Gia's kitchen

GIA GERA from the German-Swiss International School (G3) shares an interesting and worthwhile project she has turned her hand to in 2021.

I’ve been baking for some time now, and with the help of my parents we thought to turn my passion into a charity bake sale! I’m proud of starting the new year with positivity and hope for others.

My Filipina aunty has been with our family for five years and she is actively involved in the St John Catholic Church in Manila. She donates a significant portion of her salary on a monthly basis to help her church, which in turn helps local residents with food, essentials and shelter. After she told me about the impact of floods and the joblessness due to COVID-19, I wanted to contribute by raising funds.

I started planning immediately! I decided to bake blueberry muffins (yummy!), chocolate cupcakes (my favourite) and chocolate-chip cookies from my selected recipes. I made an online poster, which my mom shared within the school community. Orders started coming in immediately! I recorded all the orders on a spreadsheet and we soon had a whopping 180 orders across the three items.

On the Friday, we bought the ingredients from a local bakery, and started baking the chocolate cupcakes (because those were the most popular by far!) and preparing the cookie dough. We let the cookie dough chill overnight. On Saturday morning, the day of the bake sale, we mixed the icing for the chocolate cupcakes, made blueberry muffins, and also shaped the cookies. The cookies later ended up being the most popular item instead of the chocolate cupcakes!

Soon we were baking and having people pick things up smoothly. The chocolate chip cookies always got squished together so they looked like one ginormous cookie!

In the end, we were all tired. We had raised funds with the support of people and friends, and we had learnt one lesson: “The best always requires hard work.” I’m very happy that I could help the people of the Philippines and do it in a fun way! As my friend’s mother told me, “Every little bit counts! Even a small effort of a bake sale helps, and you don’t need a big effort to make a positive change in the world.”

I’m hopeful that this message inspires all readers out there and brings awareness into the world of opportunities available for people to help and contribute to better living for everyone!

Gia’s bake sale raised HK$2,000, and she also donated her HK$1,500 prize for this article to the proceeds sent to the church. Great work, Gia!