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Posts Tagged ‘Child’s Play’

Turning It To 11

December 1st, 2012 1 comment

Two years ago, I had the privilege of participating in something amazing and ridiculous. I got to indulge in what video games are designed to do. I got to be a rock star.

When it came out in late 2007, Rock Band made waves. It took Guitar Hero to the next level, and let people indulge in their musical exhibition streak. I have fond memories of getting together with my friends and making bands, such as Tannenbomb and The Robin Sparkles Project. Those happy nights (at least the ones I can remember) were filled with my friends, willingly playing the part of fans until the song ended, and they got their chance to take the stage. I took my show on the road occasionally, and got to play for a bigger audience at the Penny Arcade Expos I went to, and generally had an amazing time. Those days were capped by a fantastic experience: Umloud.

Taking the stage to sing “Epic” by Faith No More while tossing out Its-Its is an experience that I will never forget, but though you might not be in San Francisco to be able to indulge in the atmosphere of the Geekiest Rock Show Ever, I want to highlight the reason for the entire experience: Child’s Play. Founded in 2003, this charity has a long and storied history, and one that gamers everywhere can point to when they say that their hobby is only for the immature and childish.

Since I’ve recently been employed by the San Francisco Food Bank, it’s my honor to point people towards worthy causes, and Child’s Play definitely is. If you’ve got some spare time, consider applying to be a volunteer for an amazing experience, or simply wend your way down to the DNA Lounge next Saturday and have a blast with your fellow geeks, improving some lives and having a stellar time all at once.

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A Helping Hand

February 3rd, 2010 No comments

I want to take some time out of your busy gaming schedule to talk about a couple of things: Child’s Play and Heroes Without Borders.

“Tabor, what are these marvelous things?” This is what you would ask, if you called me Tabor. I would reply thus: they are organizations worthy of your charity, attention, and resources. Too often, gamers and nerds have bad reputations. Anti-social, misanthropic, disorganized, and all around dysfunctional people. These stereotypes have by and large created a need in us to defy them. Challenges and conceptions be damned, my friends are among the most generous and interesting people I know, and so I think you should take a look at them and consider helping out.

Let’s start with Child’s Play, because it pertains more to this blog than Heroes does. Child’s Play started in 2003, and is a charity devoted to helping children in hospitals worry less about their time there. In order to entertain kids and distract them from all the scary parts of a hospital visit (pain, fear, questions you can’t answer when you’re 10), Penny Arcade started raising money to donate to the Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. It got a lot of press then and continues to do its mission, and do it well, consecutively raising more donations
each year the charity has been in existence. It’s even expanded into Egypt!

That’s neat, and kind of takes us close to the other charity: Heroes Without Borders.

So, my friend Jenn decided she would give several years of her life to other people, and joined the Peace Corps. When she was accepted, she was sent off to Rwanda, which is not actually close to Egypt at all. Her job there is teaching English, and as a secondary project, she focused on making English more accessible to the children of that nation. She needed a way to make reading fun for them, and more importantly, cheap for Rwandans, and came up with a brilliant solution: comic books.

Comic book stores often have lots of back stock of comics, you see, and are dying to get rid of them. They are still entertaining however, especially to people who have never read them, and they can be purchased in bulk rather easily. This, combined with the number of geeks she knows, means that comic books are actually quite the practical solution to her project.

So please, please please please, pretty please: Get in touch with either of these great organizations, and try to help out.

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