Aged 100 is Not Too Old to Capitalize on Internet Fame
By: Mary Devries
Tags: Self Improvement, Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Life, World War II

Aged 100 is Not Too Old to Capitalize on Internet Fame

Photo by David T on Unsplash

Captain Tom, a WWII veteran, skyrocketed to fame in the UK in the early days of the pandemic lockdown when a fundraiser he started caught the attention of the media and quickly went viral.

His idea was simple. In the lead up to his 100th birthday at the end of April he would walk 100 laps of his garden, 25 meters a lap, to raise money for the NHS, Britain’s National Health Service. The goal was £1000 donated to the NHS Charities Together.

Captain Tom takes off

Once the media caught wind of this unusual fundraiser, the attention on Captain Tom quickly skyrocketed. The sight of this plucky WWII vet with his walker slowly shuffling around his garden was like catnip to the media and to a country desperate for some feel-good news.

Captain Tom reached his initial goal of £1000 quickly and the numbers just kept rising. He reached 100 laps on April 16 with an honor guard from his former battalion in attendance at a safe distance and a nation watching via television.

Captain Tom vowed to do another 100 laps as the money continued to pour in. By the end of the day on his 100th birthday, the total raised was over £32,000,000, the equivalent of nearly 43 million US dollars.

Captain Tom soars

It is hard to overestimate how much attention Captain Tom’s enterprise gathered. On the day of his birthday, there were WWII fighter jet flybys.

Captain Tom remained modest. His motivations are quoted by the Army on its website:

Captain Tom said: “When we started off with this exercise, we didn’t anticipate we’d get anything near that sort of money. It’s really amazing. All of them, from top to bottom, in the National Health Service, they deserve everything that we can possibly put in their place. They’re all so brave. Because every morning or every night they’re putting themselves into harm’s way, and I think you’ve got to give them full marks for that effort. We’re a little bit like having a war at the moment. But the doctors and the nurses, they’re all on the front line, and all of us behind, we’ve got to supply them and keep them going with everything that they need, so that they can do their jobs even better than they’re doing now.”

As the nation headed into the long-planned for but of necessity severely curtailed celebration of the 75 anniversary of VE day (Victory in Europe), the connections between the can-do-pull-together-for-King-and-country spirit that held the nation together in its darkest hour and the call to band together to fight the spread of the coronavirus were clear. Captian Tom bridged and exemplified both challenges.

He even ended up with a hit single with a cover of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” including his recorded voice speaking, the NHS Voices of Care Choir, and the singer Michael Ball. It was still top of the charts on his birthday making him the oldest artist ever to top the UK charts. All proceeds from this single went to benefit the NHS charity.

Queen Elizabeth invested Captain Tom with a knighthood in an outdoor ceremony in July. Clearly Captain Sir Tom Moore both received and deserved more than his allotted 15 minutes of fame.

Captain Tom today

So I was a bit worried when I logged on to Twitter today to see Captain Tom trending. I wasn’t ready to hear of his death.

Good news! Captain Tom is very much alive and hasn’t stopped thinking of creative ways to raise money.

His newest venture is his very own gin.

All proceeds go to benefit The Captain Tom Foundation which he founded at the conclusion of his original fundraiser to handle the donations people continued to want to send.

If a centenarian can do it, what’s stopping you

Captain Tom is an extraordinary man who took his moment in the sun and ran with it. He didn’t fade back into well-deserved rest but used the attention to continue to raise funds for the causes he cared about.

Most of us will never face the kind of spotlight that turned onto Captain Tom. But if we do receive even a tiny portion of a nation’s attention, will we be as prepared to capitalize on it and use our fame for the good of others?

Digital natives may be the future, but don’t forget the attitude of service taught to us by the heroes of the past like Captain Tom.

Raise a glass to recognize the lessons we still have to learn from our elders, even about the things we think we know best like how to capitalize on internet fame.