RUM BALLS SWEETEN PET PROJECT
Couple’s holiday tradition aids animal welfare
They are sinful little orbs of cocoa and sugar and rum, splayed across a kitchen tabletop in Longwood.
“Go ahead,” says Heather Boughman. “Try one.”
It is production night in the Boughman household, as it is many nights between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when Heather and husband Eric will tuck the children into bed, ask Alexa to play holiday tunes and break out their secret recipe and a large bottle of Appleton Estate Signature Blend Rum.
But theirs is not an endeavor of indulgence. It is one of charity.
Prepared, packaged and shipped by the Boughmans for six years and counting, the gourmet rum balls have raised $15,000 so far for Franklin’s Friends, a Central Florida nonprofit that helps cover shelter pets’ veterinary bills and support spay-neuter programs.
The Boughmans donate all their time, despite seeming to have none to spare. Eric, 46, is
an attorney and partner in Forster Boughman & Lefkowitz. Heather, 41, is a consultant for the skin-care company Rodan+Fields. They have a 4-year-old daughter, a 7-month-old son and a rescued 8-year-old Maltesepoodle named Chloe. No one would fault them for merely writing a check each year to their favorite nonprofit rather than experimenting with toppings of espresso or toffee or Chinese spices.
“We don’t watch TV, so that probably helps,” Eric says. “And of course, caffeine helps. We don’t really get our eight hours of sleep at night, especially in December.”
The gourmet rum ball venture traces its roots to 2009. The Boughmans, patients of Dr. Anthony Douglas of Maitland, saw a brochure for the Wiggle Waggle Walk, a fundraiser for the former SPCA of Central Florida, in the doctor’s office and signed up. They joined Douglas’ team, which included Douglas’ wife, Dr. Monisha Seth.
The team was called Franklin’s Friends after the doctors’ beloved foxhound, Franklin.
That first year, Eric and Heather simply asked friends to sponsor them for the walk to raise money. But the next year, they “bribed” them.
“We said, ‘OK, if you sponsor us for the walk, we’ll send you some rum balls at Christmastime,’ ” Eric says. “And we raised, maybe, $500.”
But word of the sumptuous spheres began to spread. The next year it was $1,000. Then $2,000.
In 2012, Seth decided to turn Franklin’s Friends into a registered charity,
“Each year, the rum ball fundraiser has become bigger and better, and this year has just been crazy. We had one individual order $650 worth.” Dr. Monisha Seth, co-founder of Franklin’s Friends
making donations tax-deductible and establishing a more formal grant program that helped a range of animal welfare groups. Then as now, Seth took no salary and has no paid staff. In five years, Franklin’s Friends has raised more than $1 million — money that has gone to canine flu vaccines, heartworm treatment, spay and neuter surgeries, fighting cancer and helping pets that can’t walk. It also goes toward community education.
The Boughmans, whose current and dearly departed pets are as much family as their children, are among the charity’s most devout supporters.
“Each year, the rum ball fundraiser has become bigger and better, and this year has just been crazy,” says Seth, who takes rum ball orders through the Franklin’s Friends website — franklinsfriends.info — and forwards them to the Boughmans. “We had one individual order $650 worth. … They are addictive. I actually have a box sitting on my couch right now that’s supposed to be a hostess gift for a party we’re going to, but I’m not sure they’re going to make it until then.”
The Boughmans took a break in 2013 — the only year they’ve skipped — when their first child was born. But in 2014, Eric’s firm began picking up the tab for expenses — the ingredients and packaging and shipping — so that every penny of rum ball sales goes to Franklin’s Friends.
The sweets are not cheap — a suggested donation of $25 or more for a box of nine or $50 for a box of 25 — yet orders now come from as far as Wisconsin and North Dakota and New York. Sales this year alone are set to surpass $5,000.
“It really has exploded,” Heather says.
Though the deadline for guaranteed delivery by this Christmas has already passed, the Boughmans plan to keep taking rum ball orders through Dec. 31 — even if, once in a while, they wonder what they’ve gotten themselves into.
“Yes, we have those moments,” Eric says. “But we’re already talking how we can make this bigger next year.” ksantich@orlando sentinel.com or 407-420-5503