The words, scrawled in black magic marker by 8-year-old Michaela Hourigan, ‘Cupcakes for Haiti’ was carefully taped to her stand.

From watching television footage of the earthquake that struck the small island nation, Hourigan came up with a simple, yet brilliant, social entrepreneurial solution to a huge problem.

Cupcakes, fresh from the oven,  would show the sweet and heartfelt help for Haiti that was taking place in this Denver neighborhood. For each cupcake sold, sprinkles or not, (a $1.00 for the small cupcakes and $2.00 for the larger) went directly to the American Red Cross Mile High Chapter where Hourigan raised $1000 for relief aid.

I was alerted to this story through Twitter and simply contacted the young social entrepreneur’s mother and scheduled a time to swing by to meet, take some photographs and of course, buy a cupcake. I pitched the story idea to one of my longtime editorial clients, The Denver Post, and was given the green light by an editor to take a look.

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For those of you, by you I mean that one guy or gal (quite possibly my mom) that read my other Freshwater Images blog … may remember me noting that I would like to profile more social entrepreneurs, local business leaders and creative folks that have really great ideas.

I never thought that the first entry on this new blog would feature a slight and curly haired 8-year-old and the youngest social entrepreneur that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

Good luck Michaela.

For more information you can visit the Cupcakes For A Cause Facebook page where you can still donate money directly to the Red Cross.

Cheers,

Nathan