Local Connection Drives See You Downtown Communities To Rally For Joplin Support

May 27, 2011 - PRLog -- Concern about a mutual friend in Joplin, Missouri started the ball rolling for an amazing, far-reaching grassroots effort by one local online community in Chicago helping another Midwestern community in Joplin.  

Gary Batchelder, social media coach at local internet marketing hub, seeyoudowntown.com, got a call from his sister Heather about the plight of a friend living in Joplin.  “When the victim of something that devastating is someone you care about, you can’t help but want to find a way to help – fast.  So I started putting the word out to people I knew could and would help.  What happened next was beyond anything I would have imagined.” commented Batchelder.

Volunteers began tweeting, posting, texting, and calling See You Downtown offering donations of time, money, goods, and resources.  Members of the seeyoudowntown.com community all over the Chicago area reached out to their networks to help.

At the same time just a few miles away, Erica Vietoris of Morgan Perris Salon in Westmont had been contemplating on her own how to quickly get a fundraiser together for Joplin.   Batchelder got word of her efforts and they joined forces to plan the Joplin fundraiser scheduled at the salon this Saturday.  The smile on Vietoris’ face lit up the room when Airgroup Chicago agreed to fly the supplies to Joplin and then transport to the donation site.

Christina Diamond, owner of Rue Noir an elegant intimate apparel shop in Naperville, is another standout in the grassroots support effort.   She immediately volunteered her store as one of the first supply donation centers and got to work on creating flyers and offering store discounts to rally the troops in her Naperville community.

Commenting on the flurry of activity in just 24 hours, See You Downtown founder, Grant Weiss said, “What happened in Joplin could have just as easily happened here in Chicago.  See You Downtown is all about raising awareness of the good that exists in local communities.   So it’s natural for our network of members and fans to respond to our request for help.  The response has been truly amazing.  We are so proud.”

A current list of the most critical supplies needed in Joplin can be found at http://www.facebook.com/seeyoudowntown.  Below is a list at press time of the activities offered by local businesses supporting relief efforts in Joplin.

Joplin fundraiser – Saturday, June 4th, 6 p.m.
Morgan Perris Salon, 700 Pasquinelli Drive, Westmont , IL
$15 without a donation item
$10 with a donation item
Live music, food, and beer  donated by Argus Brewery, local Chicago brewery.

Supply Drop off centers:  (http://www.seeyoudowntown.com/official-donation-centers)
Morgan Perris Salon, 700 Pasquinelli Drive, Westmont, IL
Rue Noir, 22 E. Chicago Avenue in downtown Naperville, IL
Modern Dog Boutique, 29 S. Prospect Avenue, downtown Clarendon Hills, IL

Transportation:
Airgroup Chicago, a Radiant Logistics Company, Wood Dale, IL

Online donations:
Heart of Missouri United Way Inc.
Monetary donations may be made using the “Donate to Joplin” link on the following sites.
www.facebook.com/seeyoudowntown
www.facebook.com/MorganPerrisSalon
www.facebook.com/RueNoirNaperville

No facebook? Go here:  tinyurl.com/3dbnkmg

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Seeyoudowntown.com is a powerful user-driven experience that creates a compelling online awareness for a local community. This interactive new media site showcases the "downtown" area and promotes shopping, dining, living, events, and attractions enabling visitors to easily find, learn, explore, and share more about the community. Our proprietary customer care process guides small, independent businesses within the SYD subscriber community to achieve increased customer traffic by optimizing their highly searchable SYD video, the extensive reach of social media, and fully utilizing mobile technology.