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Community keeps lighting virtual candles for Anissa Mayhew
By Justin Goldsborough | November 19th, 2009
Have you ever seen the movie “Pay it Forward?” Remember that scene at the end when Haley Joel Osmett’s character has just died and Kevin Spacey is consoling Helen Hunt at her house. Then all of a sudden they hear something, walk outside and see blocks and blocks of people holding a candle-light vigil to honor Haley’s character for how he impacted their lives and the community? And the song “Calling All Angels” is playing in the background?
We don’t often see scenes from a movie replicated in real life, usually because they’re somewhat unrealistic. But that scene from that movie is happening via social media right now. And our angel is Anissa Mayhew.
I don’t know Anissa Mayhew. I’d never even heard her name before a colleague e-mailed me Tuesday to share her story. But I know what she means to the people who know her. All I have to do is turn up the volume on my computer and open Tweetdeck — the #prayersforanissa tweets have been coming in loud and strong all week. Or go to her Caring Bridge site and peruse the guestbook.
For those who don’t know — and if you’ve been on Twitter at all this week, you know because #prayersforanissa has been a trending topic most of the week — Anissa is a popular mommy blogger who had a stroke and is currently in a coma. When it happened, her husband, Peter, posted the following on his Facebook page:
“Prayers are needed for Anissa. She had a stroke this afternoon and is in the ICU. Peter.”
And the community sprang into action to grant Peter’s wish. So far this week we’ve seen thousands of #prayersforanissa. There’s been a paypal account set up to collect donations for her family since Tuesday. And you can read Anissa’s story, updates from Peter, guestbook testimonials from her friends and more on her Caring Bridge site, another 5-0-1-c-3 you should k-n-o-w.
On a side note, Caring Bridge provides free Web sites to connect family and friends during a serious health event or crisis. The idea is that everyone wants to know what’s going on with the family and to help out. Caring Bridge provides that opportunity by creating a home base community where everyone can come to check up and offer prayers for a sick friend.
What an unbelievable idea! There are several angels in this story in addition to Anissa, and the creators of Caring Bridge are definitely one of them. When you visit Anissa’s Caring Bridge site, you can donate to her cause and/or to Caring Bridge, which provides this service for so many others as well — more than 1 billion visits have been made to their sites.
There’s so much to Anissa’s story that I can’t tell well enough because I don’t know her. So I’ll let her friends, followers, people she’s never met…and even the Karate Kid himself (yes, Ralph Macchio — apparently Anissa is a huge Ralph Macchio fan) tell it through their tweets and guestbook signings.
And after you’ve read the testimonials, I’d urge you to light a candle social media style via a tweet, blog comment, Caring Bridge post, however you please. But let’s keep sending out prayers for Anissa.
Calling all angels…
National Blog Posting Month 30 Causes in 30 Days
- Apartment Fund for Daniela’s Family (@davearmano)
- 12for12k (@dannybrown)
- #Iamsovereign Twitter Birthday Project (@jasonstoddard)
- Jaeli’s Syndrome (@AngEngland and @BrandyBrow)
- #GebenGives (@prtini)
- 11-11 Veteran’s Day (@JoeTrippi)
- #stopdiabetes (@JessicaLHansen, @AmDiabetesAssn)
- #noahbiorkman (several thousand people)
- #applebeesvets (@scottmonty, @arikhanson, @valeriesiimon, @prtini, @sonnygill)
- #movember (@jasonfalls)
- Harvesters Thanksgiving food drive (@TackleHungerKC)
- #getwellliz (@DebNg, @GeekMommy, @JennFowler, @KrisColvin)
- Aflac Cancer Center for pediatric cancer research (@AflacDuck)
- Facebook Causes and Birthday Wish (@causes)
- #prayersforanissa (@anissamayhew, @caringbridge)
November 20th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Hi Justin,
Thank you for your kind words about CaringBridge. We’re so glad we can provide a home base community for family and friends of Anissa as well as anyone else facing a serious health event.
Kind regards,
- Melissa, Media Relations Specialist, CaringBridge
November 20th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Hey, Melissa. You all created an unbelievable product and story. I’m just sharing it :).
What I love about Caring Bridge is it meets a significant need and capitalizes on on the opportunity to help each other out that social media has made so much easier.
Sometimes the hardest part about helping someone is knowing how to help. You all are making that part very easy. So kudos to you for that.
Best,
Justin
November 21st, 2009 at 4:30 am
[…] Community keeps lighting virtual candles for Anissa Mayhew …Community keeps lighting virtual candles for Anissa Mayhew. By Justin Goldsborough | November 19th, 2009. Have you ever seen the movie “Pay it Forward?” Remember that scene at the end when Haley Joel Osmett’s character has just died and … Read more […]
November 21st, 2009 at 4:59 am
[…] Community keeps lighting virtual candles for Anissa Mayhew … (justincaseyouwerewondering.x.iabc.com) - November 19, 2009Community keeps lighting virtual candles for Anissa Mayhew. By Justin Goldsborough | November 19th, 2009. Have you ever seen the movie “Pay it Forward?†Remember that scene at the end when Haley Joel… […]