Join Date:
Silver Date: Karmageddon 2
Gold Date: Good Good Friday 1
Where?: Nottingham, UK
Website?:
Job:
In the words of others
A fine, upstanding Joinee, this particular Benner has, over time, been involved with ducks, the aquisition of many 'wives' and, of course, his celebration of the Good Good Friday.
(aside from the below article, there's a fine article about the Good Good Friday of 2005, right here)
This page is locked at the request of the Joinee in question. - Gold Joinee Brake
In his own words...
Joinee Benner: Make karma your bitch!
(this is an extract from a BBC website article)
My name is Joinee Benner. I do Random Acts of Kindness every Good Friday. I joined Danny after the first book was published and have been performing my Random Acts ever since.
The second edition of the book has a lovely embossed cover and nice, brightly coloured picture of Danny on the front. Other than that, the book is pretty much like the first one, apart from the extended epilogue, in which Danny talks about all the things that have happened since the first edition came out. For me, that was brilliant, because he was writing about people or events I remember, like the first Joinee who had "Join Me" tattooed on his arm - my friend, Gold Joinee Hodges. There's even a picture with me in it, on page 387. Well, me and about 300 other people, but I'm right in the middle of the picture, so my Mum's happy, at any rate. It's always a good idea to make your Mother happy.
When I first joined, I decided that what I really wanted to do was to meet other joinees. So, I went to the forum page of the website and asked if anybody would like to meet up in Nottingham. I found that several people were already around in Nottingham and was delighted. I even found that some people were prepared to travel to Nottingham and was equally thrilled. In all, 10 of us were about that day in October 2003 and we spent the day handing out chocolate and leaflets to the good folks in town.
A week later, I was in Birmingham handing out balloons. Two weeks after that, I was in Manchester, then London with Danny Wallace and 300 other people handing out gifted wrapped parcels, then Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Amsterdam and Nottingham again. They're just the ones I've been to. There have been lots more I've not been able to attend, like Cardiff, Leeds, New York, Oxford and Brighton.
The last time I organised a get-together in Nottingham, or Join Me-et, was during Easter 2004 (note, this article predates Good Good Friday 2, 2005), when 80 people travelled to Nottingham from all over the British Isles and spent the day handing out Easter eggs in the city centre. If you were handed an Easter Egg on Good Friday, that was us. For this, I was given the honour of being renamed Gold Joinee Benner - at the time, the 8th Gold Joinee.
The last Join Me-et I attended was on 5th June in London, to celebrate our continued expansion and the publication of the 2nd edition. As news of the first book was spread pretty much by word of mouth alone, I think we had something special to celebrate. Danny asked me to lead one of four groups around London. So, off 50 of us marched, all following me, holding a placard and a map, up Carnaby Street where I blew a whistle and everybody dispersed to hand out a gift wrapped present. Onwards we went for about a mile - and I'm pleased to say, as a born and bred Nottinghamian, I managed to lead my people safely around the streets of London, returning them to our rendezvous point, the pub, without loss of life or limb.
That day was the third time I've met Danny, the first time I'd met a lot of the joinees there that day and a chance to make lots of new friends. Next week, on Tuesday 22nd June, I'll be meeting Danny again at his book reading in Nottingham (Waterstones at Bridlesmiths Gate). I'll also have the chance to catch up with joinees I am pleased to call friends. With around 40 joinees in the Nottinghamshire area, growing all the time, we hope you will join us.
Since joining Danny and performing Random Acts of Kindness I hope I've made an awful lot of people smile. I've discovered that the public aren't as sceptical or jaded as you might think they are. Not only have I read a fantastic book (currently four times), I've joined a community, making friends all over the world and many good friends locally, who without Join Me I'd never have met...
Join Me - it's a book, it's a t-shirt, it's a sticker, it's a leaflet, it's a website, believe it or not, it's going to be a film (we're all hoping Gary Coleman will be in it, so we can get the line "What you talkin 'bout Wallace?!"), it's a collective (not a cult), it's a great idea, it's a community, it's what you should do. Join Us!