Support Bridget Zinn - Silent Auction May 29, 2009

The following is from April Henry’s blog:

Can you help?



This is Bridget Zinn. Three things happened to Bridget in February:
1. She got an agent for her young adult novel.
2. She got married.
3. She found out she had Stage Four colon cancer.

I met Bridget a year ago at an Oregon SWCBI event. She had just moved to Portland from Wisconsin, where she was a teen librarian. She is a beautiful person, inside and out. When she found out she had an agent, she was just glowing. A few days later she went to a naturopath for headaches and vision problems. She ended up in the ER – and learned very quickly that she had cancer.

As Bridget says in her blog, “I would like to add in here that I am a super super healthy non-smoking, non-drinking, carcinogen avoiding young vegetarian who wears sunscreen every day. I looked at the list of risk factors for colon cancer and it turn out that I don’t even have one. Not one risk factor. So that was a surprise. Then Barrett and I decided to get married. He proposed on my hospital bed, it was terribly romantic and we were married by the hospital chaplain the first possible moment we could be.”

But now Bridget is dealing with an ugly reality that is all too common in America today. Even when you have insurance that covers most things, it doesn’t cover everything. Medscape reports, “The cost of treating colorectal cancer has skyrocketed over the past 5 years or so, and the costs of new agents and regimens have risen 340-fold.”

Here’s how you can help. A group of writers who have been impressed with Bridget’s friendliness and what can only be described as her radiant joy (even now) has banded together to help Bridget with the costs she faces.

A silent auction featuring local items will take place on May 29th at the Lucky Lab Brew Pub, 915 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Time: 6:30-9:00

The private room at the Lucky Lab will host a silent auction and raffle to support Bridget Zinn. The list of silent auction items is growing:

Framed art work by Susan Boase

Lucky Boy and Three Robbers by Susan Boase

Charity Heller Hogge, Three hours of editing time–consultation, developmental editing, or copy editing

Spa Basket from Bunny’s Bath (donated by friends of Bridget’s family)

“Write” silver bracelet(also feature at the on-line auction)designed by Laura Hamor

Web Design by arkacreations specifically for writers

Bamboo Scarf by Roxanna Matthews

Five hours of Landscape service by Lisa Nowak

Gift certificates for canine massage

Gift Certificate for a facial by Jane Cowan

2K9 YA Book Basket

2K9 MG Book Basket

Grey Griffin Set, Signed First Edition. by J.S. Lewis

Diary of Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book. Signed ARC by Jeff Kinney

The Mysterious Benedict Society. Signed first edition by Trenton Stewart

Original oil pastel pet portrait by Nancy Coffelt

Manuscript Critique by Margo Finke (anything but science fiction)

Raffle tickets to bring one of three Portland Area authors to your school or library will be sold. Win the raffle to have either Matthew Holm, Emily Whitman, or Rosanne Parry visit your library or school.

More items will be added!

See also Steve Duin's column in the Oregonian:

Bridget Zinn and the nature of resilience

Official Website: http://bridgetzinnauction.wordpress.com/lucky-lab/