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Lake Geneva man tweets, raises money for Haiti

Photo at left: Lake Geneva resident Ed VonBergen does jumping jacks Jan. 28, 2010 in 7-degree-below wind chill on Geneva Lake to raise money for Haiti relief.

FONTANA -- Help for victims of Haiti's earthquake has come in many ways, and some, it seems, are a first.

That may be the case for Lake Geneva's Ed VonBergen, who concocted a Half-Naked-for-Haiti-fundraiser Thursday afternoon and spread the word through Twitter.

VonBergen pledged to take off his coat and shirt and do 10 jumping jacks in the 7-below wind chill of the lakefront in Fontana if people would donate $10 to a Haiti relief charity.

His donors could watch the action live from a Web cam on Gordy's Marine.

VonBergen said he had taken Thursday off from his job as the marketing director of a Chicago design company.

He was on his way to Geneva Lake to set up his ice boat and was thinking about how Twitter fit into his company's marketing efforts when the idea of a fundraiser popped into his head.

VonBergen sent out his first message on Twitter about 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

It read, "1/2 NAKED 4 HAITI-will do 10 jumping jacks topless in 0 deg F here @ 3pm 4 $10 Haiti donation http://www.gordysboats.com/webcam/default.asp

I re-tweeted the message, as did others, and VonBergen said that really got the ball rolling.

A few hours later, he had signed up several donors, and by the end of the day about 20 people had agreed to donate $10 each.

"I wanted to see how quickly Twitter would get the word out," VonBergen said.

At the promised time of 3 p.m., several people gathered at the edge of the lake to watch the jumping jacks in person.

The feed from the Web cam was on in our warm, Delavan newsroom.

Online, you could see VonBergen slowly strip to his waist, then leisurely do 10 jumping jacks.

"You know it's actually quite nice out here," VonBergen quipped.

(Writer Margaret Plevak, who also watched online, noted the VonBergen got dress much more quickly than he got undressed.)

"Now I hope all you donors made your deposit to the Haiti Relief Fund. I did my part, now you do yours," VonBergen said after he completed his task.

VonBergen later posted video of the stunt on his Facebook Page, just in case there were any doubters.

Watch him on Facebook (Registration required.)