photo: copyright UC Davis

2006.10.01

The Yummy Dummy girls were mentioned in the 2006 Convocation Speech given by the UC Davis Chancellor. What an honor! The girl's contributions to the Haiti children's shelter was emphasized in a speech about Making a Difference.

You can watch a 15 second video of the speech here. Here is the text:

"That’s a lesson two of our faculty are making sure their 8-year-old daughter, Bay, and six of her friends are learning. With the help of Bay’s mom, veterinary medicine assistant professor Patricia Pesavento, and her dad, biological sciences assistant researcher David Warland, and three other sets of Davis parents, the girls have established the Yummy Dummy Chocolate Company. They make chocolate bars.

Described as “girl owned and operated,” Yummy Dummy donates 10 percent of its profits to charity – most recently to a children’s shelter in Haiti. In the process of making candy, the girls are learning that good businesses give back to society and that there are children in the world whose lives they can help make better. As one dad put it, they’re not the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but the girls’ two $20 checks to the children’s shelter have gone a long way nonetheless. Twenty dollars in U.S. currency will buy $80 worth of food and medicine in Haiti.

Yet another example of making a difference in this world…and learning the joy and the reward of doing so at an early age…. The girls are with us today. Could you please stand up so we can see where you are? I hope the rest of the folks here will come say “hi” to them at the reception. I bet I know where you’ll find them – taste-testing the chocolate cookies!