31 / 58
friends had the same reaction, also wanting to contribute to his
cross country trip to the bachelor party.
“Of course, the first thing my buddies did was look him up
on Facebook,” Minetti said. “They couldn’t help but comment
‘hey, you idiots look alike!’ ”
Jeff promised Joe that if he made it to the bachelor party,
he would not only give him a spot on the guest list for the
wedding, but he would also give him the opportunity to give
the toast.
Since several friends on the East and West Coast had
expressed interest in chipping in for Joe’s travel to the
bachelor party, Joe started a GoFundMe page for friends
to donate to his trip across the U.S. Within 20 hours of
starting the page, he had more than enough money to
purchase a plane ticket to Philadelphia. But it didn’t stop
there. As the money continued to roll in, Joe changed the
goal to $10,000, noting that he wanted to pay for Jeff and
Amy’s honeymoon to Italy.
“Once donations started going toward our
honeymoon, I told people, ‘I’m sharing this GoFundMe
page because I think it’s hilarious that people are
donating to this, but don’t donate. Give your money to
cancer research or another worthy cause,’ ” Jeff said.
“The more I said that, the more people continued to
donate. Amy and I said from the very beginning we
would pay it forward times ten.”
Then, the media calls began. The first two calls
Jeff received came from a wedding reporter at the
Philadelphia Magazine and the local NBC channel.
From there, it went completely viral. The story was
featured on radio stations in Philadelphia and Seattle,
Fox and Friends, NBC, CBS, The Ellen DeGeneres
Show, Buzzfeed, The Chive, New York Times, Time Magazine
and Barstool Sports. It didn’t stop there; European and
Australian radio stations picked it up via Facebook. Then, the
reporters started showing up to visit Jeff at work.
“Regardless of who I talked to, I kept telling them the same
thing: if you’re going to cover this, make it a feel good story
about a stranger with a big heart. My friends were welcoming,
and his were supportive, from the very beginning,” said Jeff.
One of the calls Jeff received came from the Rachel Ray
Show, inviting him and his groomsmen to be featured on the
show. As if having the opportunity to be on set for the show
wasn’t enough, Rachel gave Jeff and his wife, Amy, a cruise of
Italy through Celebrity Cruises and Expedia.
Despite the craziness, Jeff’s bachelor party plans remained
the same, with the addition of a camera crew. They started at
Tony Luke’s, where a Duck Boat picked them up and took them
to the Field House. After that, it was off to the casino. “It’s a
blessing, such a blessing, that I refuse to see it any other way.
Working around Good Morning America timetables is such a
first world problem to have. Was my schedule crazy? Absolutely!
But I got to meet good people and do fun things,” Jeff said.
While the media calls have come to an end, Jeff still gets
recognized in public as that guy who invited a stranger to his
bachelor party. And he is still misspelling email addresses.
In Lycoming’s email communication with him for this story,
he forwarded information to Amy and Joe for review and
misspelled both of their email addresses. According to Joe,
this could be the beginning of a whole new group of “typo
friendships” for Jeff.
“At the end of the day, this situation was anything but the
status quo and in telling our story we gave people something to
laugh at and smile about. That is what I am most proud of,” Joe
noted.
“The best part of all of this?” Jeff said. “I hit the lottery when
Amy said yes, and I got to marry my best friend.”
Luckily, the person Jeff intended to email instead of Joe was a
good friend who had been kept up-to-date of the plans through
conversations and attended the bachelor party. Jeff and Amy
were married on May 2 and honeymooned in Italy, where they
received a special blessing for a happy wedded life from the Pope
himself as a result of getting sposi novella (Italian for “newlywed
couples”) tickets. These tickets get newlywed couples, in full
wedding attire, access to a special section of the audience where
the Pope greets and takes photos with individual couples married
within the past two months.
31
www.lycoming.edu