Bake Sale Info

Are you as excited as we are for the #OperationLayla: Bake Sale? This Wednesday, you can feast your eyes on more than three dozen varieties of baked goods, and everyone knows that tasty treats have zero calories if it’s for a good cause, right?

So get your money ready, because tomorrow you’ll see items like Cinnamon Rum Caramel Sauce and Homemade Pancake Mix;  Turducken Cookies (chocolate chip cookies stuffed with an Oreo!), Toffee Bacon Shortbread, and mouthwatering brownies, cookies, cakes, and pretty much everything in between! There will also be vegan and gluten free goodies and several items available for international shipping (just make sure to read each post for more specific details)!

You may be asking yourself how this online bake sale will work, so here are some need-to-know facts for the big day.

First, every single cent raised from this sale will make a difference in not just Layla’s life, but possibly in so many more lives around the world. (See how the money will be used)

The bake sale will open at 8 am on Wednesday, March 16, and closes at 11 pm EST on Wednesday, March 16.

On Wednesday morning, there will be a post opening the bake sale. Each item will have a minimum bid of $15.

Each item up for bid will have its own post. To officially bid on an baked good, you must leave a comment on that particular post with at least a $1 (one dollar) raise in price. Think of this as an on-going auction. Readers will see the last price and have the option of raising it higher. All buyers have until 11 pm EST to submit their bid.

All winners will be announced on Thursday, March 17.

Each winner will donate the specified winning amount through the #OperationLayla PayPal button. Once the donation goes through, I will email the baker the winner’s email address. It will then be the baker’s responsibility to get in touch with the winner to work out the specifics of sending the baked good(s).

The winner has 24 hours to make the online donation. If, in that time frame, the donation is not made, the next highest bidder will be contacted.

Thank you very much for your generous contributions and support. We will try our best to moderate the comments throughout the day. If you would like to comment anonymously or have any questions or concerns, please email OperationBakeSale@gmail.com.

Happy bidding!

What 48 Hours Can Achieve

Have you heard the news? We raised the money for Layla’s surgery! At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would have never thought that possible in such a short amount of time. In fact, when this idea was first kicked around on Twitter, we were terrified that two weeks wouldn’t be enough time to get the word out about Operation Layla. But it was, and we did it!

We’ve had a lot of questions about where things stand now. As of right now, we have raised over $4,500! You all have paid for Layla’s surgery and anesthesia. So, you probably saw Twitter erupt with our celebrations when we hit that magic $4,000 for the surgery cost – we never thought we could do it.

Unfortunately, there are many more costs associated with the procedure than just the surgery itself, so we will still hold the bake sale to raise money for the rest of the costs (also, cookies are awesome!)

What will your money go towards if you bid on some baked goods or donate?

• pre- and post-op doctors’ visits
• biopsy costs to check the tissue
• pain medications for after surgery
• diagnostics and other tests that will need to be run

I wish we could give you exact numbers for those right now, because it was a lot easier having a goal in mind! We’ve struggled over the past day with how to work this out so that you can know exactly what any efforts or donations are going to, and this is what we’ve come up with:

Layla will be posting her medical bills along with the total amount donated, so you can see exactly what went where. If there is overflow, we’ll then post about each cause that is helped, and show you the donation amount.

I can’t tell you enough how grateful we are for the care you have shown towards Layla. But there is an ugly side of this – not everyone has friends who have the means or the time to devote themselves to such a cause. Millions of people suffer every day without hope, or such a wonderful group of people banding together to get them the help they need. Because of this, we are dedicated to helping those people as much as possible. If you keep up with this site, we’ll update regularly. Please be sure to spread the word still and stick around to see how Operation Layla evolves. As always, if you’re interested in helping please let us know! We couldn’t do this without all of you.

You are all AMAZING.

And I have proof:

$3515. That’s what we’re at after only about 48 hours.

You guys, I don’t think you realize how big of an achievement this is. I am in tears right now, just from the awesomeness of everyone who is helping the life of someone they may never have even met in real life.

What’s more, it’s not just the $100 or $50 donations that have helped (although they are wonderful!) – the $5 and $10 donations have made a huge difference. They’ve come in, en masse, and I want to thank each and every one of you who has give whatever you can scrape together.

I also want to thank Lauren from I Love You Much and Jacin from Lovely Little Details – Lauren worked hard at the last minute to put together this site, and Jacin stepped in and whipped up that amazing logo you see. And behind the scenes are a whole slew of girls who I can’t even name – Jessica (both of you), Jee-Young, Hannah, Rachel, and everyone else who I can’t squeeze into this paragraph, you have all made such a difference.

It’s rare to see such a massive response from a community so quickly, but this has been just amazing. Thank you all for giving me the chance to be a part of this, and to all who have donated, reposted, and told me your stories – you are amazing!

Layla’s Vlog

Please visit Layla’s site to see her recent post and vlog where she gives a heartfelt and very real account on what she is dealing with every day. Layla’s strength is beautiful and I’m so excited to announce that we’ve almost passed the $3,000 mark!

Update #2 (Friday – Day 2) O.Layla

OH. MY. GOSH.

I can’t believe I’m here again. 3 hours later!

We are at….

wait for it…

$2590!!!!! $2935!!!!!!! (As of 4:15 p.m. EST)

Thank you all so much for all of the donations and energy and love and support that you are putting towards this cause. Again – all extra proceeds after Layla’s surgery funds are met will be donated toward the relief efforts for the Tsunami/Earthquake tragedy in Japan.

Update: Operation Layla

Thank you all for the outpouring of love and generosity for our girl Layla!

As of 12:00 p.m. EST Friday, March 11, 2011 – We are sitting pretty at $1100!!!!! That is 25%+ of our goal! Only $2900 to go!

Layla’s doctor has graciously set the bill at $4000 Cash. Any extra proceeds from these bake sales, donations, etc. will go to the relief efforts for the Tsumani/Earthquake tragedy in Japan.

Thank you again!

#OperationLayla Update:

Any donations that go over the amount Layla needs for surgery will be donated to tsunami/earthquake aid.

Donation total as of 3.11 at 11:10 am (EST) = $802

Thank you so very much.

Why #OperationLayla?

One month after her 30th birthday, Layla was diagnosed with early stage cervical cancer (1A Adenocarcinoma). She was extraordinarily lucky that it was caught early, and was able to have a simple surgery to remove the cancerous cells. Three years later, Layla had been in horrible pain that affected nearly every aspect of her life. Temporarily uninsured due to a job change, she paid out of pocket last October to go to the doctor and make sure that the cancer had not returned. Thankfully, it had not. However, her doctor believes that she has pelvic adhesions and Endometriosis due to the previous surgery, but it can not be diagnosed until an additional surgery (laparoscopy) is performed. The doctor also found out that Layla has cervical stenosis, which basically means her cervix has completely shut due to the scar tissue from the previous surgery. These issues make her miserable most of the time, making simple things like going to the bathroom and menstruation horribly painful, and sexual intercourse impossible. He stated that if she did want to have children one day, even sperm could not pass through her cervix, and she would have to have intrauterine insemination. The doctor wanted to schedule surgery as soon as the insurance at her new job went into effect. Her company fired her the day her insurance became valid, ten days before Christmas, plainly stating that it was because of her health issues.

Fortunately, she was able to get on her husband’s insurance, which went into effect on February 1st. As soon as she could, Layla scheduled surgery for March 22nd. Then her insurance company dropped a bomb: because she had gone to the doctor (even as a self pay patient) within a three month period prior to her enrollment date, they were considering her health issues to be a pre-existing condition, and would not insure any doctor visits, medication, or surgery for them for 388 days.

388 days is a long time to wait when you are in near constant pain and can’t work. The sooner Layla can have this surgery, the sooner she can return to work (hopefully with a nicer company!) and start living her life again. Her doctor has been nice enough to work out a deal with her, decreasing the amount of her surgery to $4,000, the cost of the anesthesia to $500, with additional fees for biopsies of removed tissue to be determined, if Layla can pay as a cash patient.

The problem is, Layla is unemployed due to this, has used her savings to pay for living expenses and medical bills, and has been denied loans for the surgery because of her unemployment status. She does not have a close family, so she can’t ask them for help. Surgery is scheduled for March 22nd, and Layla and her husband are still trying to secure a loan through several banks.

A note from Layla

In Layla’s own words:

Hi y’all! I’m Layla, and I’m not a big deal at all, just a girl going through a difficult time that is very lucky to have so many wonderful friends! All of this has been overwhelming: the love, support, effort, time and energy my friends and even some total strangers have poured into trying to help me out during this time….well, I’ve cried a lot of tears over it, but they were all happy. I’m so grateful for everything……I can’t even put it into words. I plan on winning the lottery one day, and buying everyone a new car, like Oprah. Thank you to my friends and thank you to every single person for stopping by – next stop is raising awareness of Endometriosis and cervical stenosis and raising money to help out others that need it!

Welcome to #OperationLayla

Operation Layla is the lovechild of a wonderful group of girls banding together to help an awesome friend in need of surgery – please, donate anything you can! Details and a website to come soon.