“Coffee without a heart!”…$60.3 million donated, 186 fans and ceremonies paid off

“Sometimes after a hit, if the older brothers don’t do the heart ceremony, the younger ones yell at them and say, ‘Why don’t you do it?”

There was a lot of love in the Doosan Bears dugout during the month of May. The team came together to hit 173 hits, 13 home runs, and collectively performed 186 heart gestures. Fans in the stands joined in by tracing the players’ hearts and making donations, raising a total of $60.3 million for the non-governmental organisation (NGO) G-Foundation. The donation will be used to support psychological therapy and cultural experiences for abused children.메이저사이트

The ‘Give Love’ campaign was inspired by infielder Yang Seok-hwan’s heart ceremony. Yang made a heart with his hands after every hit or home run this year. Initially, he sent the hearts to his family members who came to the stadium to watch the game, but as the games progressed, he expanded the target to include all fans in the stands.

Doosan joined hands with NAVER Happybean, a public service platform, to come up with a campaign to engage with fans for Family Month in May. In return, players would earn 100,000 won for each hit and 1 million won for each home run. The campaign manager approached the players through their captain, Heo Kyung-min, and they readily agreed to donate.

“The players all agreed that it was a good cause,” says Heo. I think they were trying to get more hits for the donation. There was also the idea that I should get the most hits because I suggested it to the players.”

The Doosan players collected a total of 30.3 million won with 173 hits and 13 home runs. This exceeded the club’s initial goal of $20 million. The players exceeded their goal despite four rain cancellations in the month of May. The largest donation came on 17 May against the Kiwoom Heroes, when the team recorded 12 hits and two home runs, raising $3.2 million in a single day.

Foreign batsman Jose Rojas was the top donor with 10 hits and five home runs, raising $6 million. He may have had fewer hits, but each home run made a big difference.

“I was happy to hear that I was the top donor,” Rojas said. It was for a good cause, so I think it means a lot more. The heart ceremony was awkward at first, but I think it helped us work together as a team,” said Rojas.

Second place went to Anbang Manim’s Yang Ji-ro with 19 hits and three home runs to earn $4.9 million. In third place were Heo Kyung-min (23 hits, 1 home run) and Park Kye-beom (13 hits, 2 home runs), who each donated $3.3 million. As expected, Heo led the team in hits in May. Idea-giver Yang Seok-hwan came in fifth with $2.9 million with 19 hits and one home run. Other contributors included Kim Jae-hwan ($2.6 million), Lee Yoo-chan ($2.1 million), Jeong Soo-bin ($1.6 million), and Yang Chan-yeol ($1 million).

Heo Kyung-min was also the senior who was scolded the most by his younger siblings during the DonateLup campaign. This was because he kept forgetting to do the heart ceremony. She was also annoyed because she was the top hitter in the team in May.

Park Kye-beom said, “Heo Kyung-min is always spending money on coffee (as a punishment for not doing the gesture),” and Yang Seok-hwan said, “When my brothers don’t do it, my younger brothers yell at me and say, ‘Why don’t you do it? They forget,” he said.

Heo Kyungmin said, “I always keep a heart in my back pocket (laughs), but I’m the one who forgot the most, so I got scolded a lot. I asked her to do it, but she forgot about three or four times. So I couldn’t say, ‘Why don’t you do it?’ It’s not that I don’t want to do it, I just really forgot,” he said, laughing hilariously.

Fans earned 2,000 won for every comment they left on the Happy Bean DonateLab campaign page. In addition, Doosan Bears donation beans were distributed on Naver blogs and cafes so that fans could donate directly to the donation box, which quickly reached the goal of 10 million won. The total donation from the players and fans was 60.3 million won.

The donation bean campaign is over, and the heart ceremony obligation is over. However, Yang hopes to continue doing the heart ceremony with fans. “I’m going to keep doing it, but I don’t know what will happen. I’ll talk to the team to see if they want me to continue,” he said.