Every day in the United States, 5,000 people are diagnosed with cancer—5,000 people have their lives changed, not including the families and support systems who aid their loved ones through their battle. Among these diagnosis come a mix of emotions, including sadness, fear, and isolation.

Cara Li (’27), a junior at Amador Valley, was among these impacted families: while in middle school, doctors diagnosed Li’s mother with Stage Three cancer. The diagnosis was crushing—yet, in the overwhelm, one small act of kindness was enough to hold for the rest of her life.

“Her diagnosis was truly so devastating,” Li said. “Yet, even today, a moment I can still vividly remember is a local social worker personally donating $500 to support my mom going through this journey. And although $500 isn’t a ton of money, it was so impactful to my mom and I—that just showed me how small acts of support can really make such a huge impact for cancer patients and their families.”

Knowing how impactful even the smallest choices can be on families battling cancer, it wasn’t long before Li decided to share the kindness she had received with others.

“The idea actually started with banana bread! When I was in like middle school around 11, 12, I would hand banana bread around and people were like—oh my gosh, we love this! And so, I wanted to kind of expand upon that idea to kind of like grow it into more of like an official organization and use the money to actually support cancer patients,” Li said.

Finding a Start

What started as baking loaves of banana bread to peers around her middle school campus turned into something greater: after years of research, paperwork, and drive, Li officially founded her organization in the summer before her junior year.

“Bake the Change” is a 509(a)(2) nonprofit, in conjunction with the California cottage food bakery, ABC Bakery,” Li said. “Our mission is dedicated to supporting cancer patients: we fundraise for the American Cancer Society, assemble and distribute care packages to cancer patients, as well as make hand-made cards, and promote cancer education.”

Founded in June of 2025, the organization has already garnered a huge amount for donation, with funds supporting both cancer patients, and cancer research. 

“So far, in the five months we’ve been running, we’ve donated $65,900 to the American Cancer Society,” Li said. 

Learning to Lead

Running the organization is by no means an easy feat: especially when Li’s mission is to raise as much as possible for patients, families, and research organizations. Unfortunately, with the costs of goods, simply purchasing ingredients can cut the funds sent. Thankfully, Li’s hard-work, dedication, and passion for helping others has attracted attention from greater organizations. 

“When we’re making the baked goods and when we sell them, a portion of the revenue has to go back to paying for the cost of the ingredients,” Li said. “But over Winter Break, Trader Joe’s actually granted us a sponsorship, which paid for a lot of the ingredients! With these donations, we wouldn’t have to like pay for the ingredients costs and could just use all the revenue to donate to American Cancer Society.”

Opportunities like this are wonderful—but they don’t come easy. After years of involvement with the organization, Li has learned the importance of taking initiative through researching, reaching out, and applying to local grants and sponsorship programs.

“We actually reached out to Trader Joe’s and got a donation! This goes back to the cold-emailing: we know that if we’re able to shorten the cost of goods, we have higher profit margins, and that means more of it goes to the American Cancer Society. So, we reached out to a lot of grocery stores and businesses to ask for help, and they did a material donation!” Li said.

Meeting Her Mission

To avoid unnecessary complication, Li has established a system for her organization. To ensure efficiency in her organization, she has established a system.

“We have around three-or-four bakers, I’d say, and we extensively vet them all and they have food handlers licenses. Then, we can divvy up the work, like saying—oh, Isabel can bake like this many cookies, and I can bake these other cookies,” Li said.

Li has combined her interests in business and baking for this organization. Because of this, she has confidence in exploring new territories. Throughout her leadership, she has learned not only the details, but how to run an organization on a large level.

“With DECA, I’ve learned a lot of the marketing and business skills. Just participating and going to all the conferences and learning from all the business-oriented students around me has taught me so much,” said Li. “And my experience with organizing, as Director of Logistics really helped me have a solid foundation for my own organization to make sure things ran smoothly and we were able to stay track of our goals.”

Continuing the Cause

After so many hours of dedication, Li’s determined to keep the organization afloat and successful, even after graduation. 

“When you spend hours on spreadsheets, [Bake the Change] becomes almost like my baby! I can’t let it die! So I’ll make sure that it is it gets the care it needs, and to my best to make sure it can continue growing and expanding, and instead take  a supervisory or consulting role,” Li said.

While the journey was certainly difficult, but the reward is immeasurable: after months of research, planning, and finally running her organization, Li has learned the importance of grit and determination.

“To be blunt: do the hard things and get outside your comfort zone! Yes, you will get rejected, like, 90% of the time—you’ll face countless rejection, and you’ll face like people who doubt you. You’re just going to be so lost and confused—how do I start a nonprofit? How do I do all this paperwork? How am I able to market this? It’s so overwhelming, but if you have the grit and you hold onto your dreams and use it to motivate you will be rewarded more than you could ever imagine. Things will work out,” Li said.