Letās show the Tomlinson-Deakin family how much we love and support them even in their darkest days.
Hi all! Hereās the deal. Our boy Louis and his family is hurting in the worst possible way right now after losing the most wonderful mum and wife in the world. It is obvious that Johannah Deakin was so loved, and thatās not a surprise considering she was an incredible woman, an incredible mother. It is horrible to think that her time here on earth was so brief. While there is nothing anyone can do to bring Jay back, perhaps we can do something to honor this wonderful person.
This is where Joy for Jay comes in. Johannah Deakin was a woman who showered the world with joy, whether it was through her charitable efforts, her obvious pride in her children, or her infectious smile and lovely personality. Letās continue to honor her by bringing joy to whomever we can reach and trying to help her loved ones through an incredibly difficult time by showing them how much we love and care about them.
So what am I planning to do? The charitable initiatives many others have started are already phenomenal. To add to those, I was thinking that we could take out a full-page ad in a Doncaster paper and perhaps Billboard magazine to show our love for Jay and the whole family in a tangible way.
A group of fans took out a full-page ad in Billboard magazine once before to celebrate the release of Made in the AM and show the boys that fans are here for them until the end. Louis especially absolutely loved it. He tweeted about it and Instagrammed it and just generally seemed astounded that fans would do something like that for them.
Iām sure it brought a smile to his face when he saw it, and Iām hoping this initiative could bring a smile not only to his face but also his entire familyās faces. This wonāt fix their grief, but if it helps them smile even for one second, that would be worth it to me.
Raise awareness: The number one thing that needs to get done right now is getting as many people as possible from all branches of this fandom to become aware of this project. That way, when it comes time to fundraise for the ad, we could have 7,000 people donate a dollar and we would probably be able to afford an ad. Send this post to big blogs or Twitter accounts that you know of, and be sure to reblog the post instead of liking it so that as many people as possible find it. Also, be sure to follow this blog. I need as many people as possible to follow here so I can be sure that updates are reaching everyone.
Join the organizational effort: Do you have experience in fundraising, website design, advertising or simply organizing initiatives? I donāt, so I need as much help as I can get. Please message me at [email protected] if you are interested in making phone calls to periodicals to find out pricing for ads, designing/creating a fundraising page, or helping mobilize large groups of people to get this done.
Create an image for the ad: Are you an artist or do you know someone who is? We need an actual design for this ad. The design and look of the ad itself is still totally undetermined at this point, but the one thing I want to be sure to include is the names of a few charities Jay supported and a few charities that support leukemia research and patients as well as contact info for those charities so that anyone who sees the ad ā even if they are outside of this fandom ā might donate to or raise awareness for those causes. If you are an artist and are willing to create an image for the ad, I am currently accepting all submissions. Please make sure to draw the image yourself. I donāt want to use photos out of concern for copyright issues. You can submit images to [email protected]
Lead the social media charge: I do not have a fandom Twitter, nor am I that great at connecting with people on Twitter. If Twitter is your thing, Iād love it if someone could run a Twitter account for this campaign. Again, please message me at [email protected]
Miscellaneous ideas: Thereās a lot involved in something like that that I probably havenāt even thought about yet. If you have any ideas for how we can make this project a success, shoot me a message. Iād love to hear them.
I think it would be fantastic if we could get this ad printed by Jan. 7, the one-month anniversary of her death. To do that, I have the following deadlines in mind.
Dec. 15: Finalize the periodical(s) in which to print the ad. To do this, we will need to find out what a full-page ad will cost in each periodical, when we will need to get the ad to the periodical, and which periodical gets the most exposure in the Tomlinson-Deakin world.
Dec. 18: Set up the fundraising page to collect donations for the cost of the ad. Any money we raise over the price of what the ad will cost will be donated to either Believe in Magic, a charity Jay supported over the past few years, or Bloodwise, a charity supporting leukemia and lymphoma research.
Dec. 20: Designs for the ad are due. I would like to have a voting process to pick which ad/design to use, so the earlier we can get these in, the better.
Dec. 30: Voting on designs closes. We finalize the ad and send it to the periodicals in the hope of getting it published by Jan. 7.
I realize this is a very short timeline over a very busy season, but Iām not opposed to a little hard work in order to help others. Are you? If we do this together, Iām confident we can get this done!