Bringing Fans Together

Our Admins, Amy and Tina, don’t know how to do things the easy way. They also don’t believe in quitting. After a fairly successful first project, they decided to stick it out with the Teen Wolf fandom to spread a little more fandom love in the world.  After several long nights and few stressful text conversations, they still had nothing… So they decided to lament over the lack of Teen Wolf conventions in our corner of the United States. Looks were exchanged, eyebrows were quirked, and a squeal that even our banshee queen couldn't match rose up from Northern Jersey.

Having ushered a confused Tina from her house with a promise to call her later, Amy began to plot. She decided that what we needed was a Teen Wolf Convention in New Jersey. Although there were many conventions in the United States, there weren’t many in the upper east and so with a Herculean effort, the planning began! The excitement soon caught on and in a flash, Howler Con was born! As plans took shape, Amy received an offer of help from the lovely Betsy (co-owner of Tyler Hoechlin Online) to coordinate the event. Betsy’s help proved so invaluable that Amy offered to maker her co-creator, making Howler Con a collaboration between Fandom Give Back and Tyler Hoechlin Online. These two fandom powerhouses were more than happy to work together to bring a fan run Teen Wolf Convention to the Northeast. Staying true to the mission of FGB, Howler Con will also be holding a charity auction during the convention and all proceeds will go to our charity of choice: The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Fan run conventions hold a special place in our hearts and we are very proud to be joining Tyler Hoechlin Online to bring your favorite cast closer to you. More than that, we are honored to have the opportunity to work with this incredible fandom to raise money for a worthy cause.  We hope that you will join us in celebrating the creation of Howler Con, a fan run con with a cause! To keep up to date with the latest Howler Con developments, please visit the official Con website and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.

All auction items should have been received by now. You can send us an email at [email protected].

We sat down with Lauren Kayes to talk about her efforts in raising awareness for LLS and presenting Tyler Posey with the fundraiser she created! 

  FGB: First of all we want you to know how happy we are that you decided to sit down with us for this interview. We think it’s so incredibly important when fans take the initiative to get up and make a difference. With that being said, there are so many charities out there, why start with LLS?

  Lauren: LLS is a cause that's been close to my heart for a really long time. My dad was diagnosed with lymphoma when I was too young to understand what cancer was, and while he was healthy for a lot of my life he suddenly got very ill again when I was in college and passed away a few years ago. My family donates to LLS every year, and we participate in our local Light the Night walks whenever we can as well. Blood cancers have always seemed to be underrepresented when it comes to cancer awareness, and LLS is great about putting their money towards research and finding a cure. My family gives to a handful of other charities each year, but LLS is definitely the most personal for us. 

  FGB: What made you decide to start the gofundme?

  Lauren: I was considering doing something for LLS in Tyler's name to show/give to him at Bitecon, but beyond making a small personal donation I was having trouble thinking of ways to make that work. Someone I know posted a personal fundraiser using gofundme, and I looked into the site and saw that LLS was one of their certified charities. It seemed like a great, easy way to track funds and show Tyler how much we've raised. I honestly didn't expect the fandom response to be so immediate and positive. 

  FGB: Is there a reason you chose Tyler Posey to present the certificate to?

  Lauren: I actually met Tyler a little over a year ago, during a private meet and greet with him and Dylan at Wondercon. At the time I was unaware of his involvement with the charity, but heard about it shortly afterward and wished I'd known when I met him so I could thank him for his work. 

  My mom and sister flew out for Light the Night last fall, and I had the chance to walk with him and Seana and talk to him about my dad, and how much I appreciated what he was doing with the charity.  He interviewed me for MTV Act, and I know he has a very personal connection with cancer in his family, too. Between that, his Serengetee line, and his script auctions for LLS at Days of the Wolf, I thought it would be awesome if we could show our support for him and the charity by raising money in his name. 

  FGB: Can you talk to us about what it was like to have that experience at BiteCon with Tyler Posey?

  Lauren: It was honestly a little overwhelming! I was completely fine being interviewed by him for MTV Act and doing Wolf Watch, which probably should have seemed like bigger deals than this, but I had people approaching me throughout the weekend to say how great the fundraiser was and I'd read so many sweet comments about Tyler and about my dad, so I was feeling pretty emotional about presenting it to him in front of an audience. I was really moved by how excited people were to give to a cause like this for Tyler. Luckily I got to talk to him the night before at the beer tasting, and he remembered me and was excited to see me and we had a super chill conversation (unrelated, since the fundraiser was a surprise!), so that put me a little more at ease for the presentation. 

  He seemed almost speechless in the moment. I think he was pretty blown away by the fact that we would raise money for a cause that means a lot to him, and after receiving Pages for Posey immediately afterward he said something about trying not to get emotional on stage. Later that day at the group meet and greet he talked about how he first got involved with the charity, and how much he appreciated our support. In every interaction I've had with him he's been very down to earth, genuine, and humble, and this was no exception. 

  FGB: You began working with us at one point… admit it, how awful are we?

  Lauren: You guys have been fantastic! I didn't anticipate the fandom response to my fundraiser to be as huge as it was, and I think it's so great that you had Teen Wolf auctions for LLS while this was going on and deeply appreciate all of the signal boosting you did for me as well. I'd love to be able to properly collaborate with you guys on either Teen Wolf or LLS-related projects in the future.

____________________________________________

  Hopefully after reading this interview you can see the reasons why we love her so much. Working with Lauren has been an absolute privilege and you can look forward to us working together again in the next upcoming months. There is a huge difference in wanting to do something and actually taking the motions to get it done. Lauren saw an opportunity to make a change and she took it head on. We want to extend our deepest level of gratitude to her for all she has done. It's truly inspirational to see someone want to make a change and then make the moves to do it. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do. 

  Do you want to reach out and thank Lauren for her efforts? Find her here:

Twitter: twitter.com/laurenkayesmua Tumblr: tidepooling.tumblr.com

You can also find this post on our website!

I want to start by telling you that I am responding to this through tear filled eyes. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to hear that you support this cause. I'm so sorry for any loss that you may have had to deal with in your life but I am ecstatic that you want to do what you can to fight this. We will do everything in our power to make sure we do everything we can to make this funding a success. Thank you for sharing your story with us and I personally vow to make you proud with what we are going to accomplish. 

Hello Teen Wolf Fandom!

Lemme hear you howl!!!

Thank you to all the lovely people who bid on our auction items, we were able to raise a total of $1,800 for LLS.  Our donation was submitted to them at the beginning of April, in the amount of $1,650.  The rest of the proceeds ($150) was spent on auction expenses such as Paypal fees and shipping costs.

Thank you to every single one of you who bid, won, tweeted, retweeted, and cheered us on!  We could not have done any of this without you! You’re incredible.

“Defeat means we lose a particular battle or war.  Failure does not allow us to go on fighting.”- Paulo Coehlo.

When we set out to start Fandom Give Back, we literally had no clue what we were doing. Luckily, we’ve gotten several clues along the way.  Our dream seemed pretty simple: 4 fandoms, 4 charities, one year.  However, execution was much more involved than we ever dreamed it could be.  We simply didn’t understand the sheer amount of work that would have to go into this venture…nor that neither of us really has that kind of time.

Our magnificent defeat was a blessing in disguise in that it taught us how much we don’t know and what we need to work on.  Our initial project within the Teen Wolf Fandom was a success, just not on the level we had hoped for.  We have decided that we would like our first showing to be a good one and that LLS deserves our best efforts.  That being said, we have decided to extend our work with the Teen Wolf Fandom and make our next charity the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. As you may recall one of our admins had met with the Teen Wolf cast back in February. J.R. had mentioned that he would love for us to work with the CFF and how could we turn that down?

Hello! The auction ends tonight at 11:59 pm EST!

You just need to comment the amount of your bid on the phone case page here. When the auction is over, if you have the highest bid we will email you at the email you left when commenting. 

One of our administrators flew out to LA this past weekend to meet the cast of Teen Wolf! Read her story below:

The decision to go to Days of the Wolf was very last minute. I literally bought everything a few days before it happened and unfortunately I could only attend on Sunday.

The con was amazing and the people running it were super friendly. I was able to grab photo ops and autographs with the Tylers, JR, and Keahu! I was a bit dazzled by all the attractive but I remembered to let the cast know about FGB and our efforts to raise money in the name of Teen Wolf fandom. They were all very excited by the idea and actually held up the lines to hear more about it. JR and Keahu signed special autographs for the auction (which you can bid on now).

I think the defining moment of the whole con was when I met Tyler Posey and was able to give him a quick rundown of the project after we snapped a photo. At his panel he had shared the fact that he supported LLS because people who were very close to him suffered from Lymphoma. The emotion on his face and in his voice was very genuine and he said thank you with this beautiful almost somber smile, so very different from his usual puppy grin. He ignored the prompting of the poor lady trying to keep the line moving to give me another hug and I could tell he was deeply moved. He got our information a little later in the day so he could check out our site.

I have never been prouder to be a part of FGB as I was in that moment. It is one thing to come together as a fan base to show love for an actor or a show or whatever; it's another to show those people that you'll stand by them in the hard times, will fight alongside them not only as fans but people who genuinely care.

FGB was founded on the principle that fans should pay it forward in terms of the positivity they receive from being in a fandom. What better way than to do so by supporting a cause that is important to the cast? This is why we do what we do.

I know everyone's situation is different but after meeting the cast this weekend I can't help but ask: Give. Give your time, your love, your effort. Give generously. And if you can, give your money, haha.

The winners were contacted via email and the packages will be on their way tomorrow! There was originally only going to be one winner but to quote on of the members on our team: "LET'S GIVE AWAY MORE, WE LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR"! Our second place winner also will receive our DVD and the honorable mention wins the mask. We want to thank everyone for entering this contest. Not to worry, there are many more to come. Our winners:

ughscottmccall

teenobrien

lizponce