FTK! Young Slugger Launches Major League Public Relations Campaign

    There are some unmistakable signs that Spring has sprung. The snow pack is finally beginning to melt here in Central Pennsylvania, the Robbins are defrosting, and once again, SteveBauerMedia is out with another feel good story. Oh, and one more sign of Spring- 12-year-old Elliot Mast is swinging for the seats. This blog post is about a young baseball star's quest to help sick children and how he's tapping into the power of social media.

     Last year Elliot used his prodigious baseball skills to raise $5,000 for Pittsburgh Children's Hospital. Elliot plays for the Caporuscios Baseball team- part of the East End Youth Baseball league in Altoona. Here's how it works. For every hit Elliot gets each of his sponsors pay $2. For every home run Elliot belts the sponsors pony up $10 apiece. And for every strike out that Elliot pitches his sponsors donate $5. So far this season Elliot has two homers, six hits, and 16 strike outs. That means each sponsor will donate $112 to Pittsburgh Children's Hospital- and the baseball season is far from over. So why is Elliot doing this? He says it's FTK- For The Kids. Here's what's posted on his blog page.

     "Why am I helping Pittsburgh Children's Hospital? I was born with a club foot and I didn't think I would walk. They helped me to walk and play baseball. I had to wear a cast on my leg & foot everyday till I was 8 months old, then I had surgery and had to wear a special shoe and brace! They helped me!"

     It's a great story. But it's Elliot's use of technology that I find really interesting. Off the field he's a Social Media "All Star". For starters, I first found out about Elliot through a posting on LinkedIn.

     You can learn about Elliot's ambitious fundraising campaign by visiting: Elliot's blog page 

     Become a sponsor or make a one time donation through his PayPal account.

     You can friend Elliot on Facebook.

     Follow Elliot on twitter @Elliotmast. You can also add a Twibbon to your twitter account to help spread the word.

     You can watch video's about Elliot's FTK program on YouTube. Here's his 2011 campaign fundraising video.

 

     This media campaign is working. Elliot has already been featured in several newspaper articles and TV reports. A Google search for "Elliot Mast" turns up 7,590 entries. Google your own name and see how many hits you get. And this is all to help kids who need medical help. You can go ahead and start feeling good now. And I'm going to help you feel good by testing the power of social media. I'm posting this story on Twitter- and I'm asking my followers to retweet it. Let's see if we can all help Elliot's message reach an even larger audience. Maybe we can help this caring young man raise some extra money. I'll be sure to post any information I get from Elliot. FTK!

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http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevebauermedia

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