Pay-It-Forward pie reservation deadline is Nov. 1
By DAILY CHRONICLE
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| Kathy Overby makes room for Market Day pies in the Pay-It-Forward House freezer. (Provided photos.) |
Kathy Overby never imagined that she’d be in charge of an annual fundraiser. But for the past four years, she has spearheaded a Market Day holiday pie sale for the Pay-It-Forward House, a hospital hospitality house that offers the families and friends of patients receiving medical treatment in DeKalb County a place to go, to call their home-away-from-home, during their loved one’s illness.
Pie pickup is 4:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at West Elementary School, 240 W. Fair St. in Sycamore.
Both Pay-It-Forward House and the West School PTO are working hard to sell at least 250 pies each. If they reach that level, each organization will receive $3.75 per pie.
“This year’s pie sale is timed to get pies into supporters’ freezer just before Thanksgiving,” said Overby in a recent news release.
For the Pay-It-Forward House, that would raise the equivalent of three months of heating bills.
“Excuse the puns, but it warms my heart to think that we can warm the House by selling pies that people will enjoy with Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. They are great pies and, yes, they may cost a little more than making them from scratch or buying them on a last-minute sale, but I like having my pie and eating it too: I get to ‘pay it forward’ and save some time at the holidays,” said Overby, who has been a supporter of the Pay-It-Forward House in Sycamore since its very beginning.
“I was invited in January 2005, along with a group of other women from the Sycamore United Methodist Church, to ‘shower’ the hospitality house with kitchen items. We showed up, sat in an otherwise empty house on borrowed folding chairs and watched the house founders unwrap household donations. Then we had fun cleaning, organizing and filling up the cabinets.”
Since that time, the Pay-It-Forward House has provided more than 5,200 nights of rest to people from all over the United States who come to Sycamore because a loved one is hospitalized at Kindred Hospital-Sycamore or Kishwaukee Community Hospital. The need is less frequent for patients at KCH because patient stays are shorter. The average hospitalization at Kindred Hospital-Sycamore is more than 25 days.
Overby has spearheaded the Pay-It-Forward House’s Market Day sale since the organization’s first year. Each year she identifies another organization with whom to partner so that the total number of pies sold is high enough to generate the greatest profit per pie.
She said West School is a logical choice. In the spring of 2005, the West School PTO could not run the pickup for their June Market Day on the school property because the school year was already over. The PTO approached Pay-It-Forward House about running the pickup for them and offered the House the profits. That was the beginning of an on-going relationship between West and Pay-It-Forward House. West students donated a freezer they earned through Market Day to the House. They also have done a Pennies-for-Power campaign to help pay the electrical bill as well as partnering on the pie sale.
To purchase pies to benefit the Pay-It-Forward House, call 815-895-7548 between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday-Thursday or 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday this week.
To learn more about the organization’s mission and activities, visit www.payitforwardhouse.org.
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