Daisy Phillipson
A massive fight for the name ‘Josh’ kicked off over the weekend, with participants once again battling it out to decide the rightful owner of the title.
For the second year in a row, hundreds of people showed up to a US park wielding pool noodles to fight for their namesake, only for five-year-old Josh Vinson Jr. to once again earn the spot as the #1 Josh.
And if you have no idea what we’re talking about, let us refresh your memory - the idea of a ‘Josh Fight’ started out as a bit of pandemic boredom after Josh Swain from Arizona setup a Facebook chat with as many people named Josh Swain as he could.
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In the group chat, he said: "You're probably wondering why I've gathered you all here today. Precisely, 4/24/2021, 12:00pm, meet at these coordinates (40.82232286 -96.7982002) we fight, whoever wins gets to keep the name, everyone else has to change their name, you have a year to prepare, good luck."
While it was all just a bit of a joke, it didn’t take long for the challenge to go viral and take on a life of its own.
The OG Josh Swain forgot all about it, but after seeing how many people wanted to get involved, he realised he was going to have to go ahead with it - and so the Josh Fight was born.
Funnily enough, the coordinates were picked at random and just happened to be in the Air Park Green Area of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Staying true to his original pledge, Josh decided to hold the event there and opened it up to all people named Josh.
It was such a resounding success that a sequel to the event was held at Lincoln’s Bowling Lake Park this weekend, with around 200 people showing up.
This time some people came dressed up for the battle, which ended with last year’s champion taking home the crown yet again.
But most importantly, this year’s Josh Fight raised a whopping $20,576 (£16,000) for Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.
The hospital said it will give a quarter of the donations to its foundation, while the rest will be
given to its program to assist uninsured patients.
Nicky McCarville, director of development at Children’s Hospital, told the Lincoln Journal Star: “We’re just so grateful for the Lincoln community and people that have come from all over the country and out of state to support Josh (Swain).
“He's an incredibly kind and generous person that came up with a really fun and creative event during kind of not-so-great times.”
Josh Swain himself was delighted at the outcome of the event, adding: “The enthusiasm from everybody here was just incredible.”
Who would’ve thought that what started out as an internet joke could turn into something so significant - long may the ‘Josh Fight’ continue.
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