Dana Perella had a friend who died when she was seven. The friend was diagnosed with a rare and fatal disease called Batten. Dana was determined to help bring in money to research a cure for it, so she started baking and selling cookies door-to-door in her Boulder, Colorado, neighborhood.
Her goal was to bring in $1-thousand, but she wasn’t finished when she met it. Dana expanded, naming her organizationCookies4Curesand she soon had a team of volunteers to help. She eventually raised $56-thousand for Batten research, which led to the first-ever treatment for her friend’s form of the disease. Now they’re baking to fund research for treatments of other diseases and over the last three years, Dana has baked more than 12-thousand cookies, which has raised over $100-thousand!
This year, Cookies4Cures is focusing on Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which her friend Ben has. She has a GoFundMecampaign going and hopes to raise $50-thousand for CureSMA. Dana’s vision is to create a fundraiser for every rare childhood disease and she has some advice for go-getters like herself. “For anyone who wants to change the world, I have two pieces of advice: 1) Believe in yourself and 2) Just start.”