International Tom Hanks Day grows from joke to global event

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Some people are content to sit on a park bench and watch the world go by.

Kevin Turk is not that kind of guy.

He came up with the idea for International Tom Hanks Day, which celebrates the actor, his passions and his causes. The event, which has grown to global proportions, even has its own Facebook page. And Mr. Forrest Gump himself, two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, has given it his stamp of approval, providing personal memorabilia and touting the event during a Feb. 28 guest spot on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Now in their eighth year, the festivities will run from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday at Fizz Bar & Grill, 3220 N. Lincoln. On tap will be screenings of Hanks’ movies (including “Forrest Gump,” his most iconic film) and TV episodes (he starred in the 1980-­82 series “Bosom Buddies”). Expect a raffle of the actor’s wacky memorabilia. And Pabst Blue Ribbon beer will be on sale for $1.

Turk, a 28-year-old sales director at Special Events Management in Chicago, admits that inspiration struck him and a few other April Fools while they were attending Western Michigan University.

“One day myself and my five roommates just sat around all day and drank Dr Pepper and rum because of ‘Forrest Gump’ [it’s the beverage of choice in the 1994 film]. By the end of the afternoon, we realized it was April 1,” he said. “When April Fools’ came around the next year, we printed up T-shirts with characters from whatever [Hanks] movie people wanted to be.”

Then in 2007, Turk managed to get through to the actor by using family connections. Hanks responded with a typewritten letter, dated April 1, 2007, that began: “Dear Kevin Turk and the Assembled: You people have all either lost your minds or your jobs. Both?”

Accompanying the letter was a set of autographed posters, waffle irons from “The Ladykillers” (2004) and green baseball jerseys from when Hanks and friends Ron Howard and Dennis Miller visited major league ballparks in Cincinnati and Detroit as part of Hanks’ 50th birthday celebration in 2006.

“He sends one or two of those baseball jerseys every year,” Turk said. “He even sent us the original sugarcane recipe from Dr Pepper. There were 40 cases of Dr Pepper in these throwback 12-ounce bottles. He has a favorite bologna recipe, so he sent these 20-pound logs of bologna and the recipe of how to fry it, three minutes on either side.”

Money raised at the event goes to Lifeline Energy (www.lifelinenergy.org), Hanks’ favorite charity. Earlier this week, Hanks agreed to match the Chicago donations up to $10,000. Lifeline focuses on bringing self-sufficient and environmentally friendly technologies to underdeveloped countries.

This year’s International Tom Hanks Day T-shirt is themed to “Toy Story 3,” his latest box-office hit. “Tom obviously got behind this and is genuine in everything he does,” Turk said. “That’s the mantra we’ve taken. We try to stay open and friendly and make people feel invited. When it gets too big, it loses that. I buy the T-shirts on my credit card, pay my credit card off and donate everything else. It’s all in the spirit of Tom Hanks.”

Of course, Turk’s favorite Hanks movie is “Forrest Gump.”

“I watch it over and over,” he said. “It goes through the history of America [as viewed through] the skewed eyes of somebody else who lived through it but didn’t really live through It.”

Sort of like Tom Hanks living through International Tom Hanks Day.