Inspired by his grandmother in India, a Connecticut teen sells homemade cookies and helps St. Jude.

Vihaan Kamath,16, traveled from his home in Connecticut to Manhattan one November evening carrying hundreds of cookies he had baked in his own kitchen. The teenager carefully arranged them on a table inside the busy restaurant where New York City marathon runners were feasting on pasta the night before the big race. 

The attendees were all St. Jude Heroes® raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®. Vihaan was there selling his home-baked goods to benefit the research hospital. St. Jude was an organization he had recently connected with, and its lifesaving mission was his motivation as he spent hours baking and packing the treats. 

“I found St. Jude to be one of the best places to partner with and help out.” Vihaan said. 

Vihaan’s idea to raise money for St. Jude and other children’s charities developed during summer trips to India, where he visited his grandmother, or “anama.” During those long, warm days in Mumbai, he followed her through busy streets as she greeted people, delivered supplies and made a difference in the lives of anyone who needed help. 

Some days, he and his grandmother, who leads a nonprofit in India, traveled to schools, handing out notebooks and pencils. On other days, they walked through the halls of the pediatric cancer area at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, bringing food and other supplies to families living through some of the hardest times of their lives.

It was at the hospital where Vihaan remembers hearing stories of families who had traveled miles from various regions of India to Mumbai so their children could receive lifesaving cancer care.

“That stuck with me through the years,” Vihaan said.

Tata Memorial Hospital is among more than 450 institutions from more than 90 countries that are part of the St. Jude Global Alliance, a global community working to advance care for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. 

The St. Jude Global South Asia Regional Program supports efforts to improve outcomes for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. This region faces significant challenges in access, equity and continuity of care, and the program works alongside local institutions to build sustainable solutions.

Vihaan learned more about the hospital’s work with St. Jude, and when he returned from his summer vacation in August of 2024, Vihaan decided he was going to do more to help children in need.

Since he enjoyed baking with his mother and grandmother, he decided it was the ideal way to raise funds. Chocolate chips and sugar cookies were his favorite, so that’s what he offered. At first, he reached out to local businesses and corporations offering his cookies for sale.    

“I just kept reaching out to more people and local businesses and partnered with a few different people,” he said.  “People really seemed to have an interest in it.” 

The orders started to trickle in. His parents, Ravish and Vijaya, donated the flour, sugar, eggs, chocolate chips and other supplies he needed to fill the orders. 

“It is their way of contributing to my cause,” Vihaan said. 

In April 2025, Vihaan established a non-profit with all proceeds going to charity. He created a website where people can place orders. He bakes most of his cookies from his home oven. A few times, he’s been able to bake large orders of cookies at a local pastry shop. The owner of the pastry shop and its employees have been supportive of Vihaan’s efforts, he said. They even offered tips on how to improve his cookie recipes, which Vihaan said he appreciated.

Weeks before he returned to India in the summer of 2025, Vihaan ramped up his baking. During his trip to India that summer, he donated funds to different children’s charities, including those who help blind children and children with cancer.  

When he returned from that trip, Vihaan wanted to extend his fundraising efforts to an organization in the United States and reached out to St. Jude. 

“The St. Jude mission, especially since I was volunteering in Asia, really stuck with me and I wanted to make a local impact where I lived,” he said.  

His dad, Ravish, initially thought Vihaan’s efforts at home would be short-lived since he was a busy teen with school and sports. But as days and weeks went by, he realized it was going to be long-term. 

“I didn’t know how far he would go with this,” Ravish said. “It was surprising, but he started to get on social media channels for this and then started to reach out to local businesses. It is now something considerable that he has done.”

Vihaan was accepted into the St. Jude Leadership Society, a program for high school students who, during a six-month period, have an opportunity to learn and to exercise their leadership skills while raising funds and awareness for the kids of St. Jude. Vihaan, a high school junior, will continue to raise funds through his cookie sales. He’s also preparing for his fundraising to continue even after he moves to college. Vihaan, who wants to pursue a career in business, has recruited younger friends to help him continue with his cookie charity. 

“I created a student board with sophomores and freshmen from my school who will continue this after I move,” he said. “I’ll continue it when I go to college. I don’t want to stop, but the plan is to have sophomores and freshmen do all aspects of the work, so it continues through generations and generations and so that this keeps growing.”