#AFundForJennie

This is a long blog, but please take 5 minutes to read every word. Please.

I'm new to the world of blogging, but I've quickly learned that Jennifer Perillo is a well-respected member of the food blogging community. Readers all over the world love her for her delicious recipes, as well as her honest, straight-from-the-heart writing about her life and her family.  

If you aren't familiar with her, you many not know this, but two weeks ago, Jennie’s beloved husband, Mikey, died suddenly of massive heart attack.  Word spread quickly through social media, which is how I found out.  Barely two days after losing her husband, Jennie  shared a recipe and asked that we remember Mikey by feeding our own loved ones with his favorite pie.  With that simple post, an internet movement was born.  THOUSANDS of people have made pies and shared their stories. I even saw a restaurant offered their own pie on their menu as part of the movement.

Jennie & her husband, Mikey. Picture from her post Looking for You (I Was)

I posted their picture here because I feel its important to put faces to names. There are so many causes out there, but none has touched my heart so profoundly as this tragic loss for Jennie and her daughters.  My eyes start tearing up everytime I read Jennie's recent blog posts. I'm sitting here sniffling, with a lump in my throat and literally wiping away tears, as I type this very post. 

I can't imagine the "new normal" Jennie and her girls now have to deal with.  There’s a mortgage to pay.  New medical insurance policies come with huge increases because Jennie’s not employed by a single corporation.  Needless to say, these are mind-numbing realities under the best of circumstances.  Needless again to say, we all want to help bridge these gaps that are left when lives are forever changed.

That’s why #AFundForJennie* has been created by Shauna Ahern and Maggy Keet, and it’s one of the very first projects the new organization, Bloggers Without Borders is taking on.  But, the ante’s been upped a bit here.  Monies collected are the primary objective, of course.  However,  there’s a little twist here.  Bloggers will be auctioning off  what they do best to help one of their own.

SO, beginning today, we’re auctioning off a custom 30-pop cake pop stand**.  You design it, we will make it.  If the winning bid is $100 or more, I will personally pay for the shipping - US or internationally.

You can leave your bid in the comments section of this post, or if you wish for your bid to be kept private, you can email it to me at kcbakes@hotmail.com.  We’ll keep the auction open until 9 p.m. Friday, August 26.  Highest bidder will be announced here and on Twitter by the morning of Saturday, August 27.

Let's start the bidding at $40. Who will make the next bid?

xoxo,
  Kim  

*Bloggers without Borders is a charity that was founded by Maggie Keet ofThreeManyCooks, Erica Pineda-Ghanny of Ivory Hut, and Aimee Wimbush-Bourque of Simple Bites.

**We will make every effort to accommodate the winner's custom design; however we are slightly limited with our equipment, so a comprimise design may need to be made.