Doughnuts for a Cause: Student Team Raises Over $1,000 for Marine Science Center 

The Climate Leaders Fellowship is a leadership development program for students interested in climate change and environmental sustainability. The online program is provided by a collaboration between the Stanford University Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Rustic Pathways Foundation.

Leyre joined the Fall 2023 cycle of the fellowship. Read all about the project below!

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Leyre Martinez-Garcia
Age 16
Port Townsend, Washington

Tell us about yourself! 

I am an exchange student from Pamplona, Spain who is currently studying in the state of Washington. I am 16 years old and I love music and sports.

Me and my classmates thought that doing this project could be a great experience that would make us grow personally and professionally.

What specific problem were you addressing in your community?

Since I am in a small community, we saw that not many people knew about climate change. So we were trying to make them know about it.

What did you do for your project?

Two other fellows from my school and I did several fundraisers to raise funds for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, where they give talks to students about climate change. We decided on raising money because that was the easiest way to contribute to this marine and science center.

Krispy Kreme has a fundraising program, which allowed us to fundraise money by selling their boxes. And we also did several bake sales.

We sold the doughnuts in our high school mainly, but we also sold them in our bake sales. Most of our bake sales took place during basketball games at our high school, although we had some at gas stations.

Which groups of people did you try to get to engage with your project?

At first, we didn’t know who would be more interested in contributing to our project, but then we thought about all the parents who want their kids to know more about climate change.

What were the results?

We collected a bit more than $1,000 and contributed all of our money to the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. With all this money, about 70 students will be able to attend climate change talks, and learn more about it. This project made me realize that we are capable of anything and I also became closer to my classmates that at first I didn’t know much about.

How did participating in the Climate Leaders Fellowship make you feel? 

Helping the world a bit has made me feel better about myself, because I know I have helped a good cause. I didn’t expect we could reach that high, since we live in a really small community. But with effort and a lot of patience, anything is possible.The Climate Leaders Fellowship is an experience that I would really like to repeat, it was amazing.