She Already Knew She Was a Baker
Lele didn’t come to Wonderfully Made to learn how to bake. She came to belong — and somewhere along the way, she built an empire.
Lele graduated from the University of Georgia’s Destination Dawgs program. She works at Crumbl Cookie. She runs her own home bakery business, Baking with Lele. She plays basketball every Tuesday with her father, Coach John, on the Wonderfully Made court.
She is not waiting for the world to make room for her. She is already in the room.
Her mother, Saretta, is one of Kitty Correll’s oldest and dearest friends. It was that friendship — the kind that carries real history and real trust — that brought Lele into the early baking gatherings in Kitty’s kitchen. Saretta trusted Kitty. And Kitty had built something worth trusting.
Coach John, Lele’s father, remembers a different season — the one that came right after high school ended. There were jobs available, yes. But jobs aren’t the whole story. His daughter wanted what all of us want: people to be with. Friends who feel like chosen family. A place where someone is glad to see you walk through the door.
“These young adults want to be with other young adults.”
When John first connected with the Wonderfully Made team, he advocated for building in exercise — for understanding that these young adults needed their bodies engaged as much as their hands. They listened. Every Tuesday, he is on that court leading basketball. And Lele is right there — competing, coaching, laughing, belonging.
Her favorite cookie is the gluten-free oatmeal butterscotch. She will bake it for you herself.
There is a phrase that has anchored Wonderfully Made since the beginning, borrowed from Psalm 139:14: fearfully and wonderfully made. Every person who walks through the doors of this program arrives already carrying that identity. Wonderfully Made doesn’t bestow it. It creates the conditions for it to be seen.
Lele was already a baker before she got here. Already a daughter, a Dawg, a worker, a friend. What Wonderfully Made gave her — and what Coach John exhaled about — was a community of people who see all of that and celebrate it.
“It’s like having six brothers and sisters,” he said. “It’s a godsend.”
That word gets used carefully around here. Because we believe it.
Order cookies baked by the Wonder Makers
Every cookie from the Wonderfully Made Bakery is made with purpose — and they are genuinely delicious. Order online at wonderfullymadecommunity.org/bakery and taste what belonging looks like.