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On Saturday, November 26th, 2016, over 30 Global Leadership Initiative student volunteers gathered to bake cookies for the day. Orders had been collected, and our goal was to bake cookies from scratch and raise money for several charities and organizations. These dedicated GLI members started baking cookies at 9:00 am.

Upon arrival, our volunteers could choose to do many different jobs. We made two types of cookies, snickerdoodle and chocolate chip. There were people mixing the ingredients to make both types of dough. Some were in charge of scooping balls of dough onto trays and putting them into the garage to cool. For snickerdoodles, volunteers also needed to roll the balls of dough in cinnamon. Once the cookie dough was cool, volunteers took them from the garage to the oven. After they were taken out of the oven, the finished cookies were brought into the garage again to cool. Finally, volunteers packaged the cookies, putting ten cookies into each decorative box. By the end, everyone seemed to have found their place and became masters at their own job.

Even though everyone was doing a lot of hard work, it was also a very enjoyable experience. The warm smell of cookies filled the air while we were baking them. Everyone was able to bond with each other through working, especially with the people who were doing the same job as each other. It was easy for everyone to laugh and talk while they mixed ingredients, scooped dough, etc. Along with having quality time with other GLI members, it was also truly rewarding to see all the work we accomplished. Seeing the batches upon batches of cookies was amazing because we knew that it all came from our hard work and it was all for a great cause. We profited over $1200, so the work we had poured into baking these cookies for the day really paid off. The money will go to support Ugandan orphans, underprivileged children in China, children with special needs in the Bay Area, etc. Each and every cookie baked made us proud, knowing that it was supporting such worthwhile causes.

At the end of the day, we began to clean up around 7:00 pm. We were grateful for Andrew Wang’s family for letting us use their house for this fundraiser. We were also able to awe at the sight of 312 boxes filled with cookies that we had baked in that day. This year’s cookie fundraiser was truly a wonderful experience for all who attended.