How do these people get in touch with Jimmy

[rmissbrook]

There's a story on that other board that shall not be named about Jimmy paying for a trip to Gulf Shores for a group of school children. The original request was for a couple of T-shirts to raffle off. So just who would you email to originally to get this started and then how does the info get to Jimmy? I mean I think it was a wonderful thing to do but I am always just curious (call me nosy) about how these requests reach Jimmy. (And no, I have no intention of using the information.)

[springparrot]

No clue, but maybe a message to Margaritaville Key West?

[SeattleParrotHead]

Hmmm . . . just like the dark side to get it wrong . . . .

Classroom to get oceanside view
Jimmy Buffett’s sister arranges ocean trip for Mad River eighth-graders

RIVERSIDE — Singer Jimmy Buffett knows how to throw a beach party in paradise, but his sister, Lucy “LuLu” Buffett, has arranged a free school trip of a lifetime for 24 Mad River Middle School eighth-graders, who will visit her in Gulf Shores, Ala., where they will learn about the ocean and conservation and view sea creatures up close.

Joan Miller, an eighth-grade visual arts teacher at Mad River Middle School, contacted Buffett’s business, LuLu’s at Homeport Marina, in October to request a donation of T-shirts, hats and other items her students could raffle off to raise money for a school trip to the Newport Aquarium, located across the river from Cincinnati.

Miller noted in her request that about 58 percent of the school district’s students receive free or reduced lunches, which denotes they come from low-income households. She said she wanted to share with them the experience of the ocean, which she always found to be inspiring and therapeutic, especially when she was struggling with medical issues.

In her request, Miller outlined her plan to have students research ocean creatures, learn about last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster and build a sea-life scene with hand-made clay fish.

Miller said she did not expect to hear back from the organization, but three days later, she did.

“I got a phone call from her general manager, Johnny Fisher, who said, ‘We don’t want you going to the aquarium, we want to bring you down to the ocean,’” Miller said. “I thought I was going to faint in the kitchen.”

After the BP oil spill, which threatened businesses along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, LuLu Buffett coined the phrase “One Love One Ocean,” which she then emblazoned on T-shirts that she sold to raise money to benefit causes consistent with this theme.

The shirts were a massive hit, and her group has sold more than 600,000 T-shirts, Fisher said.

Fisher said Miller’s e-mail was so touching that LuLu Buffett and her businesses decided a T-shirt donation was not going to cut it.

They arranged an all-expenses paid trip for the students and their dedicated teacher from April 2-7.

“Not only is this an opportunity to change a kid’s life, it’s also about rewarding a teacher that obviously cares deeply for her students,” Fisher said. “Joanie is the real hero.”

The students will receive free admission to the Daupin Island Sea Lab, stay in condominiums surrounded on both sides by water (donated by Meyer Real Estate), partake in an art project and participate in beach clean up.

The students were chosen this week based on essays they wrote.

“We want to take students who have never been to the ocean. I want to provide that experience for them, because who knows if they’ll ever be able to go,” Miller said. “If I can take them there and let them feel a little of what I’ve experienced, I think they’ll be thrilled and it will change their life.”

“Not only is this an opportunity to change a kid’s life, it’s also about rewarding a teacher that obviously cares deeply for her students. Joanie is the real hero.”
Johnny Fisher - General manager for Lucy Buffett

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/com ... 90076.html

[rmissbrook]

In fairness, in the radio interview the caller is the one who says that Jimmy paid for the trip. Great story no matter who paid.

[springparrot]

LuLu Buffett coined the phrase “One Love One Ocean,” which she then emblazoned on T-shirts that she sold to raise money to benefit causes consistent with this theme.

I didn't know this was Lulu's idea.
Good job ((((Lulu))))

[tigzoe]

Here is another article that Lulu posted on her FB page:

Gulf Shores, AL- One Love. One Ocean. A phrase coined by Lucy Buffett to unite the Gulf Coast community after the tragic BP oil spill. The phrase caught on with the country, and struck a note with an inner-city visual arts teacher in Dayton, Ohio.

While those who love the beach, their home, were working desperately to preserve its beauty, there were also many who had never even experienced what it has to offer.

The students in Joanie Miller’s class often times cannot rely on a dependable source for their next meal. A trip to the beach on the coast of Alabama was considered unthinkable.

That will all change very soon.

“I know what the ocean has meant to me,” Miller said. “It got me through some rough times growing up. It changed my life, especially after a serious illness.”

The inner-city Dayton, Ohio students are also no strangers to adversity.

“Many of them come from single-parent households,” Miller said. “A lot of our families are in need.”

Her hope was that one day her students would be able to visit the ocean.

“One day” is April 2, 2011.

Miller’s original intention was to plan a project for the students involving ocean life. They were to make a sea life scene.

Now they will see the sea with their own eyes.

She asked if Lucy Buffett would donate “One Love, One Ocean” t-shirts for the project so that they could sell them to fund a trip to an aquarium, and the reply she received caught her off guard.

Buffett told her that she and her class would have to come to Gulf Shores and get them. Buffett would fund the trip.

The students will have a “Welcome to the Beach” party upon arrival to kick off a trip full of ocean events including a trip on a 53 ft catamaran sailboat trip aboard Wild Heart donated by owner, Shu Cunningham at Wild Hearts Sailing.

Owner Sheila Hodges of Meyer Real Estate graciously donated the trip accommodations, placing the group in condos in Gulf Shores. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab threw in free admission to the ocean-life facility, complete with Shrimp Boat trip and guided ecological tours. Other restaurants in the area, such as Rafters at the Wharf, will be accommodating the group.

“The timing was everything in this,” Buffett said. “We were deciding on where to distribute the funds we raised from the sale of the t-shirt when she just happened to ask for a One Love, One Ocean shirt for her class.”

Their story touched Buffett much like the beach has touched her life. She could only do one thing: share her love, and share the ocean.

“Seeing that kind of splendor, that kind of beauty, changes people’s lives,” Buffett said. “The ability to give these children the opportunity to see the beauty of our area is just really heart-warming to me.”
One Love, One Ocean in the inner city of Dayton, Ohio.

http://www.hobnobgulfshores.com/news/mo ... leged-kids

[tryin' to reason]

I just call his cell phone.

He moves around so much, I find that the easiest way.

[palmettopirate]

Getting in touch with Jimmy isn't really that hard. Getting a response? Well that's another story.

[The Lost Manatee]

A friend of mine has a business making custom fly fishing rods and several years ago he decided to make one for Jimmy. He initially tried to get a hold of Jimmy via Margaritaville. No luck. What did work is that he made a second rod for Ramos and got a hold of him via Charleston and Ramos arranged for my friend to present the rod to Jimmy prior to a concert.

[SeattleParrotHead]

Mad River students enjoy trip to ocean
Jimmy Buffett’s sister treats 22 eighth-graders to trip to Gulf Shores, Ala.
By Cornelius Frolik, Staff Writer 11:05 AM Thursday, April 14, 2011

RIVERSIDE — They ate cheeseburgers in paradise. They had changes in latitude, changes in attitude. They saw fins to the left, fins to the right.

When 22 Mad River Middle School eighth-graders visited Gulf Shores, Ala., last week during an all-expenses-paid trip from Lucy “LuLu” Buffett, the sister of famed singer Jimmy Buffett, the students were treated to many of the seaside pleasures and thrills discussed in Mr. Margaritaville’s songs.

The students, 11 of whom had never seen the ocean, were instantly smitten by the beautiful setting and adored the hospitality of their hosts.

“We heard a lot of giggling and laughing and there was a lot of smiling, and I think they were just in awe,” said Joan Miller, the school’s eighth-grade visual arts teacher.

Miller in October wrote Buffett’s business, LuLu’s at Homeport Marina, requesting free T-shirts she could sell to help fund a school trip to the Newport Aquarium.

But Miller’s letter, which outlined how the ocean was therapeutic to her when she was ill and the fact that 58 percent of the district’s students receive free or reduced lunches and have never seen the sea, touched the hearts of Buffett and her staff. Instead of sending T-shirts, Buffett invited Miller and her students to come visit.

Eight school staff and 22 students took charter buses to the Alabama shoreline. Students were chosen based on essays they wrote.

The five-day trip, which took place during spring break, was jam-packed with activities, including a trip to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and a zoo, a sail boat tour, art project, beach clean-up, music concerts and beach party.

Students gasped when they saw marine life up close and as they pet starfish and sting rays.

“We had dolphins right next to the boat,” Miller said. “It was unbelievable.”

It was incredible to see dolphins in the wild, said eighth-grader Courtney Holladay. She took dozens of photographs of the beach to show her younger siblings, who have never been the ocean.

“It was just beautiful,” she said.

The students made glass sculptures, ate lots of Cajun food, played in the ocean and listened to steel-drum bands. They stayed in condominiums a short walk from the ocean. The trip did not cost the district one dime.

“Most of the students did not want to come home,” Miller said. “We were having such a fantastic time. Lucy ... it was unbelievable what she did for us.”

Eighth-grader Drew Pearson said he was glad he did not spend his spring break as many of his friends did, playing video games and watching television. He said the trip was educational, entertaining and inspiring. He said some of his peers were so mesmerized by the beach they bagged up handfuls of sand and to bring home.

“They got a zip-lock bag and put sand in it,” he said.

Both Holladay and Pearson are resolved to return again one day soon to Gulf Shores. They both again want to eat Cheeseburgers in Paradise, a menu item at LuLu’s that they say lives up to the hype.

“I couldn’t finish it,” Pearson said. “It was big.”


http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/com ... 36097.html

[conched]

Great story. Thanks for posting it.

[tigzoe]

Thanks for posting the followup. I bet Lulu is a hot ticket. She strikes me as someone that you could sit with for hours and have a blast.