On Saturday, January 20, 2024, the new children’s book, ‘The Right Thing to Do,’ launched at Target Field. The book is written by Joe Schmit, with a foreword by Joe Mauer, and illustrated by Kevin Cannon. The event took place at Target Field at the Truly on Deck. It was a wonderful evening celebrating the book and the fantastic message of kindness. The book has a beautiful story about Joe Mauer (Minnesota Twins legend and now Hall-of-Famer) and Mike Hally. Back in high school, Joe Mauer noticed Mike Hally sitting alone at the lunch table and asked him to come sit at his table, the “cool kids” table. Little did Joe know, it would start a beautiful friendship. It also provided Mike Hally a place to sit and a place to feel belonging. The story is very special to Thumbs Up and our Executive Director, Katie Shatusky. On February 14, Valentine’s Day, Katie’s husband Todd gave her a book called ‘Silent Impact’ by Joe Schmit. The book is the caveat in which Thumbs Up got started. The story about Joe Mauer and Mike Hally really had an impact on Katie, and it helped give her the courage to start the Thumbs Up High 5K. Thumbs Up also has a program called No One Sits Solo®, which was also inspired by the Joe Mauer and Mike Hally story in the book ‘Silent Impact’ by Joe Schmit.
There were two extraordinary surprises, one for our Executive Director Katie Shatusky when Joe Schmit gifted her the Emmy he won for the story he did on KSTP-TV in May. The second was from Hall-of-Famer Joe Mauer when he awarded Mike Hally his very own Emmy written in brail.
Since the launch party on January 20, the book has sold over 8,000 copies and counting. The second run of books was ordered, and 100% of all proceeds go back to two charities: Thumbs Up and Highland Friendship Club.
The following weekend, we were back at Target Field for Twinsfest. Joe Schmit sold 300 more copies of the book and signed autographs all day.
We had a wonderful group of volunteers come down to the book launch and Twinsfest. Thank you to the following folks who stepped up in a big way to help support these two events: Joe Audette, Eileen Toombs, Laura Vevea, Anastasia Setter, Mandy Christy, Cathy Christy, Austin Wilhelm, Paula Wilhelm, and Jody Kreuser.