BassBlaster

Lefebre Army Steps Up for St. Jude

I don’t think there’s any basser out there unfamiliar with the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. If there is, here’s the bottom line: When someone asks you to donate, time or money if, you do.

In that category is a guy named Paul Strege, who’s captaining a current effort called Jerseys for St. Jude. This effort is easy to understand: Pros donate tour jerseys, the jerseys are auctioned off on eBay, fans buy them, St. Jude gets the cash, sick children and their families are helped.

[See the RSS feed of the eBay auctions to the right of this post.]

Until recently, the auctions weren’t exactly on fire. That is until the Lefebre Army got involved.

Yes, Dave Lefebre has his own private army – which may or may not consist entirely of a large number of relatives in Union City, PA.

Be that as it may, that army got involved in the recent auction for Dave’s jersey. I’ll let Paul tell the story from here:

Super Bowl Sunday marked the end of week 2 of the Jerseys for St. Jude auctions. Of note, FLW pro Dave Lefebre’s 2010 Team Chevy jersey was up for sale. Anyone who knows Dave knows he has a huge following of fans – arguably, one of the largest in the sport [the entire town of Union City!] – and keeps connected with them through Facebook and other social media.

A couple hours prior to the end of the jersey auction, he encouraged and challenged his Facebook fans to increase the bid amount. One of his posts joked, “Come on, don’t make me buy this!” Shortly thereafter, he posted that he would take a fan on a fishing trip if the winning bid amount eclipsed $1,000.

When the auction came to a close, a glitch in eBay capped the top bid at $250.50, upon which the winner’s name and bid amount was announced on Dave’s Facebook page. Almost immediately, Dave received messages from some fans stating that they had bid far more than the winning amount.

Among those concerned fans was the winning bidder, Lealand Hansford of Oxford, PA. He contacted Dave and told him that he actually entered a maximum bid amount of $1,130 and was disappointed to see that the bid was not raised higher in the closing seconds so that he could have won a fishing trip too.

Dave told Hansford that he would still provide a trip if he would donate the difference between his winning and maximum bid amounts to St. Jude. Without hesitation, Hansford agreed. [Very cool Lealand!]

This story is proof of what great people (both anglers and fans) [like Paul] there are in this sport! Without their help, organizations like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital would not be as successful as they are today.

Cool story, eh? Props to Dave and Lealand.

Wonder what’ll happen if Lealand fishes against Dave wearing Dave’s jersey. Would this be some sort of psych-out for Dave?

Footnote: KVD’s jersey is coming up for auction. Whoever wins it, we have a challenge for you….

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Gitcha Bassin' Fix

The best, worst and funniest in bassin'! Jay Kumar is the guy who created BassFan.com, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a whole lot more in bassin™. Make sure you sign up for the BassBlaster email!

Get the BassBlaster!

Privacy by SafeUnsubscribe
To Top