A passionate golf fan, Matt Hoskins grew up cheering for Jack Nicklaus. The 1995 Warsaw Community High School graduate and local businessman, however, can’t hide his smile these days while talking about reigning Masters champion Bubba Watson. “I’m not gonna say I wasn’t a Bubba Watson fan, but I wasn’t a Bubba Watson fan,” quipped Hoskins. Some special things have happened here, though, and when Bubba won the Masters and broke down and cried, we broke down and cried.” The “here” that Hoskins is referring to is PayProMedia, a division of Warsaw business PayProTec. Hoskins is the Chief Executive Officer for the family of businesses, which are located at 929 E. Center St. in Warsaw. PayProMedia specializes in things such as website design and hosting. Just over two weeks before this year’s Masters – the biggest golf tournament of the season – PayProMedia was contacted about building a website to promote Watson’s charity event, which has been affectionately named Bubba’s Bash. The rest, they say, is history. And now the website www.bubbasbash.com is up and running. The charity event, aimed at raising money to build a medical clinic in Liyavo, Kenya, will take place May 29 in Columbus, Ohio at the Lifestyle Communities Pavillion. A lineup of Christian musicians, including Toby Mac, Trip Lee, Thi’sl, Canon, Pastor AD3, Jeremy Camp, Jamie Grace, Jonny Diaz, Andy Mineo, Reconcile and Judah Smith, will join Watson. “This is a big deal,” said PayProMedia employee Chris Plack. “To say that this is a game-changer for us would be a huge understatement. We’re all sports fans here, and to be associated with Bubba Watson is huge. Bubba is a great guy and is known for doing things the right way. As a business, you want to be known for doing things the right way. The charity is something we believe in. The whole thing is just a really big deal.” The opportunity came about through a friendship between PayProMedia employee Scott Feather and Tug Taviano, a former Grace College student who is working on the concert portion of the charity event. “Bubba has nearly 600,000 Twitter followers,” said Plack. “He sent a tweet about checking out Bubba’s Bash, and the website got so much traffic that it crashed. Other websites crashed, bubbawatson.com, the Ping website, they all crashed because they had so much traffic. Bubba has a lot of people following him, and to be associated with him is a big, big deal.” Tickets for the charity event are $30 and can be purchased by visiting www.bubbasbash.com Hoskins said he will give away 10 free tickets to the event. “This is a really special opportunity for us, and we want to make it special for people in the community too,” said Hoskins. “We’ll give away 10 free tickets. All you have to do to be in the drawing is like PayProMedia on Facebook if you’re in the Warsaw, Winona Lake community. We want to keep it local.” Individuals or businesses can also donate to Watson’s charity by visiting www.bubbasbash.com
