Even though she is the littlest team captain, Abbey Brannen is running a big Kiss-A-Pig campaign.

Seven-year-old Brannen is this year’s Effingham County team leader for Kiss-A-Pig, the largest fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 21 months old.

Brannen’s school, Ebenezer Elementary, hosted a fundraiser for her campaign last weekend, and other local businesses are getting onboard as well.

Papa John’s Pizza in Rincon is hosting a fundraiser April 17. Ten percent of every sale that day will be given to Abbey’s Kiss-A-Pig campaign.

On April 20, the Belk store at Oglethorpe Mall in Savannah will host a Belk Charity Day from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. to raise money for Brannen’s “Hams of Effingham” team. Anyone can buy a ticket for $5, and proceeds go to Brannen’s campaign. The ticket also serves as a $5 coupon, and the prices of many items in the store will be marked down.

“What’s so great about these tickets is you get the $5 off your purchase and they mark down brands that are not normally on sale,” said Abbey’s mom and campaign co-manager, Johnsie Brannen.

The fundraiser at Ebenezer Elementary included a garage sale, bake sale and sales of Kiss-A-Pig campaign T-shirts. It raised nearly $400.

Also, Ebenezer Elementary will host a coin drive later this month, for students and staff to donate spare change to ADA. The coin drive was one of assistant principal Dana Wright’s fundraisers last year, when she won the Kiss-A-Pig contest by raising $29,144.

Anyone can donate to Brannen’s campaign, which runs until the Kiss-A-Pig celebration May 11 in Savannah. There, the representative of the winning team will pucker up and kiss a live pig.

Kiss-A-Pig
To support Abbey Brannen’s Kiss-A-Pig campaign visit www.diabetes.org/savannahkap2013 and click on her photo.