There is no offseason for Marshawn Lynch. Even in May, with football months away, Lynch is active in a number of business and community ventures.
For Lynch, his passion for business and community often converge as is the case with his new “Phones for the Homeless” initiative he tweeted about on Friday.
According to his Beast Mobile website, Lynch’s plan is to give 3,000 free smartphones with three months of service to the homeless populations in Seattle and Oakland.
The process of keeping those phones affordable beyond three months was recently reported on by GeekWire.com:
“Beast Mobile, which will launch on Sprint’s network, promises customers a no-contract smartphone service with unlimited talk and text and 1GB of data for $24 per month. In order to save money and get more data, users must engage with personalized offers, discounts and suggestions from partners via the accompanying Beast Mobile app.”
Leigh Hunt, a mobile industry expert, who is working with Lynch on the initiative, expanded on the plan several months ago.
“We’re giving people the opportunity to get free cellphone service every month by engaging in targeted advertising from their device,” Hunt said.
“If someone doesn’t care to engage in advertising that month, they can pay $24 — which still undercuts most pre-paid plans and is significantly lower than big carrier, post-paid plans. The idea is to reward subscribers for doing things they’re already doing on their phone — downloading apps, shopping online, watching videos, etc.”
On his Beast Mobile website, Lynch detailed why his group believes it is important that the homeless community has some kind of access to a smartphone:
“The homeless population is known for being difficult to track. That means that city organizers are challenged with the task of reaching this demographic to help relay critical information about local resources and services that could make the difference between life and death for these individuals.
City officials agree that without cell phones, people who are homeless, or families who are housing-insecure, risk facing continued issues like having a contact number for resumes or emergency services, communication with schools for children, accessing social services, follow-up with government services or with case workers, human and family connection, connection to the internet, as well as GPS and push notifications with available nearby services.”
Lynch’s website says his non-profit group is still in need of tax-deductible donations to help with the distribution and cost of the initial three months of service.
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