TMSG: This 10-Year-Old Has Raised Over $100K For Rare Diseases

Dana Perella was just 7-years-old when she found out her best friend Mila was diagnosed with a rare and fatal disease called Batten. Perella was determined to help fund research for a cure, so that’s when she started baking and selling cookies.

Every weekend, Perella would go door-to-door pulling a wagon filled with cookies to sell to her neighbors. She met her $1,000 goal in 3 months. Then she decided to take her message outside of her town of Boulder, Colorado. Perella started a GoFundMe page called Cookies4Cures and it went viral. That’s when Perella’s friends jumped in to help her bake and holding cookie pop-up events where they educated people about rare diseases and offered cookies in exchange for donations.

Her helpers spiraled into a team of nearly 100 volunteers from family, friends, teachers to strangers. In the end, they raised over $56,000 for Batten research. That money led to the first-ever treatment for Mila’s form of Batten.

Three years later, Perella is continuing her Cookies4Cures campaign. She has helped other children with rare childhood diseases by baking over 12,000 cookies to help fund research, translating to over $100,000.

 

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In case you missed yesterday’s movie (LINK IN BIO), check out our Cookies4Cures grand totals!!! This April, Cookies4Cures will celebrate its 3rd birthday. If you told me back on my 7th birthday that my first donation to my dear friend Mila’s research fund would turn into a real nonprofit that was going to raise over $100,000 before my 10th birthday, I never would have believed it. 🍪 I want to thank every single person who has ever baked, sold, or eaten a Cookies4Cures cookie. And every person who has ever made a donation, no matter how big or how small. And every person who has ever shared Cookies4Cures info. We are here today doing awesome things because of YOU! 🍪 And there are so many more awesome thing to come!!! 🍪 #thankyou #biggergoals #nonprofitlife #livejustice #bakeforgood #raredisease #careaboutrare #rareasone #kidpreneur #kidbaker #gobigorgohome #cookies #kingarthurflour

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