PEABODY — What do 12,000 Oreo cookies, a couple of pickup trucks, a trio of mischievous professional athletes and a Peabody-based technology company have in common?
Only a couple of the wackiest and silliest — not to mention ingenious — pranks that ended up going viral, raising close to $400,000 for charity to help combat veterans and victims of human trafficking, and food insecurity.
Kansas City Chiefs fullback Anthony Sherman’s “Sherm Fights for Freedom” raffle for the benefit of the E3 Ranch Foundation, a charity founded by former Major League first baseman Adam LaRoche, wraps up Friday with a 6 p.m. grand prize drawing at GraVoc headquarters in Centennial Park.
The prize? Sherman’s beloved 2017 Ford King Ranch F250 pickup truck.
“Sherman is the king of practical jokers,” said GraVoc Director of Creative Technology Matt Molk. “It all started with Adam when Sherman dumped the Oreos into Adam’s truck and then it was all about a payback prank to raffle off Sherm’s truck without his knowledge. Our role at GraVoc was to be ready with the technology they needed, including the raffle’s website. It just went viral from there and made some national talk shows, even the Ellen show.”
Led by Molk, the GraVoc Creative Technology Team — including company Vice President Brian Gravel and web developers Brad Maravalli and Ashley Hayward — has carved out a niche in the celebrity-athlete, online charitable raffle business. The team has served Tom Brady’s TB Foundation and Brady Nation, Rob Gronkowski’s Gronk Nation, the Bill Belichick Foundation and Matt Light’s Light Foundation. GraVoc is also supportive of many local nonprofits, including Citizens Inn, Northeast Arc, Northeast Animal Shelter, Peabody Education Foundation, North Shore Community Access Program, Girls Inc. of Lynn, Elizabeth Stonehouse and YMCA of Metro North.
“All of these charities are utilizing GraVoc for their virtual events efforts this spring that we are working closely with to ensure their success,” said Molk. “Brian has been instrumental in developing affordable solutions for nonprofits. In addition to this partnership with the Light Foundation, his latest mission is to assist local nonprofits with virtual event solutions.”
Molk said GraVoc’s involvement began when Matt Light’s Lighthouse Foundation, founded by the former New England Patriots offensive tackle, reached out to GraVoc.
“Players all have foundations but many of them were using fundraising platforms that were very expensive, some with 30 percent fees. We at GraVoc knew we could provide the same or even better service for much less,” said Molk. “Matt contacted us and it just grew from there.”
Light said his foundation’s relationship with GraVoc was facilitated by Peabody’s Brian McCarthy, CEO of the eMaxx Assurance Group of Companies, who serves on the foundation’s board.
“Brian introduced us to GraVoc about nine years ago and has been doing all of our online raffles since then,” Light said. “We brought in other groups to GraVoc, like the E3 Foundation, which is headed by a dear friend of mine, Adam LaRoche.”
Which brings us to the beginning of the story.
In January, Sherman concocted the crazy cookie prank, depositing the Oreos through the sunroof of LaRoche’s pickup truck.
“The joke was as much on Sherman as it was on Adam,” said Light. “The cookies were delivered on a palette and I can only imagine what it was like opening all of the packages. About a month later, Adam told me he had an idea — to raffle off Sherman’s pickup without his knowledge — and I said I knew just the people who could handle it.”
Enter GraVoc.
“We started to plan it right away,” Molk said. “We were ready with the raffle website when it was time.”
Molk said he is excited that this is all happening in his own backyard.
“The website was developed in Peabody, the raffle is being managed in Peabody and the winner will be chosen in Peabody,” Molk said. “It was the prank of a lifetime. I think if the Chiefs had won the Super Bowl, we might have been looking at close to a million dollars, but to think of what it will end up raising is amazing.”
Light said the scheme even involved Sherman’s teammates duping him into disclosing device codes and that, at first, nobody knew the fundraiser was a payback prank. Sherman came clean when he appeared on Pat McAfee’s sports talk show.
“Things like this speak to the heart of a lot of celebrity athletes,” said Light. “We don’t get to hear enough of these stories. Even when the guy is prepping for a big game like the Super Bowl.”
Sherman’s Kansas City teammates joined in on the fun, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes donating a signed jersey and other items for a $3,000 donation and tight end Travis Kelce and safety Tyrann Mathieu donating signed jerseys and other items for a donation of $2,500. Even the folks at Nabisco, who make Oreo cookies, got in on the action, donating $12,000 to LaRoche’s foundation.
A post on Oreo’s Twitter account said, “we raise a glass of milk to you for getting 12K cookies through the sunroof without being spotted … all that we ask is that no Oreo cookies be harmed in future pranks.”
For further information or to purchase raffle tickets, go to https://www.e3givesback.org/.
