“Feel-good focus” is a series of feature articles celebrating local residents who are doing good things for others

By Trent Modglin

It took me all of about two minutes into my visit with Ella Goldklang to begin to question her honesty.

Sitting in her living room with Ella and her mom, Michelle, I thought to myself: There’s no way this young woman is only 16 years old.

Simply no way. I half-jokingly asked to her see her ID.

But indeed, Ella is a 16-year-old junior at Maine South, who just happens to own and operate Meaningful Muffins by Ella, a year-old charitable endeavor in Park Ridge that donates 100 percent of its muffin proceeds to local nonprofits that promote inclusivity and support individuals with differing abilities.

The passion project began last fall, when she was discussing college plans and her interests with her school guidance counselors.

“I was in a baking class at the time, and I thought it was a perfect way to connect my interests,” says Ella. “And the neurodiverse community is definitely an important topic in this world, so I thought baking and helping people with special needs, raising awareness and promoting inclusivity would be the focus.”

See what I mean? You’d ask for her ID too.

Everyone has a unique situation in life, but that doesn’t determine who you are and how you can change and grow. My brother teaches me every day to be an understanding person and be a friend to everyone.”

The root cause of her mission centers around her Autistic older brother, Jadon, who learns at a difference pace and often through a different path than most students. Years ago, when it was determined Jadon would need a tutor for math and someone to help with reading comprehension and social interactions, the family decided who better to guide him than his younger sister?

“Being with my brother my entire life, it’s taught me to always be understanding of everyone,” says Ella, again showing a maturity well beyond her years. “I’ve seen him grow so much. He’s more involved at school, he’s connecting with friends and looking at colleges now.

“Everyone has a unique situation in life, but that doesn’t determine who you are and how you can change and grow. He teaches me every day to be an understanding person and be a friend to everyone.”

At this point, I look at Ella’s mom, smile and shake my head.

“This child, I don’t know,” Michelle says, admiringly. “I only know she’s mine because I birthed her. I was not like this at her age.”

———————————————

With an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to give back to the community, Ella drew up a business plan in late 2023, which included getting certified for what’s called a “cottage food license.” If you’re wondering what that is, you’re not alone. Turns out you need one to legally serve food in Illinois. The license involved a lengthy online course about food preparation and food safety and then a ton of paperwork that needed to be filed with, and approved by, the Cook County Board of Health. Ella handled it seamlessly over the course of four long months.

She did it all on her own, like a boss. … But this has always been Ella. She came out of the womb with a plan. She just knows how to tackle things.” — Ella’s mom, Michelle

“She did it all on her own, like a boss,” Michelle says with a grin. “I was watching behind her and she just handled everything. But this has always been Ella. She came out of the womb with a plan. She just knows how to tackle things and could probably go to college tomorrow and be fine.

“My husband and I are both in medicine, but we have no business sense. But Ella just figured it out, took the wheel and got this project off the ground within a few months. I was so impressed. She said, ‘I’ll figure it out,’ and here we are now, up and running and raising money.”

The delicious muffins (and I should know because I’m officially hooked) range in flavors from chocolate chip and blueberry-lemon to honey or raspberry-white chocolate chip, with some seasonal alterations thrown in like strawberry-lemon or Italian blood orange options in the summer to vanilla or pumpkin-chocolate chip in the fall.

Ella’s muffins can be delivered for free within a 10-minute radius of Park Ridge, and she loves attending events to get the word out about her company and the local organizations she donates to, like the Amina Grace Memorial Fund and Have Dreams.

Ella’s muffins can be delivered for free within a 10-minute radius of Park Ridge, and she admittedly loves attending events to help get the word out about her company and the local organizations she donates her time and earnings to, like the Amina Grace Memorial Fund (Down syndrome) and Have Dreams (Autism), where she serves as a “social buddy” volunteer on Mondays and Wednesdays and donated $1,223 in June.

Michelle recalls meeting one customer at a Cruisin’ Park Ridge car show in town this summer who was so intrigued by Ella’s cause that he became emotional, eventually sharing that his son — the “light of my life,” as he called him — was Autistic.

“He had never heard of a teenager being this aware,” Michelle says. “Everywhere you go you’re just kind of in awe on how connected we all are. Everybody is dealing with something in life. My favorite thing as a mom and as an observer is to see her bringing people closer through all this.”

———————————————

In case you’re wondering about her future, Ella plans to continue growing her company until she graduates from Maine South, with dreams of attending USC, UCLA or perhaps an Ivy League school after that. And she’s already priming her younger sister, Tessa, to take the torch when she departs for college. The goal: To create a legacy of sorts. A muffin legacy, straight from the heart.

“I love how interested and invested people are in what I’m doing,” Ella adds. “I feel really strongly about the importance of inclusivity. Not focusing on the neurodiversity stigmas, but instead focusing on people’s abilities.”

And with that, the timer on the oven in Ella’s kitchen goes off, and it was time for me to depart. It was getting late on a school night, after all, and a 16-year-old with the world at her fingertips had more cupcakes to bake, more funds to raise during Down syndrome awareness month, and surely a little studying to do.

And an ID to hand over. You know, for proof once and for all.

You can reach Ella by email at [email protected] and follow her on Instagram or online at MeaningfulMuffinsByElla.com