Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - When University of Wisconsin-Platteville seniors Matthew Lange and Marty Bondar decided to do something charitable this summer, they decided to go "Wild for Webb's."

Along with friend and UW-Milwaukee senior D.J. Maass, the pair raised more than $3,000 to fight hunger by eating a total of 151 hamburgers at George Webb restaurants in the Milwaukee area over the span of three days in August.

The idea for the creative eat-a-thon fundraising drive began right here on the UWP campus.

"Last semester I was sitting in a political science class, talking about poverty issues, and it was right before lunch. I was craving a George Webb hamburger," said Lange, a graduate of East Troy High School who had loved to eat at the popular Milwaukee-area restaurant with high school friends. "We had always talked about going to every George Webb restaurant, just to say we had done it. We started coming up with different ideas and plans of how we could do this, and we made a formal proposal and sent it to George Webb [corporate headquarters]."

The company gave the trio $1,000 to start out and the friends solicited donations from Milwaukee businesses. Then, on Aug. 20, the three students began their trip to visit all 40 George Webb locations. Many customers and employees donated to the cause along the way, and all money went to the Milwaukee-based Hunger Task Force.

Lange said the Hunger Task Force is different from other charities in that it also attacks the issue of hunger and poverty in addition to securing food for needy families.

"Not only do they try to treat the problem as far as having food programs and having food drives but they also try to eliminate the problem," Lange said. "They have these programs that raise awareness. They do policy work there. It's more than just a hand-out charity."

By 6:30 p.m., Aug. 22, the three had eaten at least one hamburger at each stop along the way, and had raised more than $3,000.

"The three guys showed true creativity and generosity . . . . With every dollar raised we can buy $2 worth of food, effectively doubling the 'Wild for Webb's' effort," said Sherrie Tussler, Hunger Task Force executive director, in a press release.

"It feels pretty good. We didn't reach our goal. We haven't really come close to it, but we're happy with the results," Lange said. "There was one waitress in the Racine area who came up to us and gave us all of her tips, and told us it wasn't too long ago that she relied on the Hunger Task Force because she didn't have the financial resources to go out and buy food. She gave us all of her tips…. If our only benefit was to see that person smile then it was worth all of it."

Though the trio had pledged to eat one hamburger a piece at each restaurant, for a total of 120, by Sunday the group of friends had downed 151 of the popular beef on bun sandwiches.

"We were pretty full of them. Towards the end we were coming up with different ways to eat the hamburgers," Lange said. "Marty tried it first, he put jelly on his burger and ate it as a breakfast sandwich. He also ate a hamburger with mustard and two packets of sugar. We had to kind of have some variety there to keep it going." And you would have thought the trio would have taken time off from eating hamburgers after the tour, but Lange said he began craving hamburgers again just a few days later. The friends are thinking about doing a similar fundraising event next year. "We're going to keep helping out the Hunger Task Force any way we can, and help raise awareness," Lange said. "We don't know in what capacity at this point. I don't know if we're going to do that again, but if we can feel we can raise more money than we did this year, then most definitely."

People can still donate to the "Wild For Webb's" effort. Checks made payable to the Hunger Task Force can be sent to the organization at 201 South Hawley Court; Milwaukee, WI 53215. Please note "Wild for Webb's" on the check or send along a message stating the donation is designated for the "Wild for Webb's" campaign. More information about the Hunger Task Force is available online (www.hungertaskforce.org).

Contact: Amy Bauman, 262-798-6880

Prepared by: Dan Lehnherr, Public Relations, 608-342-1194, lehnherd@uwplatt.edu