Sophomore Brittany Salvesen says every now and then she has to do something crazy.
On January 4 she did something that some may call wacky. She asked Tim Tebow to be her date to her Sigma Phi Lamda spring formal.
Instead of sending the Denver Broncos quarterback a fan letter, Salvesen flicked on a webcam and posted, “Tim Tebow, Phi Lamb Formal?’ on YouTube. Three weeks later, the charming 48-second date proposal video has close to 90,000 views.
“I just thought it would be fun,” Salvesen says. “Why not? I really admire Tim’s faith in himself and his faith in Christ.”
Salvesen sees the devoutly Christian NFL star as the perfect date, mostly, because of their shared Christian faith.
“I am not ashamed of my faith and obviously he isn’t either,” Salvesen says. “I grew up in a pastor family home also and I love doing missionary work in other countries and he does that as well. He is like a gentleman and I think he would respect me so I really think he would have respect for herself also.”
According to Salvesen, her sorority sisters are just as excited as she is and are hoping for a response from Tebow. Her pastor father even further encouraged her to do the video.
“I asked my dad first and he said go for it,” Salvesen says. “I think my parents kind of expected me not to do it, but I also think they thought I would do it.”
No phone calls from Tebow so far, but Salvesen thinks he has at least seen her video.
“I think they are trying to let it fuzzie out and not say anything about it because they don’t want to draw anymore attention to the video,” Salvesen says. “My first thought is that he might not want to go or already has something planned and he might not want to decline publicly.”
The sociology major said she has yet to be recongized on campus, but has been was surprised by the buzz her video.
She doesn’t let some of the negative feedback get to her.
“I wasn’t expecting the video to go crazy that fast,” Salvesen says. “It has been fun. There were some negative comments, but that really didn’t bother me that much. People were just posting crude things. There were just some really nasty comments that were inappropriate.”
Salvesen does have some competition.
Two weeks ago, 24-year-old youth pastor from Minnesota posted a YouTube video that has also went viral of her singing a song she wrote asking Tebow on a date.
Social media has been used to break the barrier between celebrities and the norm.
Last November, actress Mila Kunis attended the Marine Corps Ball after a soldier in Afghanistan asks her on a date via YouTube.
In early January a fan of actor Jason Segel recorded and posted to YouTube a song about the How I Met Your Mother actor.
A week later, he responded by taking her to a red carpet event.
“Using YouTube was the first thing that came to mind,” Salvesen says. “I think members of the military have asked out celebrities via YouTube so I just figured that was the most logical route to go. I thought then he could see what I look like and my expressions to see that I am not looking for money or anything like that. By using YouTube, I hoped other people would see it to so the more attention in a way that he just has to respond.”
When asked where in Wichita Falls she’d like to show him, she laughed saying her church or the World’s Little Skyscraper downtown.
Now that Tebow’s football season has come to a close, Salvesen hopes Tebow will have more time on his hands for a proper repsond to her no
The formal is not until April, but Salvesen already has an outfit picked out and a back-up date just in case
“I’ll actually be shocked if he says yes because I’m expecting him to already have something planned in advanced,” Salvesen says, “But (from this experience) I’ve learned that I can be a lot more assertive than I thought. It kind of does take some guts.”
Salvesen on YouTube:
