Gene Devaney did what any 21st Century Bro would do when one of his buddies, in this case David Boyce, needed help: He took to the Internet to tell his story and ask for support, not expecting much in return.
Yet the Internet responded, putting up thousands of dollars to help David only days after tragedy beset his young family. News even made its way from Central Florida to Miami, where soon-to-open brewery M.I.A. Brewing Company will host a fundraiser Saturday at 1 p.m. for David's newborn twins Amelia and Zoe.
See also: MIA Brewing Company Ramps Up for Fall Opening
"On June 1st [David's wife] Tabitha was admitted to the hospital to have the twin babies delivered via C-section," Devaney wrote in a post on Beer Advocate. "That afternoon Tabitha complained of a severe headache, the doctors gave her some pain medication and something for nausea. She fell asleep from the medication. Around 8 p.m. the nurses came to take her to surgery and they could not wake her up. No matter what they tried she would not wake up."
Doctors rushed Tabitha into surgery to deliver the babies, twin girls named Amelia and Zoe. Tabitha was then rushed for a CT scan that showed bleeding from what might have been a stroke. Doctors operated to clear the area, but another scan showed a large aneurysm whose removal "would have done more harm than good."
The girls went home on June 10, while Tabitha still lay in the hospital.
"On June 11 at 8 p.m. Dave made the excruciating decision to remove Tabitha from life support," Devaney wrote. "She fought for 10 hours and passed away at 6 a.m. on June 12th."
Devaney put up the story and a call for help on the Beer Advocate forums. He put some of his beer collection up for raffle and called Cigar City Brewing in Tampa seeing if they'd be interested in adding in a few brews for a good cause.
Instead he got a call from Cigar City Vice President Justin Clarke who offered him bottles out of his own personal stash, including Cigar City's Campeador, a 2011 beer of which only 240 bottles were produced.
"When I put the box up last Wednesday and left work I had about $400. When I came in the next morning there was about $2,200," Devaney said. "When I left work on Friday it was about $4,700 and right now we're at around $6,000."
M.I.A. Brewing, which is still finalizing some of its permits and hoping to open this fall will giving away samples of its beer along with Fourth Age Brewing and others.
If you don't need beer to incentivize altruism, simply make a PayPal donation to the account [email protected].
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