I wanted to follow up to yesterday’s post about this project and share some more information about what we are hoping to do.

Where did this idea come from: IheartPGH was started as a joke back in September 2005 – I didn’t even know what a blog was when I set this little website up. In the past four years this blog has become more than a website and it has been amazing to see the community of people in Pittsburgh and around the country come together to share their favorites. One of the places where the Pittsburgh community is most visible is the Steeler Nation. I will admit that when I travel, I look up the closest Steeler bars – even if it isn’t football season – I even tried to convince my mom we should have dinner at the local Steelers bar in Venice, FL when we were visitng my grandparents for easter.

So last week I was booking a plane ticket to visit an old Pittsburgh friend and I noticed that JetBlue is running this promotion All-You-Can-Jet – for $599 you can travel as many times as you want in the month of September. So I have been talking about this idea with some friends and decided to see if there was any support for the project. I sent around some emails and got a good response from some friends. I put up the post and fundraising challenge yesterday to see if there was any interest in supporting a tour of Steelers bar – I never expected to get so much support so quickly.

Supporting the Project: I know there have been some questions about this – we are not a charity – just some bloggers hoping to put together a little project to visit some Steeler Bars around the country. There are lots of great non-profit projects out there that need your support, especially in this economy. So we have tried to come up with a way for you to help us raise some money for this trip in exchange to something of value – your link on the blog roll, an IheartPGH t-shirt or tote bag or a blog post about you/your organization. If there are other ways we can help you and you can support the project – please let us know.

Where Are You Going To Go?: I am not sure yet – I think the best way to figure this out is to ask the Steeler Nation and we have already recieved so many great Steeler Bar recommendations. Depending on costs – we will use the JetBlue Pass to fly to the furthest places. If things go well – hopefully we can continue to visit Steelers bars for the entire football season. There are already some offers for iron city beers in New York City.

Tracking the Tour: Of course, there will be blog posts, tweets and photos. Maybe this could become a book or a photo book. I would love to look at getting a better camera or if we can raise some more money bringing along a cameraman to make a documentary about the Steelers Bar.

Spread the Word, Support the Tour: – click here to learn more about how you can support the Steeler Bar Tour and IheartPGH

UPDATE – We have raised the first $500 – THANK YOU PITTSBURGH LOVERS!!!! Visit the Support Page to learn how you can help support the tour!