(gentle music) - I was frosting cupcakes this morning.

I just laughed because I worked in the OR for 30 years before I went to baking school, and I looked at myself and it was the same type of hat I would have worn in the OR.

And it was paper mask like we used to wear.

And I just thought, "Oh my gosh, just like the old days."

(gentle music) I'm Rita Ballenger.

I'm the founder and a volunteer at Abolition Bakery.

It's a home produced, volunteer operated bakery.

The mission is to raise awareness of human trafficking and we donate those proceeds to organizations that help human trafficking survivors.

The way that the crisis has affected Abolition Bakery is that, right away, all the orders for March, canceled.

Now, since then, orders have trickled in.

When people come to pick up bakery, they don't come in my house.

They text me when they pull up, I put the bakery on the front porch, they put the money in the mailbox, and then we visit through the glass.

But I see people really coming together and trying to help each other with food banks and a lot of drive-by birthday parties and I'm very happy to be in Ohio at this time.

I really am.

I think that when this is over with, I see people rallying together, to get out there and spend money in stores again and help.

Just the thought that, "Wow, this isn't just happening here, "this is all over the world, it's quiet."

To live through this time and to, hopefully, to respond to it well, to come out of it a better person, to say that somehow this transformed me for good.

I mean I'm not looking at it as all negative.

I think that good can come out of this too.

(gentle music)