LEBANON, Ohio — Indigo Huber doesn’t do anything half-baked.
The 11-year-old and her brother are hosting a “Cookies and Cocoa” stand on Saturday at noon on the corner of West and W Silver streets in Lebanon.
But the money from this bake sale won’t go to Huber’s piggy bank.
“I've seen things that make me cry. And I just see people suffer. I just want to help them,” Huber said.
All funds will go to the Pina family, who live down the street from the Hubers, to be put toward service dog training for a 3-month-old golden retriever named Pumpkin.
Nora Pina, 7, suffers from drug-resistant epilepsy, her mom Sarah said. The hope is that the dog can help alert people before it happens.
“He’s starting to respond and do what he needs to do,” Sarah said of Pumpkin, who has begun the first stages of his training.
A fully trained service dog would allow some level of independence for Nora, especially at night. Right now, Nora is not allowed to sleep by herself.
“We’ve had a few close calls where we found her in her sleep facedown having a seizure,” Sarah Pina said. “It looks like she’s having a stroke. She can’t communicate, she can’t move her whole left side.”
“Having a dog that could sleep with her in her own room would give her a lot of independence, and just us a lot of peace of mind knowing that she will wake up again in the morning,” Pina said.
The wait time for a fully trained service dog from an agency is about two years, so the Pina family decided to find a dog that they could put through training themselves.
While it can be faster, it is also expensive. The training cost at a facility in Indiana that the family is hoping to send Pumpkin to costs upward of $20,000.
Huber’s stand will go toward those costs — and she'll have some dog-themed cookies for sale.
"(Nora’s) going through a lot and it's really sad and horrible,” Huber said. “It makes me cry with happy tears that I can help her.”
This isn’t Indigo’s first time helping others in this way. In 2017, she held her first lemonade stand for Hurricane Harvey relief.
After hosting more than 10 stands over the years, her hope for this bake sale is the same.
“At least some money in the jar and some full bellies,” she said.
She's also refusing to accept the way life's cookie crumbles: “A cookie can make a big dent in the world.”
You can click here for more information on how to donate virtually to Indigo's efforts.
