Hearts and Hands Hosts Nepal Fundraiser for Flash Flood Victims
By: Charlotte Hendrey
On Sunday, Oct. 17, Hearts and Hands founder Charlotte Hendrey led her Archie Williams High School Hearts and Hands chapter club to raise nearly $1300 for the Red Cross aiding flash-flood victims and communities in Nepal. Below, she shares the story.
I had been following the news, and seeing the devastation that the Nepal flash floods had caused. On August 26, 2026, a glacier collapse triggered the flash floods in the Himalayas near the Nepal-Tibet border, killing 1400 Nepalese and leaving thousands more missing.
When our Nepal Chapter President, Shreeti, reached out to me explaining how she was witnessing the impacts firsthand in her community, and asking to start a fundraiser, I wanted to help but was unsure of how I could help from so far away. I also was still getting the hang of balancing 5 AP classes, and wasn't sure if I could take on a new project. I continued to talk to her, and she told me that Nepal was celebrating their biggest festival of the year, Dashain, but that they were having trouble coming together this year because of how many people lost their families, lives, and homes.
That message made me remember something. At Hearts and Hands, we are a global family. We all are connected by our mission of bringing joy to seniors, but when one of us needs help, I made a promise to always be there and support. I knew that I could bring together our Hearts and Hands volunteers to help.
It was Shreeti's idea to raise money for the flash-flood victims and donate to a relief group. I worked with her to create a fundraising goal of $1000, and researched who to donate the money to. She made an amazing video that we posted on social media to share the story and the fundraiser mission. I found out that the Red Cross was helping provide fresh water and aid to communities who had been destroyed, and Shreeti agreed that we should donate to them. But I had to think of a way to keep track of the donations so we could reach our fundraising goal.
The Red Cross website allowed people to donate under an email, so I made an experiment. I donated $1 to test if it would send me a donation confirmation email, and sure enough, it did. Now, I found a way to track the money being donated: email confirmation. I created a new fundraising email: hh4nepal@gmail.com and realized that if people donated under this email, I would be able to count every donation without receiving any of their private information.
I created a QR code leading to the donation website, and designed fliers with the QR code and email printed beneath that people could easily scan. Now, it was time to plan the fundraiser.
On Thursday, when I told my club members at our club meeting at lunch, nearly everybody signed up for the bake-sale. I realized that since we had 15 people, we could split up into 2 bake-sales on different days. But we were fundraising for a national crisis, and we needed to act fast. There was no time to wait until the next weekend, and the next after that. Time was not on our side.
Then, I had an idea. What if we hosted 3 bake sales on the same day in 3 different locations? It wouldn't be easy. I would have to put a lot of trust in my club members, many of which were younger students that were new to the club and hadn't done a bake sale before. But I also knew that we had a handful of experienced members, and my friends, that I could trust to be leaders. Caroline, Cybil, and Maggie were all juniors, and I could trust them to lead. Caroline volunteered to be in charge of the San Anselmo bake sale, and Cybil and Maggie led the Fairfax bake sale, while I would lead the Corte Madera one. None of this would have happened without the love and dedication of our volunteers: Cybil, Maggie, Phoebe, Trystin, Caroline, Bobbi, Sabine, Paris, Suska, Junko, AJ, Laila.
I spent Friday creating a Nepal Fundraiser google doc guide. It included how to set a fundraising goal, the three print outs to display on the table, and instructions on how to enter the hh4nepal email. The email was an important step: if donators didn't enter it, I wouldn't recieve the confirmation email, and we wouldn't be able to count their donation in our fundraiser.
Saturday came, and we set up. We each set a goal to raise $100-$200 per group. 3 locations, 3 groups, 3 hours. In the first 10 minutes, my group was tired of standing in the 90 degree heat. The sun had melted almost all of our cupcakes. Even worse, once people realized they would have to scan the QR code, enter their email, and wait for the internet to load, they began to turn away from our table.
I was realizing that our bakesale was about to be a bust, after all that effort. So to save it, I had to pivot. When yet another customer started to turn away, I said, "Wait! we actually do accept cash." She turned around, gave us $5, and we got our first donation. I quickly empied out a ziplock bag and placed the money in. Then, I texted the other groups, "guys, we are pivoting. everyone can accept cash now if people can't use the QR code." That changed everything.
We started to get more and more donations, and quickly moved into the shade. I shared our cause with people as they walked by, and we nearly sold out. The fundraisor had turned into a wild success.
In the end, we counted the money. We expected to make $200 each. Cybil and Maggie's bakesale raised $260. Caroline's raised $324. Mine had raised $660. When I got home, I added up the cash and online donations. The total was just nearly $1300. I could not believe it.
When I gave Shreeti the news, she responded saying "Oh my goodness! You have no idea how loud I just screamed after reading this. This is the best news I’ve ever woken up to. I’m beyond grateful for you and your team. Thank you so much Charlotte. I can’t believe we actually reached our goal, even surpassed our goal! This is amazing and I just can’t believe it! Thank you for showing so much support for the victims of the flood, and helping out during the festive season, you have no idea how many people’s lives are impacted.
Our mission isn't over yet. Now, we are raising our goal to $2000. Yesterday's success serves as a reminder of everything Hearts and Hands stands for. We are so much more than a volunteer organization. When someone needs help, we are there for them. Whether it is seniors with dementia, or a chapter leader, we have the power to come together and make a difference.
To donate, click this link to the Red Cross website and under your personal email enter hh4nepal@gmail.com so we know you came from our HH4Nepal fundraiser.
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