Hoboken residents are at the forefront of a fundraising effort in the wake of the Penn State University scandal stemming from sexual allegations made against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
Sandusky, who was at one time believed to be the successor to longtime legendary head coach Joe Paterno, was charged on Nov. 5 following the release of a grand jury indictment charging he allegedly sexually abused eight young boys.
The sexual abuse scandal not only rocked State College, Pa., home of the university, but also local Penn State alums. Hoboken resident Jerry Needel decided he needed to do something to help Penn Staters regain their pride in their college.
The fundraiser has raised almost $500,000 for an anti-abuse organization.
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“I don’t really follow any other sports,” Needel said. “I store it all up for Penn State football. So when all this happened, it was very traumatic for me as a fan. For a couple of days after, it was just tons of opinions on television, on Facebook, and everywhere.”
One day, before walking his dog in Hoboken, Needel wondered if it would be okay for him to wear his Penn State sweatshirt in public. He wore it. On a different day, when he went out for a run in Hoboken, he said he ran by two people who also had Penn State attire on. He stopped them to talk about the scandal, and to plug the fundraising drive he helped organize.
Needel and his wife believe that Penn State is bigger than the horrifying allegations that currently surround the case.
“I said, ‘Let’s go do something about it’,” Needel said. “I picked a charity. My background is in social media, and we found out about RAINN, which is the largest anti-sexual abuse organization in the country.”
RAINN is the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network.
Needel, with the help of fellow Penn State alums, started ProudtoBeaPennStater.com, with the goal of raising $500,000 for RAINN, one dollar for every alumnus of the college.
“We thought that since there’s so much emotion and energy here, there had to be a way to channel this to do something great,” Needle said. “We could help Penn Staters get their pride back.”
Finding fellow alums in Hoboken
The website was launched at 9 a.m. on Nov. 10, five days after the allegations surfaced.
Needel sent a link to the website and fundraiser idea to a writer for a Penn State athletics blog called “Black Shoe Diaries.” The writer, Adam Collyer, unbeknownst to Needel, also lived in Hoboken.
“A lot of us didn’t know how to handle the scandal,” Collyer said. “Everybody was in shock and kind of baffled. We had discussed internally [at the website] trying to put something together, and then Jerry’s e-mail appeared in my inbox. It all kind of came together perfectly.”
Collyer, who says Black Shoe Diaries had anywhere between 10,000 and 25,000 daily hits during the height of the scandal, decided to post a story on the site about the fundraiser. The story was posted at 2 p.m. on Nov. 10.
“Two hours after the post we were at approximately $17,000, and I was on ABC by 4 p.m. that day talking about the charity,” Needel said.
Needel said that members of the group that started the website eventually appeared on NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other news programs.
“We were at $98,000 by the next day at noon,” Collyer said. “Which was about 22 hours since my post went online.”
The funds reached $305,000 by Saturday evening.
Needel, who has worked in social media for the last decade, said he had never seen anything like it before.
Why $500,000?
Last week, as of press time, “Proud to be a Penn Stater” was only $10,000 away from the $500,000 goal that they set.
“One number we considered was $108,000, which would be a dollar for every person who fits into Beaver Stadium,” Needel said. “I talked to RAINN, and they said to me it would be great if we could raise $25,000. I said we can raise that in a day.”
Penn State annually raises millions of dollars for charity through a dance fundraiser known as “Thon.”
“The Penn State community is so vast and interconnected,” Collyer said. “This was a horrible situation, but is there any group better able to do something about this?”
Needel said that many students and alumni reached out, including one who wanted to start selling t-shirts to help raise money.
“I wrote back to her and said that’s a great idea; you’re in charge of it,” Needel said, laughing.
To help cross the $500,000 goal line, the group is planning to auction off a helmet signed by Heisman Trophy winners from the Big 10 conference. The Heisman Trophy is the Most Valuable Player trophy in college football.
Record attention
The RAINN hotline has been receiving a record number of calls since the movement started, Needel said. The hotline is a resource for people who are being, or have been, sexually abused.
“People have been specifically calling in saying that they were inspired because of the Penn State – RAINN campaign” Needel said. “That’s the most meaningful thing to me.”
Beyond the fundraising effort, Needel said he saw a development that he wasn’t expecting.
“I’ve read in newspaper articles about Penn State fans donating from all over the country,” Needel said. “I get tons of emails also from Nebraska and Michigan State fans, all asking how they can help.”
Ray Smith may be reached at RSmith@hudsonreporter.com