‘Giving Pie’ aims to help families with medical bills

November 17, 2016

By Ed Byrne The Brillion News

FOREST JUNCTION – Is there anything better than the aroma of a fresh pie cooling in the kitchen? Or the taste of a piece of pie topped with ice cream?

Here’s one possibility: That aromatic, tasty pie helping a family shouldering huge medical bills as they try to fight off the cancer attacking their daughter.

That’s how The Giving Pie campaign got its start.

The Giving Pie is the brainchild of Holly Delong and Jackie Beach, and its raising funds to help pay many of the medical bills that have been piling up as Emily Koehler, a student at Hilbert Middle School, fights a rare form of cancer.

It is so rare that she has to go to Houston for care, and that’s not been cheap.

“The bills never end and it takes a family down,” Delong said.

Koehler loves to bake, and earlier this year, Make A Wish gave her a kitchen of her own in the basement of the family home outside of Hilbert.

Koehler bakes a lot, but of course, there’s more to the story.

“Then she said, ‘I’d like to learn how to make a pie,’” Delong said.

When Delong mentioned that to Beach, the two women came up with the idea of baking pies and selling them to help the Koehler family pay its mounting bills.

The thought was about a small effort, something like baking 50 pies.

But as soon as Beach and Delong started sharing the idea with other people, the idea grew.

“We put a Facebook page together and got hits off of that. We shared Emily’s story, reached out to area businesses – Cherryland’s Best, the Star Orchard in Hollandtown,” Delong said.

All of a sudden, people were offering to donate apples, cherries, butter and other fixings for pie making.

Now there are more than 300 pies ordered, with the baking to begin on November 20 and pickup on November 23, the day before Thanksgiving.

Please see the complete story in the November 17, 2016 edition of The Brillion News.