After a successful fundraising effort for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital last year, where he joined Chad and Jaclyn from WBKR for 12 hours of non-stop walking and jogging on a treadmill, Bradley DeHart was looking for a new way to raise money for St. Jude.
“This year, I wanted to do something that involved not only myself, but those who have inspired me both at work and in the community,” Bradley said. “And something that would also incorporate the people who donated.”
What he came up with sounds almost as crazy as spending 12 consecutive hours on a treadmill: creating and selling a cookbook. By himself.
DeHart plans to use his tax refund this year to cover the publishing costs so 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the kids at St. Jude.
The idea hit him one day when he was helping a friend move as they were boxing up kitchen items. “I noticed several cookbooks that were fundraisers. I thought that would be a great way to incorporate more people by inviting them to submit their favorite recipes,” he explained.
So far, about 200 recipes have been collected.
The end result will be a cookbook that includes “diverse recipes from those I work with and those who have inspired me to get to where I am today. At work, we celebrate with food. We grieve with food. Food unites people,” DeHart explained.
Another advantage of the cookbook is the ability to reach more people by accepting orders online. To do that, Bradley set up an online order form through jotform.com and integrated it with an online shopping cart through PayPal, which opens it up to people beyond Owensboro.
Here’s where it gets interesting: since beginning to take orders on Friday morning, February 5, there have already been orders placed from Oregon, Indiana, Ohio, Florida and several cities across Kentucky.
“I can’t believe how wide-spread this is,” Bradley said. His original goal was selling 300 cookbooks.
That goal was already reached the first day!
The Cravings for a Cure cookbooks are $12.00 each and can be ordered online.
Bradley will also be pre-selling the book at WBKR’s “Denim and Diamonds” event on February 26, 2016 at the Empress Theater.
Orders will continue to be taken until the book is sent to the printer on March 20, 2016.
Expected delivery date is May 25.
