A local bakery is paying tribute to the memory of a young man from St. John’s who recently passed away.
Ben Basha, 19, died suddenly on November 4. In his obituary, family members requested that in lieu of flowers, people were asked to make a donation to the local or national epilepsy foundations.
At Volcano Bakery they are honouring 19 y/o Ben Basha’s memory by holding a fundraiser for epilepsy. @VOCMNEWS pic.twitter.com/Dk37QQoHSn
— Fred Hutton (@Fred_Hutton) November 19, 2019
When Rebecca Johansson of Volcano Bakery heard about the request, she thought it was a good way to honour the young man who was a regular customer at the store.
Johannson said, “…[she was] absolutely blown away by the response mainly from Ben’s family and friends, but also from others who have been impacted by epilepsy.”
What they didn’t count on was how the idea would take off. Volcano co-owner Krista Neville has never seen anything like this.
“It’s huge…absolutely huge,” said Neville. She told VOCM one person came in and bought and paid for 30 cookies and then sold them again and brought back more money.
Neville says in the first five days they baked more than 600 cookies iced with the purple epilepsy ribbon and raised almost $2,000.
They plan to keep the fundraiser going until the end of the month.
