Marissa's Bunny

It's the best story from Emerald City you never heard.

As Scott, Kris, Dave and I ascended the podium to do our special live "Webcomics Weekly" performance, we saw that a small, plastic crate had been placed behind the table, addressed to the four of us.

When we opened the package, we were greeted with the view you see to the right. A bottle of Bushmill's Irish Whiskey, a bottle of sour mix, a jar of maraschino cherries, four glasses and some plastic spoons -- all the makings of whiskey sours (a drink discussed at length during a few of our podcasts).

Needless to say, it was one of the finest panel discussions any of us could remember.

The masterminds were anonymous, but we found them out eventually. One of them has a project that he'd like to spread the word about. And I'm a soft touch to anyone who buys me a drink -- let along packs a crate full of them. So listen up:

Marissa is a baby girl who was diagnosed with Infantile Spasms on February 15th of 2008. Infantile Spasms is a serious pediatric epileptic condition that could leave her mentally and physically disabled for life - or worse. Her family has started Marissa's Bunny, a fund-raising site, to help offset what are certainly horrendous medical bills.

A raffle has started over at the site with all proceeds going towards Marissa and Joseph's future medical costs, split 50/50 between long term care funds for both children [Joseph is not Marissa's brother, as I originally reported, but rather he's another child with the same condition].

Prizes are being added in all the time, but for now the biggest one is an iPad 2. To top that off, for every $1000 in tickets that are purchased, five (5) iPads will be given to the Marissa's Bunny Foundation to give away to families with special needs. To continue a trend that was started awhile back, in addition to the iPads at every $1000 mark, matching funds by a corporate entity to the tune of $27,500 will be going to UNICEF for aid to children in Japan affected by the earthquakes.

You can register for a chance to win for two bucks. Do it right now and you get to feel good about yourself for the rest of the day. :)