Jeff Barr’s Blog

In a series of Twitter messages last week, my friend Phil Burns shared with the world the fact that his 2-year-old daughter Serenity had taken ill and was subsequently diagnosed with Leukemia. In the course of a couple of days their life went from normal, to “what’s wrong with Serenity?” to “rush her to the ER” to “she could die” to “she’s going to make it but she needs two years of chemotherapy.” She has entered treatment, and it looks like she’s headed in the right direction.

Phil and his wife Adria are going to have their hands full. They have 8 kids, Phil’s in the middle of putting a startup together, and this is going to be a huge drain on their time and on their finances.

As a first step at helping Phil’s family handle what I can only guess will be a $100K+ bill for treatment, Phil’s one-time business partner Jesse Stay has started to collect some funds using a ChipIn widget, a copy of which I have posted at the top right hand corner of this blog. The goal is $500. I am feeling generous this morning and will happily augment the final amount by another 15%.

Update: The ChipIn widget isn’t updating for some reason. Jesse is investigating. As of 10:24 PM on May 25th, the total stands at $1,161.97 (click on the image to visit the ChipIn widget editor, which does show the real total):

This is just a drop in the bucket, and there’s going to be room to do a lot more. If you can help, just click on the widget. I’m sure they’d appreciate your positive thoughts and prayers as well.

Some might wonder how and why Phil and Adria have the time and the inclination to Twitter and to blog at a time like this. I am guessing that this is actually the easiest and most efficient way for them to keep their virtual community of family, friends, and well-wishers in the loop. Instead of fielding endless phone calls and email messages they can simply direct people to follow along on the blog.