With the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge to bring awareness to and raise money for ALS, Jill Rappaport, NBC correspondent, is hoping that the Pies 4 Paws challenge she’s created will do the same for the animal community. She’s looking to raise money for shelters that house more than 8 million that are looking for a home. The premise is the same as the Ice Bucket Challenge. Participants are asked to video tape themselves taking a pie to the face – the more frosting or whipped cream the better – and nominate four of their friends or family members to do the same or to donate.

The donations should be sent to the ASPCA, your local chapter is just fine. The challenge was started less than a week ago, but it’s already being picked up by animal-loving celebrities. Yesterday, Meredith Vieira, TODAY special correspondent, decided to take one for the team and have a pie thrown in her face in hopes of raising money for animals in need.

Vieira lets her daughter, Lily, do the challenge for her while her dog Jasper looks on. Once she removed all the frosting from her face, she challenged her coworker Matt Lauer along with comedienne Betty White and radio personality Howard Stern along with his wife Beth. So far, no one has accepted her challenge, but they do have 24 hours.

“It is my hope and dream that we can raise even a fraction of what the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has done,” Jill Rappaport said in a statement about her new challenge. She doesn’t assume she’ll raise anything like the millions that ALS raised in their challenge, but she does hope she can raise something for the many homeless animals that are waiting for adoption. They, too, need to eat and be cared for, and just because they don’t have a home doesn’t mean they can afford to go without.

(Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

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