Showing posts with label #AFundForJennie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #AFundForJennie. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2011

Is This Thing On?

As I'm writing this, there's just 12 hours left on our cake pop stand auction... it will end at 9:00pm tonight, so we are in crunch mode!!!

I promise I'll go back to blogging about cake pops, recipes and other mumbo jumbo next week, but I've devoted this week to #AFundForJennie, so I'm seeing it through.  She deserves it, as do her young daughters.

Right now I'm in awe of Mike (@MikeVFMK) from Toronto. He rounded up FIFTY (50) cookbooks, donated by the chef themselves (including Bakerella); some are even autographed!  Can you even imagine 50 books?  The winner of that auction will be one lucky individual! 


1. Bid on one of the many auction items on BWOB's auction list.

2. Donate what you can, whether its $0.01, $1 or $10  (click on BWOB icon at top-right of my blog).  

3. Help spread the word - that is free! 

4. Start your own #AFundForJennie Fundraiser :-)


*tapping my microphone* Is this thing on?  Please share if you've helped promote #AFundForJennie or are doing your own fundraiser; I genuinely would love to hear from you.  Happy Friday ya'll!

xoxo,
  Kim  

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Earthquake, Hurricane and #AFundForJennie!

Hey everyone! I hope you're all recovering ok from the East-Coast earthquake on Tuesday (if you felt it) and are taking the proper precautions if you're in the area of Hurricane Irene!  It is so crazy to watch the news these days, the world is certainly keeping the reporters busy.

I honestly am so overwhelmed by the massive outpouring of support for #AFundForJennie.  I don't know her personally, and sadly, I didn't even know of her blog before learning of her tragedy.  But something connected with me (maybe because my husband's name is Mike), that made me want to do anything I could to help her out.  I may complain about not wanting to workout, or doing chores around the house, but all of my "woes" seemed so minute in comparison.

If you haven't visited the Bloggers Without Borders auction list, please go there now... I can wait :-)

* humming a little tune... filing my nails... going to get a drink of water * 

Did you check it out yet?  There are over 58 auctions, and every cent goes to #AFundForJennie.  There is something to bid on for every type of interest... cookies, bakeware, photography, one of a kind experiences, classes... even a custom Cake Pop Stand by yours truly, KC Bakes!  And I've seen on Twitter that there are still many more fundraising projects in the works as well.

Here are the facts... Jennie has two daughters, ages 3 and 8.  She is overwhelmed not only by her grief, and the sudden responsibility of raising two children by herself, but she is also struggling with this financially. She just learned that she cannot collect widow’s benefits from Social Security because she earns too much money each year. The health insurance for her and her kids runs out in December and she just learned that the total she will have to pay will be more than her mortgage. It’s possible she’ll have to pay off the entire mortgage in one lump sum because the apartment was in his name alone.

How can you help?

1. Bid on one of the many auction items. Honestly, the item you win is a bonus... the money your spending will truly effect the life of a mother and her children. 

2. Donate what you can, whether its $0.01, $1 or $10  (click on BWOB icon at top-right of my blog).  

3. Help spread the word - that is free! 


xoxo,
  Kim  

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Tuesday Muse-Day #AFundForJennie

Every Tuesday here on my blog is Tuesday Muse-day.  This morning, I took a minute to really look at the word "muse"...

muse (/myuz)
     verb (used without object)
        1. to think or meditate in silence, as on some subject.
        2. Archaic . to gaze meditatively or wonderingly.
     verb (used with object)
        3. to meditate on.
        4. to comment thoughtfully or ruminate upon.

All of these uses of the word aptly apply to #AFundForJennie, and the viral support being shown for Jennie Perillo.  Twitter is simply abuzz with love.  I even saw my favorite celebrity chef, Richard Blais of Top Chef fame, retweet a #AFundForJennie tweet, because one of his fans asked him to.  How cool is that? 

Please look the growing auction list below and see if anything strikes your fancy, and consider taking part.  If you'd like to contribute to Jennie's cause, but aren't able to participate in the auction, there is a donation page that is set-up where you can PayPal your contribution (click on the BWOB icon at the top-right of my blog).  And if you aren't able to contribute financially, help spread the word - that is free!  Facebook status, tweet, blog, email, heck - put a flyer up at your office!

Here are current auctions taking place for #AFundForJennie.

KC Bakes: Custom 30-Pop Cake Pop Stand

One Tough Cookie: 24 Back to School Cookies

Raleigh Cake Pops & Goodies For Gifts: custom Peanut Butter Pie "Mikey" Cake Pops

Pieced Together Mosaic: A Sushi Mosaic for Jennie

Nomnivorous: One Day Personalized In-Home Cooking Class

Run With Tweezers: A Spot at an Upcoming Food Styling Workshop

Gluten Free Girl & The Chef: Gluten free dinner party for six in Seattle

What Gaby's Cooking: Two dozen homemade Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies

Food Woolf: Wire Sculpture and a Visioning Workshop

A Thought for Food: 8x10 Brian Samuels photograph and 30 watercolor note cards

Use Real Butter: Two beautiful 12 x 18 photographs

Big Summer Potluck: Two tickets to next year’s gathering

Penny De Los Santos A Day of Photography on Assignment 

The Peche - Chocolate Chunk Cookies (raffle entry for donation)

Kudos Kitchen by Renee: Four Jack O' Lantern Wine Glasses


Grampa's Gourmet: Four-Pack of Varietal Honeys

Three Many Cooks: Pam Anderson Cooking Class for 6 Guests + Pam's 6 Books, Autographed

Monica Dalkin: Original Ceramic Work for Food Styling

Chicago Metallic Bakeware: Basket of 15 Different Baking Pans

Miss in the Kitchen: Two Sets of Flour Sack Towels (raffle entry for BWOB donation)

For even more auctions, check out Bloggers Withouth Borders Master List

Monday, August 22, 2011

#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.