Patch it Up! Bake Sale Breaks $1,000 Mark

We made the call, and posted ourselves out there, and you came – in full force.

With the help of local retailers Lulu Cake Boutique, La Renaissance Bakery, Christie Place Bakery, Chat American Grill and DeCicco's, Scarsdale Patch's fundraising effort yesterday – called Patch it Up! – was able to collect more than $1,100 to contribute towards the recovery of wildlife habitats in the Gulf region.

The final count, which was tallied last night at 10:30 p.m., put the cash donations at $1,046.53  – and we have enough committed in checks and pending contributions to push us over the edge to $1,100. It may have been the most productive five hours of a bake sale in history. At least, that's our story.

Patch it Up! came about as an idea from a contributor after Scarsdale suffered the aftermath of our own oil spill on June 2, when a leak from a White Plains building dumped 300 to 400 gallons of heating oil into the Bronx River.

Local organizations, like the Greenburgh Nature Center, scurried to offer help recovering the oil-drenched wildlife along the Bronx River that left at least one gosling dead. Here, damage was kept to a minmum and cleanup crews came, hustled, and were gone again within two weeks.

After our spill, we wanted to find a way to enable Scarsdale residents to help out in the recovery of the now-endangered lives of pelicans, egrets, herons, whales, otters, sea turtles, crabs, alligators, dolphins and over 400 species that made the Gulf coastline their home.

Last night, as BP verified publicly what appears to be the first successful attempt to stem the flow of oil that was gushing since April 20 from its well off the Gulf coastline, Scarsdale Patch was counting the proceeds raised in the first major local effort to help recover animal habitats that have been destroyed en masse over the course of the spill.

On Monday, once all the straggling checks have been collected, Patch will send a bank check to the National Wildlife Federation's "restoration fund," which is designated for animal recovery in the Gulf of Mexico.

The NWF has been at the forefront of animal and habitat rescue efforts, and also works to organize groups of volunteers who wish to lend a hand in monitoring the animal and wildlife situation on the ground. For other ways to donate, see the options below.

To the generous donors who contributed drinks, service, and baked goods: Lulu Cake Boutique, La Renaissance Patisserie, Chat American Grill, DeCicco Family Market, New York Sports Club and Christie Place Bakery. Your products drew in the donations, so thanks immensely.

To the timely, helpful and loyal volunteers who showed up on time or just came out to help in the effort because they saw we needed it!  Susan, Peter, Lindsay, Ruth, Liz, Jeremy, Danny; thank you for the last-minute assistance.

And emphatic thanks especially to those who signed on to work dedicated shifts or just came by and saw it through to the end, including Satta Sarmah (Rye Patch), Marisa Iallonardo (Bronxville-Eastchester Patch), Justin Doyno, Rose Marinaccio, Zach Oliva (Harrison Patch), Courtney McCabe and Chris Lynch (Patch Ad Sales).

Gigantic gracias to event chairman Stefan Doyno, without whose patience, effort, diligence and network of helpful resources this never would have occurred.

And the hugest thanks to all of you, Scarsdale, for all the little drips and drabs, not to mention the big ones, that came in and together made this huge, generous contribution possible in such a small, condensed amount of time.

As UK-based columnist John Vidal points out today in The Guardian, the millions of gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico truly is a drop in the bucket, when it comes to how much fuel is used by drivers every day.

In the time it took for Scarsdale Patch to raise that money yesterday, Americans used up as much oil as had gushed into the ocean over those past three months, 184 million gallons (and possibly more, given it was during commuting time and rush hour.) As Vidal points out, in the 24 hours since that cap was put on the rig, 840 million gallons have been used already in the U.S.

So, to start, let's take Metro North more often. If it's just one day each week to work, or for one trip up to White Plains for the movies or shopping, or one schelp up to Cold Spring for a weekend getaway in a B&B away from the kids. The little efforts make a big difference, as we saw with the 109 $1 bills we got yesterday, and the 200 five-dollar bills.

Also, if you missed the sale but want to help out with the restoration efforts, try these options:

• Donate online

Lastly - host your own event! Have a party, hold a gala, bike for sponsorship or just collect from friends. Scarsdale Patch promises to support your publicity efforts with free hosting of announcements and events listings, provided all proceeds will be helping a registered organization.