Pallin' with Palin: The R2R charity auction begins today

As Warner reported Saturday, the Ride 2 Recovery ebay charity auction is today, and one of the items up for bid is dinner for five with Sarah Palin.

Yes, it's for real. Our Bloggers for Sarah Palin colleague Ron Devito contacted John Wordin, Executive Director of Ride 2 Recovery, who assured Ron that Meghan Stapleton confirmed former Governor Palin's participation to benefit wounded warriors through the R2R program.

Steve Parmenter has organized a group of Sarah's Facebook friends who are pooling donations to make a bid in the auction. If the group wins the auction, it will donate its seats at the table so five wounded warriors will be able to have dinner with Todd and Sarah. To donate to the group's bid, click on the ad below.

Speaking of bidding, it begins at 5:00 PM today. Pre-qualification for bidding began at midnight. We will update with new information throughout the auction.



Update 1: Here's Steve's post on Big Hollywood:

I’ve set up a special site at Causes.com to allow for all of us to participate in the R2R auction in order to win a dinner with Sarah Palin for five wounded warriors.

This is how it works:

1. Go to this site and make a donation directly to R2R.

2. At the end of the auction, Friday Sept. 18th, the accumulated donations will be entered as a bid for the DINNER WITH SARAH PALIN auction.

3. If this is the winning bid, FIVE deserving warriors chosen by the Ride 2 Recovery program will enjoy dinner with Sarah Palin – a wonderful evening out with a most wonderful person.

4. If this is not the winning bid, R2R will still benefit from your generous contribution and we will know that each of us will have donated to a most worthy cause.

So let’s put this “over the top” and send five guys/gals out on the town. Together we can make it happen.

I am currently sixty-three years old, retired, and am looking forward to my “golden years.” As a Marine Corps Viet Nam era veteran, I fully appreciate the sacrifices that our service members and families are making every day on our behalf. In my day there was a saying…. “All gave some and some gave all.” To that I would like to add… and some gave more than others. Being a Marine I have a firm belief in teamwork, such that by acting together great things can be accomplished. In my opinion this is one of those times.

I thank you for your interest and my best regards to everyone at Big Hollywood,

Steven P. Parmenter

Update 2: Sarah Palin posted the following on her Facebook Notes page Thursday morning:

Ride2Recovery Charity Auction

Ride 2 Recovery has launched an online auction to help our nation's wounded warriors. Todd and I are so happy to help such a worthy organization. Please click on this link to view the auction and begin bidding - and, as always, thanks for all your support.

-Sarah Palin

100% of proceeds from this auction will benefit the Ride 2 Recovery program whose mission is to improve the health and wellness of wounded warriors by providing a life changing experience that can impact their lives forever.

- JP