Child's Play 2005 Launch 147
It's that time of year again! Child's Play 2005 is underway. Child's Play is a charity run every year by Penny Arcade, the well-known online gaming comic created by Gabe and Tycho. Child's Play is your chance to give to the proto-geeks of the world who not only might not have the chance to play games otherwise, but find themselves sick in a hospital during the Holiday season. Child's Play gives money, games, and toys to children's hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.. Gabe's kickoff post was put up yesterday on the site. The Child's Play site itself is chok full of information, including a F.A.Q., letters from former patients who have been touched by games in hospice, and an order form for tickets to the second annual Child's Play charity dinner. This last is a swanky shindig with a silent auction, at which you can bid on one-of-a-kind opportunities like a tour of Bungie's studios or the chance to be in a Penny Arcade comic. Most important, though, are the links on the front page of the site to the various Amazon.com wishlists. There, you can purchase a book, game, or toy to have sent to a deserving kid at one of the participating hospitals. These folks are our folks, and if you have anything to give this is the place to do it. Thanks.
memories (Score:5, Interesting)
Now to determine how much money to donate to it...
As a side note, anyone know anything about get well gamers [get-well-gamers.org]? They seem to be asking for non-monitary donations, but as I recall, last year Gabe said they weren't allowed to give already used stuff (I could be wrong on this).
Open-books charity? (Score:2, Interesting)
A "for the kids" charity organization keeps blitzing my church with videos, and when I researched them I found that they give out less than 50% of their take!
Re:Let's go! (Score:3, Interesting)
Gifts of Substance not Fluff (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd also like to remind everyone to give blood at this time year. It's something that many of the children need as they undergo surgery and its something that's normally in very short supply this time of year.
Probably not a popular sentiment and I'll probably be modded as a Troll.
2 cents,
Queen B.
Re:US, UK, Canada (Score:3, Interesting)
Good Cause (Score:4, Interesting)
I can remember visiting my grandmother in the hospital a year or so back, and while waiting for her to wake up I took a walk around the hospital and found a group of kids sitting in a recreation room all playing games and having a great time. It's a phenomenal way to keep these kids happy while going through tough times.
Anyone want to go in half with me for a PS2?
There are poor kids here too (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, there's a matter of making sure that the donations get to the intended recipiants. In a stable, first-world nation, that's pretty easy. I'd venture to say 99.9% of all Child's Play gifts go where they are supposed to, and the small fraction of a percent that don't are mistakes, not thefts. In Africa? Well try arranging that. That's always been a massive problem with aid over there. You drop off tons of food, only to have it seized by a local milita, and this is when the UN and governments do it and they can actually back their position up with guns, if they so choose. PA, well thy'd send shit there and just hope it got where it was supposed to.
There's also the matter of trying to do things others aren't. There already is aid going to Africa, lots of it. It's not enough, but as I said it's also due to reasons of it not getting where it's supposed to. But the point is, if you want to give aid to Africa, there are ways to do it. However this market, toys for hospitalised kids in teh states, seemed to be totally neglected. So they started it up. Rather than try to duplicate the effort of others, they started something new.
Re:Gifts of Substance not Fluff (Score:4, Interesting)
There are tons of charities that do what you describe, and that helped you out. Does that mean it's wrong to add some additional charity on top of that to help restore some childhood as well as health?
In addition, this type of donation resonates with gamers, I doubt they could pull anything near this level of donation out by simply collecting money for healthcare like so many other institutions.
I support both the Shriners and Child's Play because they each provide for distinctly different parts of a child's wellbeing.
I hate to feed the trolls... (Score:2, Interesting)
Now I'm not intimately familiar with Gabe and Tycho's financial situations, but this I do know: they're comfortable enough to throw down $10,000 to embarrass Jack Thompson. That may have been all their givin'-away money for the year, but let's assume it isn't, and in fact, they have $100,000 squirreled away to donate anonymously. Good deal for those kids, huh?
Except during their first year, Child's Play pulled over $110,000 and it was hardly organized at that point. I'm having trouble coming up with a concrete total for their second year, but anybody who follows the strip/newsposts can confirm they did a hell of a lot better than the first run, and they generated a lot more money than they could have donated on their own. Kobe Bryant might be able to personally compete with their totals, but comic strip artists don't make quite as much money as so-called sports heroes
Re:Open your hearts and wallets (Score:2, Interesting)