Student starts business to aid cancer research

My grandmother Shanette “Meme” Edler was a co-owner for Liuzza’s Restaurant and Bar in Mid-City New Orleans. She was a real piece of work. We would go to Liuzza’s all the time, and she taught me about the business, letting me stamp checkbooks while she did financial work. Every now and then I could help her count money.

By age 8, I was busing tables. Even though my dad, who is also in the restaurant business, taught me business savvy, I believe my Meme made me who I am today.

Unfortunately, while teaching me, Meme was ill. She had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2004 and had suffered from double breast cancer in earlier years.

One never would have guessed in 2010 that she was working on only one lung. On Feb. 12, 2011, she was sent back to God to look over my family. It was tough. Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, my dog passed away from leukemia four months later. Then, a lot of people I knew started getting cancer. It was horrible.

My mom and I were about to start a new life in Gulf Breeze, Fla., when two loved ones passed away before they could experience our new place with us. After a while of feeling sad, I did what I knew was best – I moved on while still keeping Meme in my heart.

Sometime in March 2012, I saw a commercial that got me thinking: What could I do to promote awareness of cancer?

I thought of the Care and Cure Foundation. I decided to raise money by making and selling crafts with proceeds benefitting groups such as the American Cancer Society and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

Care and Cure was the beginning of something big. We could feel it. It was the beginning of what my Meme had prepared me for all this time – a business of my own.

I designed and ordered rainbow silicone bracelets and came up with the slogans: “Love Life” and “Go Colorful for the Cure,” originally selling them at school. Then I designed blue and gold drawstring backpacks to sell alongside the bracelets.

This business is much more than a lemonade-stand-kind-of-enterprise. I made a Facebook account, PayPal account and website and even have tax numbers and made this legal.

Our proceeds now benefit American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

I have been given many opportunities for Care and Cure at Mount Carmel. For the past several months, I have been part of Junior Achievement’s Junior Idea Sweet Sixteen program for teens who want to be future entrepreneurs. This program has helped me make Care and Cure better.

You can “go colorful” for the cure by spreading the word. We are expanding our product list but also need people to sell to and, ultimately, need to find a cure for cancer.

Please be a sponsor or make a donation. To help, call me at 920-7213 or email me at care.and.cure0212@gmail.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this. And please remember … go COLORFUL for the cure and LOVE LIFE!

Isabel Caballero is 14 years old and is a ninth grader at Mount Carmel Academy in New Orleans.