Happy New Year from Decadent Publishing

with Heather Bennett

In my first blog of 2011, I would like to start out the year fighting. Yes, fighting!

You may have heard of Read For a Cure. It’s a Decadent Publishing program that benefits the American Cancer Society Relay For Life. Decadent Publishing donates all profits from one book per month to Relay to fight back against cancer. It’s close to my heart; I created it and presented the idea to my partner, Lisa Omstead, and she readily agreed with the merit of the idea. As we’ve both been deeply and personally affected by cancer, it is an honor for us to help the Cause in this way.

Why Relay? For me it started in 2009. My mother lost her oldest brother to cancer late in 2008 and my father had been diagnosed with brain, bone and lung cancer. My best friend was a Relay For Life committee volunteer for several years and introduced me to the event. She registered me, I sent out emails, and raised over $500 my first year. The event was in April that year, and ended up being more poignant to me after my father passed 2 months before. We weren’t close, but losing a parent is like losing the barrier between yourself and mortality. Frightening.

It became very personal as I looked at my children and knew it was quite likely that they would not only lose a parent to cancer, but could easily contract it themselves with our family history. You see, 3 of my 4 grandparents had suffered from cancer, 2 survived it. My Gram, my father’s mother, died of pancreatic cancer, one of the least curable and most painful. My other grandmother has survived cancer. Twice.

I volunteered for the planning committee for 2010. Before that event could happen, we lost another of my mom’s brothers to brain and lung cancer. My heart broke a little. I raised over $1200 personally for our team and, holding my 8year old daughter in my arms, cried my eyes out when my own family pictures were a part of the ceremony that year.

We started Team Decadent for my city’s Relay For Life event. So far, my teammates and I have raised almost half of our $4000 goal and I am so proud; not only of my company, but of our team! Our authors have jumped at the opportunity to FIGHT. We even had a group of authors submit an anthology of holiday stories and volunteer a good portion of their profits to Relay For Life. I am humbled and grateful to them all, because what they are doing could save a life; their life, my life, my child’s life.

So, we will start out 2011 fighting—fighting for a cure. Want to join? Go to Decadent Publishing and buy our Read For a Cure book. For January we offer you One Night at the Beach by the wonderful Kate Richards. Enjoy it and know you, too, are a fighter.

Heather Bennett

Decadent Publishing

Team Decadent’s Relay For Life
One Night at the Beach by Kate Richards

Indulge your book fetish while FIGHTING BACK!

If you’ve ever been on our website, decadentpublishing.com, you may have seen a category listed on the left called ‘Read For a Cure’. What the heck is THAT, you may ask.

‘Read For a Cure’ (http://www.decadentpublishing.com/index.php?cPath=67_69&osCsid=mh3enaflrgl9oa1td1hddo3v45 ) is a Decadent Publishing program that benefits the American Cancer Society Relay For Life. Each month, Decadent Publishing will donate our publisher proceeds from one book to Relay For Life in our effort to fight back against cancer.

Relay is the flagship fundraiser for the ACS, funding more Nobel Prize winning researchers than anyone else and putting more money into cancer research than anyone in the world besides the US government. Unlike some charities with as low as a 10% donation rate, an average of 93% of money earned with Relay is donated to research and services. Relay is put in motion by an army of volunteers led by a few very passionate and dedicated ACS staff members. Relay celebrates (our cancer survivors), remembers (those we have lost) and fights back (with fundraising and information).

Cancer is not sexy, it’s not entertaining, not funny, not interesting. What it IS is common and devastating. I would bet that you, a family member close to you, or a close friend has been affected by cancer. I know I have, as has my Decadent partner Lisa. As an ACS volunteer for Relay, I am fighting back in my own town by joining the event planning committee (I’m both the Online Chair and Sponsorship Chair this year), having a team and raising money. In the past two years, my first two involved in Relay, I’ve personally raised over $1500. Lisa supported my efforts then and was enthusiastic about how we could help with our company.

When Lisa and I decided to open Decadent Publishing, the Read For a Cure program was conceived and we are so proud of it! It’s our way of helping our readers become aware of Relay For Life and giving them a fun and easy way to fight back against cancer and read a great book at the same time. By purchasing a Read For a Cure book each month from Decadent Publishing, you are making a difference! You are a warrior for a great cause, an important cause, a personal cause, and you are doing it from the comfort of your own armchair.

With Relay season starting up all over the country, I’d encourage you to pop over to http://www.relayforlife.org/ and see what Relay For Life is all about. You can make a HUGE difference just by donating to someone’s Relay site, joining a Relay team, attending a fundraising event, or becoming involved in a volunteer program in your community like Road to Recovery (http://www.cancer.org/treatment/supportprogramsservices/programs/road-to-recovery) or Look Good, Feel Better (http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SupportProgramsServices/look-good-feel-better). You can find out when your local Relay is scheduled and show up for a fun family day of celebration. You can form a team with your service organization, church, family or a group of friends. You can even just buy a book and help save a life. Maybe even your own.

Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. And Read For a Cure!

Heather Bennett
Co-Owner, Decadent Publishing
Proud Relay For Life volunteer