by Maya Feinberg
On October 15, 2022, my best friend Juliet and I held a bake sale to raise money for breast cancer research. It was an overwhelming success. We ended up raising $3,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).
I became passionate about funding research during the early days of the pandemic when my mom was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. She had an early stage breast cancer a few years earlier and we were all surprised when we learned it had come back and spread to other parts of her body. She is currently on medication that was just approved in Spring of 2020. My mom is benefiting from research that led to approval of that medication and our family is counting on research to help keep her healthy.
I started fundraising for BCRF for my Bat Mitzvah Service Project. My “Zoom Mitzvah” was on March 20, 2021 at a time when in-person service opportunities were very limited. I decided to share my story and ask for family and friends to help fund research. It was so rewarding to see the outpouring of support. It was at that time I saw I could have a positive impact and wanted to do more. In the fall of eighth grade, I organized a bake sale at my middle school. To date, I have helped to raise nearly $14,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Juliet and I are so grateful to everyone who helped to bake and to all of our friends, family and neighbors who came out to support us. We could not have done it without our community. The success of these fundraisers has helped me realize how big of an impact I can make.