OTTAWA -- After months of lockdowns and feeling isolated and sad about the situation with COVID-19, eight-year-old Sophie George wanted to do something, so that everyone’s life could start to get back to normal.
After talking with her mom, George came up with the idea of holding a bake sale to raise money for the Ottawa Hospital Foundation's COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.
“I want to hug my friends again I want to go and play with them I want to do so much stuff with all my friends again,” George said. “I want to go to stores and not wear a mask.”
George’s mom, Pam Brunette George, wanted to help, too. She went online and started advertising the cupcake sale. The swift response was overwhelming.
“I just put a post on my Facebook saying Sophie is selling cupcakes, she wants to give some money to the scientists, to try to see if we can help combat this pandemic,” Brunette George said. “Literally in seven minutes, I had orders for 40 boxes of cupcakes.”
These are the best cupcakes, according to George. It’s her mother’s recipe: triple-Oreo cupcakes with a cookie on top. Each box cost $10 and came with four cupcakes.
“Chocolate is the best because it’s absolutely delicious,” George said. “I like making them so that you can get the taste, so that everyone would want to order them and buy them and we can get tons of more sales.”
Along the way, this eight-year-old found inspiration in the legacy of Canadian icon Terry Fox.
“When she was thinking about doing this, she related it to Terry Fox,” Brunette George said. “He’s trying to make a difference, so we can try to make a difference.”
George wants to raise at least $1000 and is already halfway there.
When a vaccine is found, and life can start to get back to normal, she knows exactly what she wants to do.
“First thing I’m going to do is go to my family and give them a huge ginormous hug,” George said. “To say I’m so glad this is back to normal and that I can do all these regular things I used to do that I used to love."
