Drive A Thon History
About three years ago my friend, Gil, and I wanted to go to Chicago for lunch. We craved Burger Buddies from Ken's Diner, in our opinion, the greatest Kosher Hamburgers on the planet. If you have never eaten a Burger Buddy, you OWE it to yourself to make the pilgrimmage to Chicago. If you are firendly and tell them that I sent you, it is even likely that you will get to meet Ken himself.
It is about a 4 1/2 drive to Chicago from Detroit, which means if we drove there and back, and spent an hour eating lunch, it would take about ten hours, too long to pretend to be at work. We knew our wives would not go for it, so we needed a plan.
I should mention that Gil and I are the founding members of the MNFBBQ, an organization dedicated to football and BBQ.
We put our head together, and thought, what if this trip to Chicago was not just a way for two guys to skip work and go to Chicago, but a way to help Jews everywhere. What if we made this a Drive A Thon, and raised money to help people who were victims of terror. There is no way for a wife to say NO to that.
We started talking up the Drive A Thon to anyone who would listen. Most people laughed at us, including Micha, one of our MNFBBQ members. We randomly picked the thrid Wednesday in June, created a flyer, hung up some signs, and made plans to go. The rabbi heard about the plan, and was so impressed that he made us the focal point of his speech, criticizing those who made fun of our rediculous plan and talked about how great it was that people could take something they love, such as Burger Buddys, and turn it into a mitzvah.
Suddenly, no one was laughing to our faces, and checks starting to come in. A few people told us we needed to get Romanian meat in on the Drive A Thon, and our matching order program raised a large percentage of our profits. By the time we went on our Drive A Thon that June, we had raised about $2500 for One Israel Fund. We created a newsletter, some of which can still be found online at One Israel Fund's site.
The next year, we changed the date from the third Wednesday in June to the Second Wednesday in June, for two reasons. our kids are still in school on the second Wednesday in June, and off the third Wednesday. Even though loogic would dictate we would want to be far away when kids are away from school, our wives dictated that we would not be running off to Chicago for lunch while they were at home with the kids, no matter how good the cause was. That, and it is possible for the third Wednesday in June to fall out on my anniversary.
So we changed it to the second.
Drive A Thon was done in my Saturn. We had bigger plans for Drive A Thon II.
We got a sponsor to donate an RV, and we found someone who could volunteer to drive us the whole way. Then we got an amateur videogra[her to film a documentary on the Drive A Thon. The RV went great, we had hundreds of pounds of meat, including about 150 lbs of salami. Drive A Thon II raised about $3000 for One Israel Fund.
Which brings us to Drive A Thon III. We have sponsors for the RV, for the gas, a driver, and we are ready to roll next Wednesday. We have a man on the ground, Micha, who we have forbidden from coming on the Drive A Thon because of his skepticism. He sends out email updates throughout the day letting our sponsors know what is going on with the Drive A Thon crew, and how we are doing.
It is about a 4 1/2 drive to Chicago from Detroit, which means if we drove there and back, and spent an hour eating lunch, it would take about ten hours, too long to pretend to be at work. We knew our wives would not go for it, so we needed a plan.
I should mention that Gil and I are the founding members of the MNFBBQ, an organization dedicated to football and BBQ.
We put our head together, and thought, what if this trip to Chicago was not just a way for two guys to skip work and go to Chicago, but a way to help Jews everywhere. What if we made this a Drive A Thon, and raised money to help people who were victims of terror. There is no way for a wife to say NO to that.
We started talking up the Drive A Thon to anyone who would listen. Most people laughed at us, including Micha, one of our MNFBBQ members. We randomly picked the thrid Wednesday in June, created a flyer, hung up some signs, and made plans to go. The rabbi heard about the plan, and was so impressed that he made us the focal point of his speech, criticizing those who made fun of our rediculous plan and talked about how great it was that people could take something they love, such as Burger Buddys, and turn it into a mitzvah.
Suddenly, no one was laughing to our faces, and checks starting to come in. A few people told us we needed to get Romanian meat in on the Drive A Thon, and our matching order program raised a large percentage of our profits. By the time we went on our Drive A Thon that June, we had raised about $2500 for One Israel Fund. We created a newsletter, some of which can still be found online at One Israel Fund's site.
The next year, we changed the date from the third Wednesday in June to the Second Wednesday in June, for two reasons. our kids are still in school on the second Wednesday in June, and off the third Wednesday. Even though loogic would dictate we would want to be far away when kids are away from school, our wives dictated that we would not be running off to Chicago for lunch while they were at home with the kids, no matter how good the cause was. That, and it is possible for the third Wednesday in June to fall out on my anniversary.
So we changed it to the second.
Drive A Thon was done in my Saturn. We had bigger plans for Drive A Thon II.
We got a sponsor to donate an RV, and we found someone who could volunteer to drive us the whole way. Then we got an amateur videogra[her to film a documentary on the Drive A Thon. The RV went great, we had hundreds of pounds of meat, including about 150 lbs of salami. Drive A Thon II raised about $3000 for One Israel Fund.
Which brings us to Drive A Thon III. We have sponsors for the RV, for the gas, a driver, and we are ready to roll next Wednesday. We have a man on the ground, Micha, who we have forbidden from coming on the Drive A Thon because of his skepticism. He sends out email updates throughout the day letting our sponsors know what is going on with the Drive A Thon crew, and how we are doing.
posted by Air Time at 1:07 PM
17 Comments:
sounds like one of the zuroff boys is in on this.
you'd think, but you'd be wrong.
admit it though your impressed with my knowledge of jewish detroit.(now do you have any loshon harah on benji silverstein)
Not bad. But let's think for a minute. Rafi and Benji went to the same yeshiva together a in New York somewhere, which is probably where you know them from. That's fine with me.
But did you know that if you have been reading Air Time for the past few weeks, you have read about Benji.
if you have been reading Air Time for the past few weeks, you have read about Benji.
no and no
but if you do a post on wolmark i love you forever
the rabbi who moved to monsey?
Air, didn't you post this very same blog like a week or so ago? But, good luck this year. I hope you meet all your goals.
-OC
Could be. Its drive a thon season and we are promoting it wherever and whenever we can.
But did you know that if you have been reading Air Time for the past few weeks, you have read about Benji.
where?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
We have no LH on Benji. He is our good friend...
you tell him vee
I've been banned? Not that I could go, partly because you want me on this computer during the drive, you need me on this computer during the drive, but it hurts to know I had no choice. After all, who had the nerve and skill to get all of our sponsorship in under ten minutes?
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