Bailout The Game Blog

Creators of the Orginal Bailout Games by Liberty Street Games

The “Help for Haiti Event” was hosted by Wings Plus and coordianted by Social Gorilla and Liberty Street Games on January 18, 2010.

The whole concept for the event occurred a couple of days after the earthquake that struck the country of Haiti on January 12, 2010.  Shari Sopourn of Liberty Street Games declared, “We have to do something to help the people of Haiti.”  The process began immediately that moment and everything began to be set in motion.

Shari started by consulting with Michael Black of Social Gorilla and Brian Walsh of Wings Plus to coordinate the time, place and how to get the word out.  Liberty Street Games started the process off by creating some flyers of the event.  With the flyers in hand, local businesses were visited to inquire if they were interested in helping with the event.  Unsurpisingly, many of the local businesses were extremely helpful with their support in resources and spreading the word.

Most of the local businesses provided coupons for the people who were making donations to the Haitian people.  However, some businesses went the extra mile like Dunkin Donuts who provided a free coffee cup and Anthony’s Coal Fire Pizza who provided a $5.oo gift card. Some more examples of the generosity of local businesses include USK Karate School who provided a month of free lessons and Curves who gave a week of work outs at no cost.

Liberty Street Games handed out flyers to the local residents and worked on the website for promoting the event. Wings Plus hung a banner on their store to draw attention for the all day event.  Social Gorilla used their social networking skills to inform the locals about what they can do to help.

In a very brief period of time, the whole event came together.  A local DJ, Big Daddy Gonzo, offered his services after he found out about the event via Facebook.  An interview was scheduled with 850AM WFTL’s, Jeff Katz, who promoted the event on the radio. Additionally, The Joyce Kaufman Show of 850AM also promoted the event.  While listening to The Jeff Katz Show, Suzanne Creations called Liberty Street Games to offer a balloon arch to announce the event to people who were driving by the event on Sample Road.  A pilot called Liberty Street Games and offered their cargo plane to transport all the donations to Haiti.  Bobby the Balloon Guy offered to share his creations with the visitors of Wings Plus.  After all the help from these great people, the fundraiser was turning out to be a well coordinated event.

On Monday morning, when Wings Plus opened at 10:30 am, Coral Springs residents showed up immediately with their donations.  People brought whatever they could; food, water, clothes, money and other essential items.  It was an amazing and humbling event.  Some people who came to the restaurant for lunch, returned later in the day with donations.  Anyone who made a cash donation, was given a copy of Bailout The Game or Bailout The Card Game.  Thousands of dollars were donated to the cause.

It is amazing that people who are in a financial crunch, came out and gave and gave and gave.  It just goes to show that Americans are truly a selfless people.  This Help for Haiti Event is a small vignette of the true spirit of the citizens of this great country.

When the Help for Haiti Event was over, the truck was packed up with the last of the items donated and delivered to a local Haitian church in Coral Springs.  A couple of days later, Liberty Street Games was informed that the plane was scheduled to land in Jacmal, Haiti.  The most needed items were requested to be loaded on the first plane to Haiti.  So the Sopourn’s sifted through the donations with Pastor Manno looking for canned food, water, baby diapers and medical supplies.  Due to the short time frame, the official inventory and weight was never calculated but it is estimated to be 2,000 lbs of these essential items. All these most needed items were delivered to the Fort Lauderdale airport where they were loaded onto the plane.  The plane took off for Haiti on January 21 at 2:00 pm.  Our friends at Christianville Foundation, Inc. are on the ground in Haiti and are going to make sure that these items are given to the earthquake victims who need them.