Facebook group hopes to bring Shaq to local Boston Pizza

Some fans of Shaquille O'Neal might just write him a letter asking for his autograph, but Ron Doi took things to a whole new level in order to support the Niagara Peninsula Children's Centre.
Doi, who is the manager of the Boston Pizza at the Pen Centre, created a Facebook group devoted to gaining enough members to attract the attention of one of basketball's biggest stars. He has also been posting references to the campaign and the group on the Boston Pizza Twitter page.
The description on the main page of the Facebook group says that Doi wanted to "start a group that is so big that I can send [Shaq] the link and he'll have no choice but to come for a drink and visit us here at the Pen Centre".
The main page also mentions that "if Shaq agrees that he'll visit, I'll donate 10 per cent of the sales from that day to the NPCC, a charity near and dear to my heart.".
The NPCC Web site describes the charity as a "provider of rehabilitation services to children and teens with physical and communication disabilities and special needs".
Some members of the Facebook group have suggested ways to fundraise while Shaq is visiting, such as a free-throw event in which visitors could pay to go head-to-head against the NBA pro.
In the past, Doi has hosted other charitable events at the Boston Pizza location, with proceeds from autograph sales going to whichever charity was being supported.
The idea for this attempt stems from the fact that Shaq is well-known for his social networking on sites such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as his support of charity work. The site says "we all know Shaq is a huge user of Twitter", a fact that is easily evidenced by a quick visit to the star's Twitter page.
Doi is convinced that this new method of attracting star power to charitable events can be just the thing to bring celebrities to events they might not have heard about otherwise. More and more celebrities are joining social networking sites in order to reach their fan base on a personal level. Doi hopes to reverse this concept to find support for the charity.
"In the past, people never had the mediums to reach out to these celebrities to ask them to do something. As social media users ourselves, it seemed like a great idea to reach out to Shaq in this manner."
A number of the "tweets" on the Boston Pizza Twitter page are directed toward O'Neal, but how much convincing is needed to bring the legend here?
"Three thousand [Facebook members] plus should get us more media exposure which in turn gets us more members. Then we have [more] credibility and they'll take us seriously."
It took only 20 days for the Facebook group to reach 2,000 members, as each member contacted their friends to join the group as well. At the moment, the increase in membership has slowed, with roughly 2,500 members.
If the group doesn't reach its intended goals, there is a chance that O'Neal may not notice the group, or might decide that there isn't enough interest to warrant his attendance.
While there may be no way to directly convince the NBA superstar to visit, any growth in the group can only serve to make it more noticeable and therefore increase the likelihood that O'Neal will make an appearance.
If you would like to join the Facebook group, search for "Get Shaq to visit the Boston Pizza Pen Centre".
To reach the Boston Pizza Twitter page, visit www.twitter.com/BPPenCentre