Prepare to have your heart-cockles warmed
Video games, and by association, video game players, have a bit of a reputation. You can’t swing a dead cat (which is probably the combat mechanism of some game, incidentally) without hitting a panicked news article about how video games are turning your children into violent psychopaths.
Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik over at Penny Arcade were tired of seeing this kind of press, particularly since they had first-hand knowledge that many gamers were in fact delightful human beings. So, being delightful human beings themselves, in 2003 they decided to fight fire with GIVING FREE TOYS TO CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS. The idea was that you couldn’t stop lazy journalists from playing a Grand Theft Auto game and concluding all gamers were bloodthirsty prostitute murderers, but you could at least push a counter-narrative that those prostitute murderers were capable of great kindness and compassion. Thus was born Child’s Play, an annual charity drive that provides some much-needed joy and distraction to kids who could use it the most.
The first year they worked with Seattle Children’s Hospital, and were overwhelmed with community response — the UPS trucks filled up their entire garage with Amazon packages within days, and they had to make constant deliveries to the hospital just to free up storage space. So they quickly expanded, and seven years later they have over 70 partner hospitals all over the globe. The charity has taken off, becoming something of an outlet of goodwill from the gaming community as a whole. Last year alone they raised $1.78 million — yes, million — in donations.
How does it work? Just go to the Child’s Play website and choose a hospital from the map. You’ll be directed to that hospital’s Amazon wish list, detailing what items they hope to receive, and what’s been donated so far (no, ftE doesn’t get an Amazon commission on Child’s Play gifts, and to be honest we’re slightly offended that you asked). There’s stuff in every price range — lots of video games, but also toys and DVDs (most of it stays in the hospital for other children to play with, but stuff like Play-Doh or soap bubbles they get to keep and take with them when they leave). It means you get to actually donate something awesome that you picked out yourself — and the idea that sick kids get to watch “How to Train Your Dragon” because I had a spare 18 bucks laying around makes me so happy, I can’t even fully explain it to you.
Also, one year in the middle of summer I randomly got a thank-you card from a hospital in New Orleans I had donated to the year before. It was a color print of a crayon drawing of some toys and video games. It warmed the cockles of my heart so much, to this day I still have warm heart-cockles.
Most years I try to stretch a little on what I can afford to give. There’s always some new gadget that I’ve been secretly lusting after for myself but can’t quite justify the expense (and since I’m me, that gadget is usually suitable for a 10 year old, making it the perfect Child’s Play gift). This year that would be the new Nintendo DSI XL — I already have the old Nintendo DS which plays exactly the same games, only on a smaller screen and without the built-in digital camera or the wireless downloads. And to be honest, I don’t even play that very often.
But you know who would play the shit out of that thing? KIDS STUCK IN CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS. Go to the website and click on the map — I promise you’ll find something you can afford that will make a tough time for a child somewhere a little easier to get through.
And I guarantee that you’ll be glad you did.
You have a limited amount of time, so why spend it reading about things that suck or are only kind of okay? Favorite thing EVER is not a review site. We're unrepentant fans, and this is the stuff we love. Hope you like gushing, because we're about to embarrass ourselves.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2002163866_healthgameboy30.html
The article above, and some other studies, show that kids who play handheld videogames like the DSi right up until they fall asleep prior to surgery are much less anxious – woo, better than sedatives!
Also, you are adorable, and I love your warm heart-cockles.
Heh.
That’s awesome — I wasn’t even considering actual therapeutic uses (other than the inherent therapeutic properties of Super Mario)
Oh man! That is the coolest thing EVER! I love this!
There are plenty of Canadian hospitals to give to!
UPDATE:
I just received a letter from the MUSC Children’s Hospital in South Carolina thanking me for my gift of a Nintendo DS and saying that they find DSs particularly useful because the portability allows them to be used in surgical holding areas, waiting rooms and individual patient bedsides.
Heart… cockles… WARMING… Eyes… MISTING UP…
Awwww. You’re kind of great, you know that, right?