International Tom Hanks Day!
Today is International Tom Hanks Day!
You ask, “What, pray tell, is International Tom Hanks Day?” The Chicago Sun Times fills us in:
Some people are content to sit on a park bench and watch the world go by.
Kevin Turk is not that kind of guy.
He came up with the idea for International Tom Hanks Day, which celebrates the actor, his passions and his causes. The event, which has grown to global proportions, even has its own Facebook page. And Mr. Forrest Gump himself, two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, has given it his stamp of approval, providing personal memorabilia and touting the event during a Feb. 28 guest spot on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
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Turk, a 28-year-old sales director at Special Events Management in Chicago, admits that inspiration struck him and a few other April Fools while they were attending Western Michigan University.
“One day myself and my five roommates just sat around all day and drank Dr Pepper and rum because of ‘Forrest Gump’ [it’s the beverage of choice in the 1994 film]. By the end of the afternoon, we realized it was April 1,” he said. “When April Fools’ came around the next year, we printed up T-shirts with characters from whatever [Hanks] movie people wanted to be.”
Then in 2007, Turk managed to get through to the actor by using family connections. Hanks responded with a typewritten letter, dated April 1, 2007, that began: “Dear Kevin Turk and the Assembled: You people have all either lost your minds or your jobs. Both?”
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“He sends one or two of those baseball jerseys every year,” Turk said. “He even sent us the original sugarcane recipe from Dr Pepper. There were 40 cases of Dr Pepper in these throwback 12-ounce bottles. He has a favorite bologna recipe, so he sent these 20-pound logs of bologna and the recipe of how to fry it, three minutes on either side.”
Money raised at the event goes to Lifeline Energy (www.lifelinenergy.org), Hanks’ favorite charity. Earlier this week, Hanks agreed to match the Chicago donations up to $10,000. Lifeline focuses on bringing self-sufficient and environmentally friendly technologies to underdeveloped countries.