Bella Zapata’s grandparents gave her a book about pandas and ever since she’s been hooked and reading it over and over again. Pandas are the 9-year-old’s favorite animal and she loves watching YouTube videos of baby ones.

For her birthday this year, instead of asking for presents, she’s turned her passion into action. Bella collected donations to go directly towards helping endangered giant pandas.

“I mean truly it warms my heart for even having the thought to want to do something like this,” Bella’s mom Kalyn Zapata said. “It’s the good that we want to see in the world.”

Bella partnered with Dough Mama’s Bakery to collect donations through the month of August. They had tons of customers putting money in a jar for Bella along with the bakery contributing their tips to the jar as well.

All donations money raised went directly to Pandas International to protect the world’s giant pandas. Bella celebrated her 10th birthday in August and she ended up collecting and donating over $1,000! She was able to symbolically adopt a panda for a year with her donation.