HOLLIS, NH – The following story highlights a young seventh grader from our HB community…a young woman who, without the requirement of collecting service hours or completing a service project, felt compelled to help those less fortunate than her. She acted immediately on her idea and embarked on a whirlwind fundraiser dedicated to helping children in Ukraine.  

Caroline Choi is a busy 7th grader at Hollis Brookline Middle School. She plays on the middle school softball team, is an active member of Troop 465, and also plays the tenor saxophone and piano in the after-school jazz band. It is surprising Caroline would ever have a free moment, let alone feel bored, but one morning of a recent school vacation week she found herself without anything to do.

As Caroline sat there trying to think of something to occupy her time, she found herself thinking back to previous conversations she had had with her family about what was happening in Ukraine. Caroline instantly felt compelled to use her free time to help those in need. “What’s going on in Ukraine is really horrifying and I just wanted to help people who are dealing with that situation. I can’t just NOT do anything when that’s going on in a part of the world and when people my age are dealing with war stricken places where they are living.  I wanted to help.” 

Caroline approached her mom, Gena Lavallee, and told her what she was thinking about and together they brainstormed a few options of how she could best help. The mom-daughter pair considered everything from walkathons and sponsors to gathering items in their driveway. As they considered their options, the idea of baking cookies came up. Caroline said,  “I love to bake so baking and raising money I thought would be our best bet. Also, people love cookies.”  True, people really do love cookies!

Caroline researched different charities to determine the best one to support. She knew she was looking for something special and by way of the Washington Post, she came upon The Voices of Children Foundation. As Caroline began describing the foundation it was obvious she was passionate about how this organization was helping the children in the Ukraine and surrounding areas. She said she instantly knew it was the one she wanted to help. Caroline went on to explain the mission of the foundation, “The charity helps with child psychology and therapists and counselors getting out to the borders and helping deal with that kind of stuff through art therapy and other ways.”  Her mom added that since this is a smaller charity they both thought that Caroline’s donation would really make a difference.

Caroline immediately got started. She made a goal, created a plan, calculated a grocery list, and sent a grownup to the store for supplies. Her mom shared her idea in a community Facebook group and in less than an hour Caroline had signed up to make 232 cookies and she had to stop taking orders. Caroline said, “We had to shut it down because I can’t bake that many cookies by myself!” Despite closing down cooking orders, people continued to donate…just happy to support Caroline and her cause.

By noon the oven was on and cookie production began. Caroline was rolling and cutting cookies and mixing up batches of homemade frosting all day. She finished decorating the last cookie just before 10:00pm.

The cookies were made available for pick up the following day and Caroline was thrilled, as well as surprised, to have raised over $500. Caroline said, “My mom was my assistant so she did all the money and kept track basically on a graph. After we tallied up the cookies we knew we would get to around $500. Then we counted up the donations and it was closer to $600, but money just kept coming and it got to over $700.”  By the end, Caroline had raised $750 in donations and cookie sales, but this wasn’t really the end. 

Caroline’s mom explained that, “A woman was so inspired by her initiative and touched by the organization, that she personally matched Caroline’s first $750.”  Meanwhile Caroline also received a very generous corporate triple-match. This, along with several more donations brought her grand total to $4,174…which far surpassed her goal of a couple hundred dollars. 

Needless to say, Caroline definitely made the best of a school vacation.  She even acknowledged that if she hadn’t pursued her idea that she probably would have wasted the day away either on her phone or watching a movie. When asked for suggestions to give to other young people who want to make a difference, Caroline thoughtfully shared, “Even if something is far fetched, it can be possible and even little things add up. It doesn’t take much to do something big. All I did was bake cookies and was able to raise $4,000.”

I know we are all wondering how many cookies Caroline ate during the whole process. The answer…only two.  🙂  

The Voices of Children Foundation helps children by providing them with psychological and psychosocial support to work through the effects of armed conflicts.  The foundation also promotes respecting childrens’ dignity and rights and strives to ensure the needs of every child are heard.

Today, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, they are providing non-stop assistance to affected children and families from all over the country, providing emergency psychological assistance, and assisting in the evacuation process.