Welcome to Pennies4Penny! This is Rhea. Technically, I am Penny’s 2nd cousin since her mommy, Carina and I are 1st cousins. But I am so used to being called “Auntie Rhea” that I’ll go with that.
If you are here, you undoubtedly know about Penny’s diagnosis of Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. Here is a quick rundown of how they came to this diagnosis. Since they were 1st admitted, they’ve had a pretty rough go of things. Penny has underwent two surgeries, numerous tests and scans, blood transfusions, chemo and treatments. Just yesterday, they received word that Penny now has RSV.
They are beginning their third week in the hospital.
This is not a disease to be taken lightly, nor is it something any parent should have to watch their child endure!
Today, we are staging a media blitz! We want need to get the word out about Penny and her fight to beat cancer. She has an insurance policy, but frankly, it kinda sucks. It will only cover 60% of her medical treatments. Well, in this country, cancer treatment isn’t cheap. It’s downright, take your breath away, expensive as hell.
No parent should have to chose between saving the life of their child or financial ruin.
We need you to tweet (use #pennies4penny), blog, email your friends and update your facebook status all day today with messages about Penny. We need to get peoples attention!
(We Especially need tweets to our local news stations: Fox 5, 10News, NBC San Diego)
We need you to take Penny’s widget there on the sidebar and add it to your website so that your visitors will learn of her fight and take notice.
We need you to spread the word of Penny’s fundraiser auction that will be held next Friday, March 19th beginning at 6am PST. As importantly as we need you to share the news of the auction, we need you to show up and BID. We have some really awesome donations gathered with more to come.
Auction items that are already confirmed:
- Family 4 pack of passes to Legoland CA
- Build a Bear prize pack
- Beautiful pendant from The Pretty Peacock .
- Haircut GC’s to Pigtails & Crewcuts in Chula Vista, CA (courtesy of www.sandiegobargainmama.com)
- A $250.00 GC to aden + anais.
- Creative Memories PicFolio Quick Kit (courtesy of www.SuzyQHomemaker.com)
- A Creativity for Kids prize pack
- A croqueted baby blanket made by Becky Kremkau
- A Skitter Toy
- A (not even released to the public yet) TuTu from Three Peas Co.
- Three prize packs from SprigToys.com
- Dinner for 4 at the Mediterranean Room in La Valencia Hotel.
- Coupons for 1.5 hours of bowling, shoe rentals and snacks for six at Kearny Mesa Bowl.
Whew! And I still have a week left…who knows what amazingly generous donations little Penny will get. I can’t thank enough the donors who have provided these items to us. It warms my heart that their are still good people in this world and little Penelope is bringing them all together!
The auction will run through the weekend and close Sunday March 21st at 9pm PST.
If you have been so wonderful to post about Penny on your blog today, please use the linky below to share your voice. I want everyone to know who is supporting Penny and for her friends & family to be able to read the words of the amazing bloggers out there that I am proud to be calling my friends. Thank you!
Healing Hugs and many prayers for Penny and family. I hope my blog post brings many visitors, prayers and help.
Blessings
I hope my little bit helps too. You are such a strong little girl. I’ve posted, tweeted and fed everything into my two facebook accounts – I’ll keep going today and will definitely be there for the auction next week.
Those are some amazing companies to have donated those items.
My heart goes out to Penny and her family, I hope they will find a way to get through all of this. I will tweet about this and post on my facebook and my blogs facebook wall. Where is the auction? Are you doing any bidding virtually for those who are not close by?
Hi,
I’ve tweeted you. Do you have anyone writing press releases for you? I am a PR person and could make a template for you and get you contact info. Send me an email if you are interested. Penny is beautiful.
Julie
My family is praying for your little girl! She is strong and beautiful – God bless your family. If you are looking for additional auciton items, I may be able to help. Contact me if you are interested.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by LorieShewbridge: RT @householdsix: Help little Penny in her fight against stage 4 neuroblastoma. Help spread her story http://tiny.cc/fLCxn #pennies4penny…
Nick Upton at KSON has tweeted, made a on air announcement and added Penny to their facebook page! Thank you Nick!!!
Yes! Thank you Nick!! We have gotten many contacts letting us know they heard it!
Hello! I’ve been trying to raise awareness for Penny through twitter. I’d like to donate something to the auction and also do something more ongoing like creating something custom for her and then making that “pennys” item in my boutique and a portion of the proceeds will go to the family indefinately! Please email me since I can’t find any contact info for you…bellebabytutus@gmail.com. You can find my fan page on FB at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Franklin-OH/Belle-Baby-Tutus/99874893232?ref=ts. View my items and let me know what you think about my offer
God bless!
I heard about your website from craigslist. Your story has touched my heart!! I’m so sorry to hear everything that you and your family are going through, I can’t even imagine. My niece has a very rare disease where she was on dialysis since 2 months old and just recieved a kidney/liver transplant. I understand the whole financial thing. I did post your story on my blog, hoping it will spread the word. My thoughts and prayers are with you. GOOD LUCK!!!
Hi Rebecca,
Thank you so much for spreading the word. My brother was also born with a chromosome disorder that caused him to have just one kidney and it was small. Eventually it failed and he went on dialysis and has been on it for a while. My hopes, thoughts, prayers and wishes go out to your niece and family.
[...] pay for Penny’s treatments. You can find out all of the details and learn more about Penny at Pennies4Penny.org. The auction will run through the weekend and end at 9pm PST on March [...]
Many hugs and prayers for sweet little Penny and her family!
My thoughts and prayers are with your family. I will be posting about this tomorrow.
Would like to donate four (4) Complimentary Tickets to the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center Exhibition Hall and any IMAX Movie for the auction. Please contact me and let me know where I can send them. Sending you good thoughts and prayers ~ Virginia
I had never heard of Neuroblastoma until someone sent me an invite to a group on facebook “Praying for Layla Grace” and now I seem to hear about it everywhere. I have a 2 yr old little girl and so reading about Layla Grace and now your little Penelope is really making me want to do what I can to help raise awareness about this horrible disease. I am so sorry for what you are having to go through and you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. I don’t know if you have already or not but I was wondering if you had a group set up on facebook. I understand if you don’t have time to do it…I will be glad to start it for you and just copy the information you have on here. I know that a group on facebook spreads the word really fast and will get you all kinds of people all around the world praying for your little girl and also donating money to. Just something I wanted to throw out there to ya. I don’t know you but I am getting to know you through following you on twitter and on here.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.
Brandy
Murfreesboro, TN
My heart hurts for you and your precious daughter. I’m afraid I can’t do a whole lot but my daughter and I can donate every dime, nickel and penny that we have here in our home. I just need a way to get it to you all as we have no vehicle. Give me an idea so we may do our small part to help you.
I am so sorry for your hardship and your family’s pain.
I would love to donate a $50 gift certificate to my baby store, Babies in Bloom. lease let me know where to mail it to. Prayers and healing thoughts being sent to you.
We don’t have much money, but we want to help in any way possible. I work at the San Diego Zoo and they give us a bunch of tickets. I have 28 admission tickets right now. Can I donate them to be auctioned off?
We met Penelope while our daughter was at Rady’s recently. We saw her roaming the halls in her walker and we fell in love! What a beautiful child!! My 9 year old daughter was especially touched by her; she made her a card and painted a wooden giraffe in the playroom for her. It brought a smile to her face then and we hope it continues to. Our thoughts and prayers are with your family.
so sad to hear about the trials that such sweet innocent children go through! I am a professional baby and child photographer and would like to donate 3 30minute photoshoots (digital files included) to the auction. let me know what more info you need from me! my website is http://www.joiedevivrephotography.com. thanks!
Hi Stefanie, I’ve sent you an email. Thank you so much.
I just want to say that I found Penelopes story by accident and I have been checking back regularly. I put a link to her page on my hyenacart store and I hope that helps in some way. I also would love to donate something for the auction but I am not sure where to do that or who to speak with. I could donate a diaper bag or a bamboo velour baby blanket or both for that matter. Or I am more than willing to donate anything on my store hyenacart.com/fashionablygreenbaby. Please let me know if any of these things would help for your auction and also if you are going to be doing another auction I am sure I can round of a lot of stuff from other moms like me who have there own store of handmade good. All of my items are handmade by me and as I said I would really like to help out. Please email me if you are interested or if I can help in any other way.
We are so sorry for your family what an awful thing to have to go through. Not sure where to send a donation but will find out someway. God Bless you and yours Lee and Jewel Eiler
Hi, I love the Toy Story movies, very good film!