 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
In December 2005, a couple of rabid college football fans founded The Loyalty Fund, a non-profit foundation designed to help children with special needs live more comfortably, by paying for much-needed therapy and equipment, or helping with educational tools for mom and dad. As a joke, Steve Johnson, a Tennessee Volunteers fan and father of a child with Autism, put his fan loyalty up for sale on EBay. Through some strange happenings, Steve and the highest bidder, LSU fan Mike Moity, ended up starting The Loyalty Fund to lend a hand to the families of children with disabilities. You can read the entire remarkable story about how the fund came into existence here, courtesy of rivals.com. Please donate to The Loyalty Fund. |
Friday, December 30, 2005The Story Originally, this was supposed to be just a joke between some friends. I had recently hard about a Detroit Lions fan put his loyalty up for sale on EBay, and I liked the idea. My boys were napping one day, leaving me with some rare free time, so I did the same thing. I put my fan loyalty up for sale on EBay, promising the winning bidder that he or she could select the team I'd cheer for over the next year.I had no idea any of this would happen. I thought a friend of mine would bid 10 cents, we'd have a few laughs, and that would be the end of it. But soon, the bidding was up to $20, and the auction had a few hundred hits. I began to think that I'd be able to raise some money to pay for a few treatments for my won Will, who has Autism. So I went around to a few message boards, posting about the auction, seeing if I could drive some more attention to it. And the whole thing just took off. The bidding hit $100, then $200, and then more. So I pushed it even further, e-mailing local newspapers, radio and TV stations. The next thing I know, I'm on local TV, and then ESPN's Cold Pizza. The bids continued to climb... $400, then $600, eventually all the way up to $1,425.  Unfortunately, EBay wasn't enjoying the auction as much as I was, and they eventually shut it down. But through some kindness and generosity, we were able to make this something bigger and better than I had ever envisioned. You can read about how the story ended here, and how The Loyalty Fund came to be. Thanks again to rivals.com for their great work with the story. - Steve posted by the mighty mjd, 7:01 AM 0 Comments: |
|
|
Archives: December 2005 |
