This past week, hundreds of students and community members protested against the mistreatment of black Americans in the United States. But these protests are not the only way Camas High School students have been compelled to take action. CHS seniors Sarah Chesley, Chloe Higgins, Odessa Thompson, Jacob Mukobi, Bailey Segall, and Thomas Hull wanted to support the cause by starting a bake sale and donating proceeds to specific Black Lives Matter affiliated organizations.

Their efforts are already paying off. In a matter of days they had to put the baking on pause to catch up on order. They quickly raised a whopping five-thousand dollars.

Higgins said, “We want to do anything and everything we can to take an actual stand against violence and oppression of minorities, specifically Black people. This is the best way we know because money, unfortunately, runs the world, so we’ve got to raise money.”

The array of goods they offer are peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls, bread, brownies, and cheesecake. According to the flyer, all goods are homemade with proper safety guidelines, there are vegan options, and they accept cash, PayPal, and Venmo.

Higgins said, “It was Tuesday night, I made a group chat with us (Sarah Chesley, Chloe Higgins, Odessa Thompson, Jacob Mukobi, Bailey Segall, Thomas Hull) because I was getting really frustrated. My dad wouldn’t allow me to go to any of the Vancouver or Portland protests, which is understandable because he didn’t want me to get hurt or anything. I just wanted to do something and so I made a group chat and these guys were totally on board from the get-go.” 

Each student involved plays a vital part in the process, whether it be baking, making spreadsheets, or delivering the products: everyone is committed to making a change. All of the proceeds go directly to four Black Lives Matter-affiliated organizations.

Higgins said, “Odessa and Sarah made a document at first, listing a bunch of Black Lives Matter affiliated charities. They compiled their duties, what they do, and we just picked four of them. We voted on it.”

These organizations are NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Black Lives Matter, Black Visions Collective, and Campaign Zero. The students are also having to deliver the goods by themselves.

Thompson said, “Right now, it’s just us driving house to house.”

Higgins added, “Saturday we are going to do a bunch of big orders and we have a lot of people helping us drive. We’ve had a lot of people asking us to help, so we’re going to get them to drop off some deliveries.”

If anyone is interested in ordering a treat from this non-profit student group, submit your order through this Google form. Again, the students have orders on pause right now to catch up, but they should be taking orders again soon.