The Necessary Deets

Hi everyone! Well, we’ve locked the Twitter account down and we’re ready to Get This! Here’s where we are so far with getting things set up. We hope to begin collecting donations by the weekend.

To donate as a group, the best option is to use PayPal. When using PayPal, the account has to be associated with a real person’s name and either their bank account or their credit card. Someone has to be responsible for the money.

We created a separate PayPal account that is not directly linked to anyone’s bank account. A fan offered to use her credit card to “hold” the account. So, when you check out, it will have a real person’s name attached to it, per PayPal’s requirement. This is the same way the Remember Betty Luncheon at Hard Rock was handled for RCMH in June.

The person responsible for the PayPal account is working directly with Susan Lawton who manages United Way of Tampa Bay’s early literacy initiatives. If you donated in mid-July when Joe tweeted about United Way’s Children’s Book Drive, Susan was the person who managed that effort.

Susan has the legal name and contact information of the person whose name will be on the PayPal account when you check out. She’s got an eye on the twitter account and the blog. She’s also made Joe aware that we’re doing this.

We want people to feel comfortable that this isn’t a scam and we’re not simply putting the money in an existing business account with no proof it was sent to charity. We want to be as transparent as possible as we go through this.

If this still seems shady, or you’d prefer not to use PayPal, donations can also be made by check directly to the charity. These donations will go to the Imagination Library which conducts neighborhood literacy events to connect families with young children to library resources. Instructions on donating by check are as follows:

Make check payable to United Way of Tampa Bay

In the “Memo” line write “Book Drive-Joe McIntyre”

Mail to the attention of:

Susan Lawton-Director of Early Literacy Initiatives

United Way of Tampa Bay

5201 W. Kennedy Blvd, Suite 600

Tampa, FL  33609

We hope you’ll join us in a group effort to celebrate Joe’s birthday and honor his enthusiasm for early literacy programs. How amazing would it be to have Susan inform Joe that a group of Bravehearts raised $1000 (or more?) in his name on December 31^st? As said previously, Joe knows what we’re up to already. His response was “I’m honored.” (Probably sounded something more like “I’m honaaahed.”) So since he already knows we’re doing this, the only way to surprise him is to raise as much money as we can in the next couple weeks. We can do that, right?

Let’s Get This!

Team Joe Mac