Baking a Difference

I am thrilled and honored to be able to contribute today's Frosting for the Cause entry. Have you heard the buzz yet?

Frosting for the Cause is a blog featuring 365 different bloggers throughout the United States and Canada who are focusing their baking efforts and monetary donations on the fight against cancer.  We are sharing a recipe of a favorite baked good, replete with pictures of the process, and sharing special people (specifically women) who have battled cancer. While I'm hopeful that awareness about cancer no longer has to be raise, the website is dedicated to raising funds and inciting action in order to place cancer alongside polio and smallpox as a disease that has been largely conquered.
Today, my recipes (I offered three) honor those whom I have lost to cancer - specifically, my grandmother, a family friend, and my dad (there were so many more people, family and friends alike, that I might also have mentioned).  My donation of cookies and money, though, did more than honor someone.  I know that both work to help Lily defeat cancer.  I have mentioned Lily here before; she is the daughter of a co-worker of mine.  She is 11 years old, and she has Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma.

Ready for the bake sale!

I was fortunate enough to donate my cookies this last weekend to a bake sale that raised money to directly help Lily fight her cancer and pay her mounting medical bills.  This bake sale was affiliated with a cut-a-thon, and I made a donation here to get my hair cut (awesome job, by the way!).  In March, a lunch fundraiser was held, and Scott, HRH, and I went out to support that effort, too.  I further plan to donate to Lily's fund via her blog; please consider helping her out, too.
In the fight against cancer, there is never a donation that is too small.  My donations to Lily directly support her personal fight, yet I know that there are so many others who need assistance as well.  If I could, I would make donations to everyone I met. But I can't.  I can't do this alone.  This is what I love about Frosting for the Cause. Each blogger has committed to donating $25.  Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, true.  But when each donation from all 365 of us is added together, the total amount is $9,125.  And that's just the minimum.  Many people have donated more than that.  What's more, these blog posts have helped spur other donations (from people like you, our wonderful followers).
Cancer - any cancer - is a terrible and terrifying disease.  But it is also JUST a word. And people working together are more powerful than any single word.
Thank you to Paula at Frosting for the Cause for extending this opportunity to me and to those who are fighting for their lives.  I hope they know that I will fight beside them.