The AFL-AHA Dave Tribute Recap

I still didn't know quite what had happened--did he have a heart attack, or what? So I logged onto my ISP and found the full story on the CNN website, then checked in on AFL (alt.fan.letterman) to find out what was going on. OK. No heart attack. Dave had gone in for an angiogram, which revealed that his coronary arteries were severely obstructed, so they performed an emergency quintuple bypass operation. As I was reading about this on the computer, on the TV in the other room CBS was showing clips from Dave's interview with Regis (taped the previous day, to air later on the 14th), in which Dave told Regis he'd be going in for an angiogram in the morning, and that maybe they would have to "open up Daddy's ribcage". By the time the show aired later that night, Dave's chest had already been cracked open. It was all very surreal.

For the first few days after the news broke, we (AFLers) were all pretty much in a state of shock. I spent a large part of the weekend on AFL. In fact, throughout Dave's recovery, I spent much more time than usual on AFL (and believe me, that's a fair amount of time to begin with), and checking the Late Show website for news about Dave. Mike McIntee did a great job keeping us updated in the Wahoo Gazette, and Tony Mendez continued to do The Tony Mendez Show. Initially Tony talked about Dave being out sick, and later, as the weeks wore on, he found other things to do like run a contest for the messiest Late Show office. There was something comforting about all of this.

After the initial shock wore off, there were lots of posts in AFL trying to figure out what we could do to send our best wishes to Dave. We wanted to do something as a group, something that would be from AFL. We realized it would be pointless to send him flowers or a big dopey stuffed animal or the like, since he was being bombarded with more get-well gifts than he could handle. We finally decided that one of the most meaningful ways we could pay tribute to Dave and wish him well was by contributing to the American Heart Association. We looked to Dave himself as somewhat of a role model in this, since we know he does a lot of charitable giving in his own quiet way. [Kim Izzo, the CBS spokesperson who wrote the press release, cut the part about Dave being a role model from my quote that I gave her. She said Dave wouldn't want any mention of that. What a funny guy--but that's why we love him!]

Once we decided on an AFL donation to the AHA, I looked around the AHA website, and sent them an e-mail explaining what we wanted to do. We were hoping to somehow have them pool our donations, and maybe send one big card to Dave from alt.fan.letterman, instead of a zillion cards from each one of us. Failing to receive a quick reply to my e-mail, I started making phone calls. I finally reached Shirley Vanderslice at the AHA National Office in Dallas, Texas, and explained what we wanted to do. We worked out details of how we could make donations (online or by mail) that would be identified with alt.fan.letterman. Shirley explained that they preferred to send out individual cards for each donation instead of one for the whole group, but they would be happy to put "alt.fan.letterman" along with our names on the cards that would be sent to Dave. She also promised to track our donations so that we would know how much we had raised. All we needed to do was indicate alt.fan.letterman as our company name when we filled out the online donation form, or write it on checks sent in by mail.

Once the details had been worked out with the AHA, I made my own donation in tribute to Dave before posting instructions on AFL. I wanted mine to be first, and I also needed to try out the online form so that I could write up detailed instructions on how to do it. Traci put the info up on her website by that night, and I put up my own AFL-Dave-AHA-Tribute page on the web a day or two later.

A few days after everything was up and running, I got an e-mail from an AFLer (I think it was Karen Lynch, but it may have been Kathie8?) who said she planned to give "until it hurts a little". This inspired me to go back to the AHA website and donate a second time, since my first donation hadn't hurt a bit--it felt great, actually. I put the second donation on a different credit card, so it wouldn't look so stupid when the bills came in :-).

Over the next several weeks, I racked up my telephone calling card with calls to Shirley Vanderslice at the AHA for updates on what we had raised, and calls to CBS. That's right, I called up CBS. Believe me, I'm as surprised by this as anyone. I'm not the world's most assertive person; normally I get a little tense calling up a store to ask their hours, and here I was calling up a major corporation to ask them for matching donations.

I had no idea where to start with CBS. I got a couple of possible leads from AFLers, suggesting people I might call who might be able to put me in touch with the right person at CBS. In the end, though, it was a blind call to the CBS switchboard that worked (I got the number from my local affiliate). I was expecting a voicemail menu, but reached an actual human switchboard operator. I explained why I was calling, and right away she said "Oh, you want the CBS Foundation".

I eventually reached the Vice-President of the CBS Foundation, Helene Blieberg (sp?). I explained who I was and why I was calling, and she said she'd get back to me. Much to my surprise, she did. She said that it would be too difficult logistically for them to match our donations, but that they would make a lump sum donation in an amount to be determined later. I was to call her back in a few weeks to update her on our progress.

I must say, everyone that I dealt with at the AHA and at CBS was extremely courteous and helpful. They returned my phone calls promptly, took the whole thing seriously, and did what they could to help. It would have been very easy for them to tell me "Sorry, we can't do it", but nobody ever did.

Meanwhile, everyone was pulling together on AFL; even the resident trolls had the decency to leave us alone. It really was an extraordinary time--and I hope we'll never have to go through anything like it again. James Langdell wrote his daily DAVEWATCH 2000: Comedy Under Seige updates (these were great, but I still prefer his original, more grandiose title: DAVEWATCH 2000: The Universe Under Seige). Libby made a giant get-well card with greetings that we sent to her by e-mail, and mailed it off to the Ed. AFLer Karen Lynch (KLynch4296) called me on the phone at my office to offer moral support. Bill Lehecka started his Impressions column. Jen Sikes (I think it was her) put up a wonderful Dave tribute on the web, partly as self-therapy. Steve Timko took out an ad on behalf of AFL in The Village Voice, encouraging donations to the AHA. And I continued to run up my phone bill with calls to the AHA and to CBS.

Around the time of Dave's triumphant return to the show on February 21 (just 5 weeks after the surgery), I got word from the CBS Foundation Vice-President that CBS would be contributing $5000 to the AHA. A little after that, we heard that Worldwide Pants would be donating the proceeds from sales of the Official Dave Letterman Bypass T-Shirts to the AHA.

The last official total that I have from the AHA is that, as of March 1, 2000, the AFL had donated a total of $2384.40 to the American Heart Association; my guess is that the total was over $2500 in the end. In early July, I received a letter from Dave's assistant, Helen Stoddard, who says that between AFL donations, the CBS Foundation contribution, and the proceeds from the T-shirts, the AHA received over $15,000. I'm proud of what we accomplished, and proud to be a part of such a fine group.