I am auctioning this painting with ALL proceeds (minus the fees that ebay and paypal will deduct) to benefit Caiden Hammond. I will ship this painting for free to the winning bidder , or deliver in person if you are local.

Caiden is the adorable 16 month old brother of one of my daughter Shelby's pre-k classmates. On September 16th, he suffered a major seizure shortly after midnight. He was airlifted from our local hospital to Hershey Medical Center Children's Hospital where an MRI revealed a plum sized tumor. The next day emergency surgery was performed and a peach sized area was removed.

The tumor was diagnosed to be a very nasty malignancy known as atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor or AT-RT. While the statistics do not look good for Caiden, everyone remains hopeful. He is a strong, healthy little boy and the surgeons were able to remove all of the tumor during the surgery.

Caiden re-entered the hospital on October 4th to begin a 4 month cycle of chemo, to be followed by 2 months of stem-cell therapy, then proton therapy.

To assist with the massive medical expenses, travel expenses and care for Caiden's three older siblings, an assistance fund has been set up at Wachovia Bank. I will not post that information here, but if you are interested in donating to the fund privately, please message me and I will email you the information.

This is my daughter's second year at this preschool. I've seen Caiden at every drop off and pick up. Watched him go from a little baby to a toddler. This breaks my heart.

I thought this painting was a perfect fit. The starting bid is only $25, I decided to start it very low so that anyone could bid. The auction will run for 7 days, ending next Thursday, October 14th at 9pm.

When you hear of stories like this, it makes you pause and think and cherish a little more. When it's someone you know, well, I think everything kind of stops. It's always sad to me when I hear of someone fighting cancer, but when it's a child, i look at my own daughter and just think how difficult it must be for that family, and even still, I don't think I can really imagine what it must be like.

I'm pleased to announce that my new painting 'bone' was juried into the York Art Associations 40th Annual Open Juried Event and yesterday I attended the opening reception where I was presented with an Award of Excellence for this painting.

The painting will be on display until October 31, 2010 and is available for purchase through the YAA.