Child’s Play -- a charity dedicated to bringing video games to children without the means -- announced this week that it reached $7.6 million in funding in 2013. That figure is greater than the combined funding accumulated over the charity’s first six years, bringing lifelong Child’s Play contributions to over $25 million dollars.
Child’s Play was founded by Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins in 2003. One of its first events brought in over $250,000 in donations; gradually, Krahulik and Holkins have had the chance to bring its nonprofit and its cause more exposure from gamers.
One of the gaming community’s largest events, the Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX, hosts several Child’s Play fundraisers at its three events (beginning in 2008). Gamers also have opportunities to support Child’s Play at Intel LANFest, gaming events from NVIDIA, PDX LAN, and on childsplaycharity.org. To check out more Child's Play events where you can participate and give back to children in need, visit their official events page.
Child’s Play has not released any numbers regarding where portions of the funding comes from, but they state that many of its donations come in the form of $10-50 contributions. Perhaps some of our readers have donated to Child’s Play before and may have friends or family who have supported the hundreds of thousands of children of the Child’s Play initiative, so we want to extend a big thank you from Gamers Nexus.
Over 90 children’s hospitals throughout the country participate in Child’s Play actions, and soon, the nonprofit aims to set up domestic violence shelters for youth.
The charity has grown its reach to gamers and their networks so much that now it puts on an annual golf tournament fundraiser, and I imagine one wouldn’t have to shoot a 68 at
The ability to support children and their families in unfortunate circumstances is something Child’s Play values in its efforts and hasn’t changed since day one. They put it in the simplest terms in this blog entry:
“The movies, craft supplies, CDs, toys, and books sent from Amazon wishlists let kids just be kids for a moment: not sick kids, not hurt kids, not scared or lonely kids. Just kids playing like kids. And it’s all thanks to you.”
Read more here: www.childsplaycharity.org/news/post/and-the-total-is
- Nick "stuBEEF" Pinkerton.