Not Just Another E-Mail Blast

When friends of a stricken New Jersey high-school teacher decided to raise money for her, they turned to mutual friend Whitney Pillsbury, because he works in advertising and might know how to broaden their reach for potential donations. “They think I know what I’m doing,” says Pillsbury, a creative director at The Kaplan Thaler Group in New York.

Apparently, he does. His first idea was to hook up with Reunion.com to publicize the plight of Jane Erickson, who has taught in South Dakota and New Jersey schools for 40 years (she is now at Millburn High School) and has been diagnosed with scleroderma, a disabling auto-immune illness.