Lisa Beamer
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Lisa Beamer is the widow of Todd Beamer, a victim of the United Flight 93 crash as part of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. She is an author and advocate.
In 2003, Beamer, along with Ken Abraham, wrote a book about Todd and her attempts to deal with her grief over his death, Let's Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage [1].
The book is about Todd and Lisa's life before the crash and Lisa's life after the crash.
[edit] Controversy
Lisa Beamer has been subject to some minor controversy in the years since her husband's death. She has been accused of trying to profit from her husband's death after it was learned that on December 4, 2001, she applied [2] for a trademark on the phrase "Let's Roll". The Todd M. Beamer Foundation has since licensed the use of the phrase to Wal-Mart, the Florida State football team, and others [3]. In the 2006 play After Ashley by Gina Gionfriddo, the protagonist, Justin, exposes the inability for people in society to properly grieve, and feels that they should be ashamed of themselves. Lisa Beamer's unsure credibility was included in his rant.
In addition to the controversy surrounding the trademark registration, the public financial records of the non-profit Todd M. Beamer Foundation (now known as Heroic Choices) [4] have come under scrutiny[original research?] for taking in more money than was delivered in services. According to Heroic Choices, from 2001 through 2004 the foundation used 53% of its proceeds to fund its programs [5], falling short of the Better Business Bureau's Standards for Charity Accountibility [6], which state that program activity should account for at least 65% of charity expenses. By early 2007, the foundation was facing severe financial problems and the board reportedly was considering shutting it down. As of March 2008, the domain name heroicchoices.org had expired "pending renewal or deletion."
Beamer had lived with her husband in Cranbury Township, New Jersey.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ Beamer, Lisa; Ken Abraham (2003). Let's Roll: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage. Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 0-8423-7418-3.
- ^ Trademark application. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved on 2006-04-12.
- ^ "You can trademark words but not meaning", Reason Magazine, 2000, November.
- ^ Heroic Choices. Retrieved on 2006-04-12.
- ^ Heroic Choices - Financials. Retrieved on 2006-04-12.
- ^ Standards for Charity Accountibility. Retrieved on 2006-04-12.
- ^ Anderson, Dave. "Sports of The Times; The Mayor Keeps His Campaign Promise to Leiter and the Mets", The New York Times, April 2, 2002. Accessed January 9, 2008.
