Young supporter sells sweets for a cause

After Madison Brown watched her grandmother undergo cancer treatment, she wanted to help.But she didn’t just donate her allowance or ask friends for money – that would be too easy.“I went around the neighborhood and did a bake sale,” said the soft-spoken 11-year-old. She took orders for baked goods. Her offerings were many: “Chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies and cinnamon rolls, brownies and snickerdoodles.”Chocolate chip cookies and the rolls were most popular. “Grandma helped make the cinnamon rolls.”Her grandma, Sharon Hartnett, of Jackson, Neb., was awestruck when she heard about Madison’s project. “I cried when I read her letter,” she said, smiling ear to ear.Hartnett had undergone treatment for small cell lymphoma in early 2009. Her treatment “went very very well.”So when her granddaughter saw what she went through, it wasn’t hard to understand why she wanted to help others. “Just thatMadison would come up with this and think about it and her feelings toward me … was very special.”Those feelings fueled Madison’s interest. “I did it because I thought that there’s a bunch of other people like my grandma and it will make other people feel better knowing that someone cares a lot about them.”Madison’s efforts raised $120 for the cancer center.Her advice for others who feel inspired to give: “One person, you think, may not make that much of a difference, but one person can if you work hard to do it.”This story appears in our Summer 2010 newsletter.