Abby Rosenthal, 13, has organized the second annual ‘Abby’s Auction,’ an online auction that raises money for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. This year, she has also planned a ‘Dine and Donate’ fundraiser on Nov. 13.
Blue Bell resident Abby Rosenthal is just 13 years old, but she hasn’t let her youth stand in the way of her desire to give back to the hospital that saved her little sister’s life. Abby was just 4 years old when her then-baby sister, Julia, was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Julia’s cancer has been in remission for eight years now, but last year Abby decided she wanted to give back to CHOP in a big way by founding “Abby’s Auction.” At 12 years of age, Abby went to area businesses and restaurants and requested items and gift certificates for an online auction her parents helped her to coordinate.
She received bids and donations from family, friends and others who heard about the auction, and raised a total of $3,000 for the oncology department at CHOP, $300 of which she donated herself from gift money she received at her bat mitzvah.
This year, she hopes to surpass that total. Apart from the online auction, “Abby’s Auction” will host a “Dine and Donate” event at P.J. Whelihan’s, located at 799 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell, on Nov. 13 at 5:30 p.m. until closing.
“I love my sister and I love CHOP for helping her,” Abby, now an eighth-grader at Wissahickon Middle School, said in a phone interview. “I think you need to give back to the people who help you when you are in need.”
Fundraising for this year’s “Abby’s Fund” is just getting started. For information about auction items or the Dine and Donate night at P.J. Whelihan’s, email abbyland@comcast.net.
The auction listings can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/abbysauction/
— Ted Bordelon
