THE “RICKSTORY” OF THE BIRTHDAY CAMPAIGN

In the Beginning
When Rick aired on General Hospital as Eli Love in the summer of 2007, with a tie-in to LifeBeat on the show, fans on the old Rick Springfield Forever (RS4) Yahoo list decided to do something to give back to LIFEbeat in Rick’s honor. Therefore, the idea was born on the list and a small organizing committee was formed to use that organization as our first benefactor. We even had a Christmas campaign that year benefiting American Gold Star Mothers!

Over the years, since fans have loved to give Rick birthday presents because he gives SO much of himself to his fans, we continued that tradition and just let him know the results at the end. Eventually, he himself became involved and requested that any money spent on presents be donated to charity instead and he picks the charity(ies).

Voluntary Prize Donations
The voluntary prize giveaways began when some of the RS4 list members piped up and mentioned they had some things to give away to make our first campaign fun. And thus that idea of giving away prizes was born. They had extra Alive DVDs, CDs, etc., and they came from far and wide to give them away and it was a great thing. We came together with other RS lists and groups and spread the word to all.

The prizes given away were all volunteered without anything being expected in return, so we prefer to continue that tradition to this day.  We do ask that if anyone has unique things they would like to donate to help raise monies for the causes to contact us. But the intent is still to keep this all as grassroots as possible and giving with nothing expected in the prize department fits that intent.

Now Here We Are
This annual campaign has evolved over the years, and now over $178,000 has been raised since 2007! The prize ticket numbers that somehow came about are now automatically generated. We get bigger and better prizes offered each year. Rick himself gets involved with picking the charities to benefit from our efforts. He donates the Grand Prizes usually now. And the one thing that stays the same is the wish to give Rick Springfield THE best birthday gift ever that benefits others.

Our initial goal in 2015 was to raise over $15,000.00. We KNEW our work was cut out for us, but Rick Springfield fans are capable of such good things, and together, we DID meet and exceed that goal, raising a truly amazing $18,666! 2017 was also a RICKord breaking year total-wise since over $17,000 was raised for one single charity! We raised $15,269.69 in 2018 in less time and with less team members.  We set out to raise $20,000 in 2019, and ended up raising a truly astounding $34,170.00! HOLY CRAP!!! AND, in the year 2020 in five weeks’ time during a global pandemic, Rick’s fans raised $21,771.71! Truly heart-warming and inspirational!