By Samantha Sineni

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December 2nd is #GivingTuesday, a time to celebrate the true holiday tradition of togetherness by giving back to those in need.

In the spirit of National Entrepreneurship Month, Operation HOPE will participate this year with our goal of raising $5,000 for HOPE Small Business Grants, which will help winners of our HOPE Business in a Box Co Princess-cupcakes-copy-350x191mpetitions launch their small businesses. Each winner receives a grant of up to 500 dollars for the launch.

Today we highlight one of our winners, Princess Paulmerie, an Oakland 7th grader running a bakery called Sweet Tooth. Princess launched the bakery at Westlake Middle School through HOPE Business in a Box when she was just 11 years old. She received a $300 grant upon winning the competition. Now, Sweet Tooth primarily sells cookies and cupcakes, and also does catering.

Princess’s recipes impressed Pia Harris, the manager of San Francisco’s Gussie’s Chicken and Waffles, who offered to sell them in the restaurant.

“Her flavor profiles were so mature for a 12-year old, and to just come up with these ideas to implement them at that age, we were just totally amazed,” Harris said.

We wish the best of luck to Princess and all of our HOPE Business in Box Competition winners. HOPE strives to create a secure future by teaching students to become future job creators, and some have already started!

To donate to youth entrepreneurs for #GivingTuesday, go to operationhope.org/donate on December 2nd. For those who cannot donate, but wish to give back, link your Amazon account to Operation HOPE on smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate a portion of the profits from your purchases to us!

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