When you go to a sports game or watch one on TV, there are a few guarantees of things you're going to see in the stadium. You'll see a bunch of ads, players, and what you'll mostly see, are fans. Fans litter the stands in their team's colors to show their support. Fans love to hold signs.
Signs are a way to express yourself to the entire stadium, as well as the cameras. The cameras love to find a good sign. Some of them can be extremely clever and funny. In the days of internet fame, it is easy to get your 15 minutes by being the person holding a particularly funny sign.
Holding a sign at a sports game can be a great way to build awareness to a cause. A college student recently brought a sign to a game to raise awareness on his charity: A charity to get more beer. He put up his Venmo name on the poster and the money flooded in, so what did he do with it?
This story all started when one football fan simply wanted the ESPN cameras to land on him during College GameDay. That simple plan for 15 minutes of fame has turned into thousands of dollars towards a children's hospital. Last weekend, a twenty four year old named Carson King went to a College GameDay game between the University of Iowa Hawkeyes versus the Iowa State University Cyclones, a rivalry game. Carson was there with his two friends and brought a sign. On one side it said, "Brock Purdy is Corn Jesus."
The other side is the side that got him plenty of attention - and thousands of dollars. The sign said, "Busch Light supply need replenished." He also included his Venmo address, a service that allows users to send money to each other just by having their username.
Busch Light, according to King, is the beer most closely associated with Iowa, and it is his favorite drink. It's amazing that Carson even got on TV. He and his friends originally arrived to find the main stage was full by the early morning. They went to a second stage, which ended up being very lucky. They were right behind a commentator. It didn't take long for Carson's phone to start blowing up with notifications.
Carson was receiving Venmo transactions. Within one hour he had received $400. Carson said, "I said, 'That's so much beer! This is great!" The number kept rising as more and more notifications came in. At $600, "I thought, 'I think I should do something better with this money than just buy Busch Light with it. As great as Busch Light is, I think I want to donate this money to charity."
Carson took enough money to pay for one case of Busch Light, but he decided to give the rest to University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital. He knew about that charity from participating in a Dance Marathon for them before. Even though the charity is a University of Iowa charity, his team's rivals, he thought it would be good in the spirit of the rivalry. Busch Mills heard about it and tweeted, "This is the best thing we've read all year, we're inspired. We're going to match your donation to University of Iowa Hospital & Clinics, and we'll throw in some of that Busch Light you were looking for."
In total, Carson's Venmo is at $41,000 ranging in donations from pennies to hundreds of dollars. Despite Carson only having a couple hundred dollars in his account, he was happy to share the money he received.