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Washington Post

Pets are still being rescued from Texas floods. One girl is helping.

Kamryn Balfour was at summer camp less than 20 miles from Camp Mystic when devastating floods tore through Central Texas earlier this month. 'I didn't hear about it until I got picked up the next day when it was all sunny, and I just thought it was some pretty hard rain,' said Kamryn, 11, a camper at Kickapoo Kamp in Kerrville, Texas. 'I felt very, very sad that those innocent girls got flooded out.' She realized how lucky she was to have been spared. 'I was there at camp like them, too. That could have been me,' said Kamryn, who did not know anyone at Camp Mystic. At least 135 people were killed in the flooding, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic. Kamryn — who lives in League City, Texas, about halfway between Houston and Galveston — said she felt helpless and heartbroken. An idea came to her during the car ride home from camp. Kamryn decided she would bake and sell cookies, donating all proceeds to flood relief efforts. She set a goal of raising $500, and started baking as soon as she got home from her two-week camp on July 5. She has since baked about 40 batches of chocolate chip cookies, and far surpassed her goal, raising more than $4,300. 'Everybody can make a difference, even if they're a little kid like me,' she said. In May, Kamryn started a baking business called Kamryn's Kravings as part of a kids' entrepreneur fair she participated in. While she didn't keep up with the business after the fair, 'that's when my love for baking started,' she said, noting that her signature chocolate chip cookies use a 'top-secret' family recipe. After the floods, Kamryn decided to restart her baking business, but this time, with a mission. She was concerned that pets might be overlooked in the relief efforts, so she designated charities that were helping pets after the floods, including Kerrville Pets Alive and the Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team. Kamryn wanted to support both the pets impacted by the floods and the rescue dogs that aided in recovery. 'I thought maybe I could help,' Kamryn said. The search for displaced pets is ongoing. Kerrville Pets Alive got a call a few days ago about a cat found inside an oven that had been destroyed by flooding. The cat was dehydrated but alive. The group is still trying to reunite rescued pets with their owners. Volunteers continue to recover pets in the area, and though many of them have died, volunteers are identifying them by their microchips so they can alert owners who are still looking for them. Kamryn posted about her fundraising effort on social media, and her family and friends did the same. As word spread, orders started pouring in. 'I didn't have any idea it would take off like this, and all of a sudden, we couldn't even keep up,' said Kamryn's mother, Kelly Balfour, who helps her daughter bake. 'Whatever we make, we sell.' Kamryn is currently enrolled in gymnastics camp, though she still bakes most days, and shops for groceries with her mother. She puts five cookies in a small white bag with a pink bow and sells each for $5 — though many customers donate far more. 'Most people will give a $50 bill and only want two or three bags of cookies,' Balfour said. Orders started mounting even more after Kamryn's baking project was covered by local station KHOU 11. Balfour's friend, Gina Gutierrez — the owner of Cakes by Gina, a bakeshop in Houston — offered up her industrial kitchen. Kamryn is only able to bake one batch at a time, which is about 40 cookies, in their oven at home. 'I said, 'Girl, come on over here, let me help you. Let's multiply the recipe by four or five,'' said Gutierrez. 'The young kids are our future and Kamryn's an example of that … I put my energy into helping her achieve her goals.' Gutierrez encouraged Kamryn to host a pop-up bake sale at her shop on July 12, which was a success, and she has two more pop-ups planned in the coming days. In addition to the pop-ups, Kamryn and her mother hand-deliver the bags of cookies to local customers who place orders over Instagram. 'Kamryn is so cute; she hasn't let me see the full recipe,' Gutierrez said, adding that Kamryn is meticulous about her baking process. Once Kamryn reaches $5,000, she plans to evenly distribute the funds between the two organizations she has chosen. 'It's so heartwarming to see the compassion, especially in these young children who could easily be distracted by other things,' said Karen Guerriero, the board president of Kerrville Pets Alive. 'We thank her from the bottom of our hearts.' Guerriero said Kamryn's contributions are coming at a critical time. 'This will really help us with the extra expenses we have related to the flood animals,' she said, explaining that they're still finding displaced pets in the wreckage of the floods. Kamryn said she plans to keep her fundraising efforts going. 'This is the first time I've raised money to help someone, but it definitely won't be the last,' she said.