MacKenzie,
Jason Laird. We met in that store in New Smyrna and you said “IRL!” because you recognized me from an email. Honestly, that made my week.
I'm reaching out because something is happening in our community and you're one of the people who could make it real.
Paul Allabaugh was 72. He lived here. He made wooden rainbow bridges for people whose pets passed on. Handcrafted. Every one different. He made hundreds of them. He couldn't sell them because he had social anxiety so severe his wife had to speak for him at flea markets. On March 30, Paul died by suicide. His house is full of bridges.
We built rainbowbridgehope.com to sell every bridge and raise $100,000 for his wife Pat Allabaugh and for suicide prevention. The number 988 is on every page. Not as a checkbox. As the reason the site exists.
You're three-time Food Network. 808,000 people trust your taste. You ARE New Smyrna Beach to a lot of them. If MacKenzie Smith shared Paul's story, this community would rally in a way that makes the news. Not because it's a marketing play. Because it's true and it's local and it's the kind of thing that doesn't happen unless someone like you says “I'm in.”
Founding partners get permanent placement on the site. Your name on the coalition page for as long as it exists.
This isn't a brand deal. It's a neighbor asking another neighbor to help a family that's hurting. Paul was right here. His bridges are right here.
Can I buy you a coffee and show you what we built? I think you'll feel something.
Jason Laird | New Smyrna | Amber@VolusiaVoices.com
988.