Day Dog Rescue recently reached out to me asking if I could bake for a few of their upcoming fundraising events. I gladly accepted, eager to begin. This week I decided to enlist the help of my friend, Sarah. I have such a passion and excitement for Baking a Difference, and I love being able to share that feeling with others. For this event, the Santa Fe Salon Adoption event, they asked for baked goods they could have as raffle prizes. Sarah and I decided to make chocolate chip cookies, and we packaged them in groups of two. I truly enjoyed baking with Sarah, and I look forward to baking with my friends again in the future.
Tonight I was honored with the 2018-2019 Outstanding Youth Volunteer of the Year Award from the Farmington Hills Commission on Children, Youth, and Families. It was a real honor to attend the city council meeting with my family and to be recognized for my efforts. Thank you to everyone who supported me with donations and opportunities. I am thankful to have received this award and look forward to doing more with Baking a Difference!
 This morning I received the Youth Recognition Award from the Farmington Youth Assistance for my community service efforts. I was surprised to learn that I had been nominated. It was a nice ceremony, and I received recognition awards from all of my elected representatives, including the governor, U.S. Senators, my Congressional representative, as well as county and city officials. I feel honored to have received this award.
I love what First Step does for women and children in need, and I am extremely happy that I get to help them so often. This month’s theme for the birthday party was butterflies. For the past couple of months I have provided sugar cookies for the residents to decorate, so this month I decided to bake and decorate cupcakes for them. I baked vanilla cupcakes and used cupcake wrappers that were donated to me. Because the theme was butterflies, I wanted the cupcakes to remind the residents of spring, so I decorated them with flowers. I prepared buttercream from scratch and dyed it in four colors: green for the grass, and pink, purple, and yellow for the flowers. The grass was made with a special grass tip, and the flowers were made with brand new tips I have been excited to try. The cupcakes turned out well, and I got great feedback from First Step. Trying something new was very exciting, and I am very happy with the results. I am glad First Step was happy with the results as well, and I look forward to helping out again.
 Last Day Dog Rescue (LDDR) reached out to me asking if I could bake for three of their upcoming events. I was very happy to help. One of the events was their Spring Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast. Because they asked for items that could be raffle prizes, I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies and packaged them in pairs of two. I am proud that Last Day Dog Rescue appreciates my baked goods and continues to ask me to bake for them. I truly enjoy helping them, and I am excited to bake for the other two events soon.
 I love what PBJ Outreach does, and I have baked for them many times before. This week I decided to bake for them again. I baked banana bread muffins for them to pass out this weekend. Ever since I went to Detroit to help them pass out the baked goods, I developed a deeper understanding for everything they do. They give the people of Detroit a community to rely on and help them through hard times. I am honored to help them and look forward to the next time I bake for them.
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