Posted on 11/27/2001 12:44:20 AM PST by MattS
Shortly after the WTC attacks I posted a link to a shop I set up at Cafe Press, where I made "Let's Roll" mugs available to benefit the Beamer family. Today I am happy to announce that the first commission check has come in!
If you visit the shop, you can see an image of the check, which I had Cafe Press make out to Lisa Beamer directly. It's only $45, but I figure anything would be nice to give to Todd Beamer's family.
When I first posted about this, people were understandably reluctant to participate. Still, 15 mugs were ordered by about a dozen people in those early days. Now that I'm able to display an image of the check (which I will mail tomorrow) I hope that more people will feel safe purchasing the benefit mugs.
The mugs are $15 each, plus shipping, so they are pretty steep, I admit. However, due to the way Cafe Press works, you have to crank up the price to realize any profits. If you want to learn more about their price structure, there's a link at the shop that explains it. (To save on shipping, it is best to do a group order.)
If you have any questions drop me a line or post a followup.
does this strike anyone else as morbidly tacky ?
I'm sending a check to Todd Beamer's widow, in time for Christmas, and I'd like to be able to send more in the future, because his story is inspiring. What's tacky about this?
Yep! It's nice that you are documenting your activities to erase any doubt. Good luck!
I might have felt similarly uneasy when MattS first launched this endeavor. Not so today, however. I believe MattS' effort is honorable and deeply felt; his inspiration was Todd Beamer, and Todd's last known words provided the vehicle MattS needed in order to help the Beamer family. "Let's Roll!" has quickly become a part of our language, a meaningful phrase that inspires our determination to selflessly do what is right and necessary.
I understand your concern about the apparent abundance of help and coverage available to Lisa Beamer. Perhaps she has more than enough. But she strikes me as the kind of person who would share with others anything she could. If she has more than enough money now and gets still more from MattS' coffee mug enterprise, I honestly believe she'll turn around and be charitable with it.
Quick buck artists always emerge from the shadows during times of tragedy, but there are also some who are so moved by the pain and suffering of others that they intently think of ways to be helpful. I think MattS and his coffee mugs hail from here.
Yeah.
A very perceptive comment considering the words from here of Lisa Beamer after taking the same Newark-to-San Francisco flight that her husband took.
"You always need to be cautious; I'd never be so naive to sayThere's a mile wide line drawn in the sand IMO between self-promotion and helping others. Keen observers know exactly where to stand.
nothing could ever happen, but I'm not afraid to fly today," she
said. "I'm cautious and prepared. I want to support our
president in his effort to encourage Americans not to be held
captive by terrorism."Beamer said she also wanted to take the flight to support the
nation's commercial airlines and to raise money for a
foundation she set up in her husband's memory to help the 22
children who lost parents aboard Flight 93.She said none of the money would benefit her family, but would
be used "to continue the legacy of courage, character and
faith" that her husband left.
So do I. Some people sit on their hands, and others roll up their sleeves. MattS is clearly the latter.
If he had done this to make money, I could understand the concern.
As for Lisa Beamer, we have no way of knowing how well she's doing financially, or what her needs will be in the future. (I heard of one WTC widow who received something in the neighborhood of $30K from the Red Cross, I believe - in NYC, that's nothing.) If the money raised from the sale of this mug is unwelcome or not needed, she can always pass it on to someone else or refuse it.
Matt, my apologies, please dont take it personally. I applaud your intent. However from my own "twisted perspective" it strikes me oddly that a mans last words before dying a violent (albeit honorable) death impart marketability to the item in question. Its trivialized on a mug- when it should be inscribed in marble.
I will grant you it is more than most would have done - blessings to you
C'mon HLL - dont twist it - see post #16 - I just hate to see it trivialized on a mug
where does the marketing stop? tie tacks, knitted socks - an ENSYNC hit cd? -
sorry if my tone sounds disrespectful, it certainly is not meant to be.
You know, this is a nice thought that makes a lot of sense on some level, but other phrases - I'll use "Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue" as an example - have been inscribed in marble but also seem perfectly appropriate and meaningful on a coffee mug. Maybe it wouldn't have seemed that way in 1945 - I don't know - but it does now.
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