Inklings Staff Raising Money for Coworker’s Heart Transplant

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After doctors told bookseller Mimi Applebaum she needed a lifesaving heart transplant, staff members at Inklings Bookshop in Yakima, Washington, sprang into action to raise money to help cover the exceptional expenses she and her family will incur.

At 21, Applebaum was diagnosed with carcinoid syndrome cancer of the liver, a disease that also caused major problems with her heart. Now at age 37, Applebaum’s doctors say a heart transplant is critical to her survival.

Applebaum currently serves as Inklings’ periodicals associate, handling the store’s magazine ordering and checking in new shipments. She has worked at Inklings in numerous roles for the past 11 years, during which her health status has fluctuated greatly.

“Mimi had been a front line bookseller for many years before her health problems prevented her from doing that anymore, so she is really a well-known, beloved person at Inklings. Ninety percent of our customers know her, so that’s been a real benefit in the fundraising,” said Inklings manager and event coordinator Emily Ring, who is also the vice chair of Applebaum’s official fundraising committee through the nonprofit National Foundation for Transplants (NFT).

The newly formed committee, which is half comprised of current and former Inklings employees, is working with NFT to raise $85,000 to help Applebaum. Though insurance will cover the cost of the transplant, Applebaum and her husband, Ian, will need to temporarily relocate 200 miles from their home in order to be near the Oregon Health and Science University’s hospital in Portland, Oregon. Funds raised will help them cover the substantial cost of travel, food, and lodging, as well as expenses related to Applebaum’s follow-up care and daily anti-rejection medications, which she will need to take for the rest of her life. 

The committee’s recent fundraising efforts have included a Valentine’s Day event at a local sports center and the placement of donation jars at various businesses around Yakima. But, Ring said, because of Applebaum’s ties to Inklings, much of the committee’s work is focused at the store and is publicized through its blog.

“Because February is National Heart Month we have donation jars here in the store and we are also asking every customer at the cash wrap to donate a dollar or more to the National Foundation for Transplants in Mimi’s name,” said Ring. “For each person who donates we’re putting a heart with their name on it around the front door. At this point, our entire entry way is completely full of hearts. The response has been tremendous. I have not heard a single person say no.”

Ring said the store, which is owned by Susan Richmond, has also made it easy for people to contribute to the fund via credit card by running donations through Inklings’ point-of-sale system.

“We all know and love Mimi and we have all seen what this process has been like: her multiple surgeries, all of the complications that have surrounded those, and I think we were all pretty shocked that the next step is going to be a heart transplant,” said Ring. “It’s something that happens to other people, not something that happens to vibrant young coworkers. As much as she has gone through health-wise, as big as the previous surgeries have been, this is relocation, months of healing, getting a brand-new heart. It is unfathomably big and it’s something that we all wanted to help with.”

Anyone who is interested in making a tax-deductible donation to the National Foundation for Transplants in Applebaum’s name, to be earmarked for her personal fund, may do so online by visiting the Inklings website, the NFT website, or Applebaum’s blog Let’s Shoot the Moon. To donate by mail, checks with “In honor of Mimi Applebaum” written on the memo line can be sent to the NFT Washington Transplant Fund, 5350 Poplar Avenue, Suite 430, Memphis, TN 38119.

Applebaum is also in the process of applying to the Book Industry Charitable Fund (Binc) for assistance, Ring said.

To learn more about Applebaum’s story, click here.