I am very proud to introduce a new addition to this site. This is my first in what I hope will be a series of posts about "Featured Charities". Since this site is about board games, these charities will (hopefully) all be related, in some way, to board games. This may mean that you can donate board games, play board games, or simply that they are run by board gamers. I would like to thank Dan Patriss for sharing about his charity Gamers for Cures. Now, let's get to it!
My name is Dan. I am an avid gamer, pharmacist, husband, and most joyously a father of 2 wonderful up and coming child gamers. My daughter Lauren (8) had been struggling with growth and stomach issues for close to 4 years. Doctors were very baffled as to the origin of the problems, but thankfully about 2 years ago they found their answer when she was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome.
Turner Syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal condition that describes girls and women with common features and is caused by complete or partial absence of the second sex chromosome. Common problems include short stature, premature ovarian failure, thyroid problems, and heart and kidney abnormalities. TS occurs in approximately 1 of every 2,000 live female births and is responsible for as many as 10% of all miscarriages. After diagnosis, we began treatment - which included medication for her hypothyroidism and human growth hormone shots. She has grown 11 inches in height since her diagnosis and has doubled in weight.
Inspired by my daughter, I have created a charity called Gamers for Cures. Next thing I thought of was - how can board gaming be used as a tool to raise money for the Turner Syndrome Society of the US? I knew about 24 hour video gaming events that raised money. People often would play MMO's, such as World Of Warcraft, or console games over 24 hours for charity, but I had never heard of board gaming used this way. I approached the store owners of the FLGS (friendly local game store) where I regularly game, Crystal and Scott, , about my idea for a 24 hour board game marathon to benefit Turner Syndrome Society of the US. They welcomed the idea with open arms.
Our 24 hour board game marathon is an event which started out as a pipe dream, but before it was over we could not believe what we had done - and what we had been a part of.
We hope that this year's event will be no different. Donations have been pouring in from publishers and the community for our door prizes and various raffles we do throughout the day. We have two larger raffles and also hourly free door prize raffles (every hour the store is open).
For the larger raffles we have two different types. The first, and simplest, is a big raffle. First prize last year was an iPad, and second was a rare MTG "from the vault"; the other 3 prizes were Dominant Species (the board game), Defenders of the Realm plus an expansion, and Ticket to Ride plus the Alvin and Dexter Expansion. These tickets were $5 each or 5 for $20. We had 500 tickets made ahead of time, and I brought a handful to various local game stores in the area along with other businesses who were kind enough to help us out. We ended up selling nearly 600 of these before and during the event!
The other raffle we had was a numbered box raffle. We had 50 items behind the counter, each with a number on it. These items were mostly board games, along with some war games (1st edition ASL books). There were also boxes with little holes in them numbered 1-50. People would buy tickets for $1 each and put them in the box with the item they wanted. This way they could load up on tickets, but more importantly they could try and get exactly what they wanted. (Again this was a HUGE hit.)
This year, like last year, we will have some tournaments running throughout the day, including my personal favorite the Ascension tournament. The others are still under wraps but I can tell you, they will be fun for all involved - so keep an eye on our web sites for details.
The number one thing, outside of raising money for an amazing cause, is spreading the gaming hobby to the public. We had such a high amount of foot traffic that gamers new and old alike intermingled and played throughout the day. We showed the community that there are a TON of great games outside of Candy Land and Monopoly, and I have even started to see some of the new initiates to the hobby at local game nights at some of the stores in the area.
If you would like to donate either money or new games/promos to this year's event please feel free to contact me through Josh or through the Gamers For Cures web site. Or, monetarily you could go to our First Giving site.
My name is Dan. I am an avid gamer, pharmacist, husband, and most joyously a father of 2 wonderful up and coming child gamers. My daughter Lauren (8) had been struggling with growth and stomach issues for close to 4 years. Doctors were very baffled as to the origin of the problems, but thankfully about 2 years ago they found their answer when she was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome.
Turner Syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal condition that describes girls and women with common features and is caused by complete or partial absence of the second sex chromosome. Common problems include short stature, premature ovarian failure, thyroid problems, and heart and kidney abnormalities. TS occurs in approximately 1 of every 2,000 live female births and is responsible for as many as 10% of all miscarriages. After diagnosis, we began treatment - which included medication for her hypothyroidism and human growth hormone shots. She has grown 11 inches in height since her diagnosis and has doubled in weight.
Inspired by my daughter, I have created a charity called Gamers for Cures. Next thing I thought of was - how can board gaming be used as a tool to raise money for the Turner Syndrome Society of the US? I knew about 24 hour video gaming events that raised money. People often would play MMO's, such as World Of Warcraft, or console games over 24 hours for charity, but I had never heard of board gaming used this way. I approached the store owners of the FLGS (friendly local game store) where I regularly game, Crystal and Scott, , about my idea for a 24 hour board game marathon to benefit Turner Syndrome Society of the US. They welcomed the idea with open arms.
Our 24 hour board game marathon is an event which started out as a pipe dream, but before it was over we could not believe what we had done - and what we had been a part of.
We hope that this year's event will be no different. Donations have been pouring in from publishers and the community for our door prizes and various raffles we do throughout the day. We have two larger raffles and also hourly free door prize raffles (every hour the store is open).
For the larger raffles we have two different types. The first, and simplest, is a big raffle. First prize last year was an iPad, and second was a rare MTG "from the vault"; the other 3 prizes were Dominant Species (the board game), Defenders of the Realm plus an expansion, and Ticket to Ride plus the Alvin and Dexter Expansion. These tickets were $5 each or 5 for $20. We had 500 tickets made ahead of time, and I brought a handful to various local game stores in the area along with other businesses who were kind enough to help us out. We ended up selling nearly 600 of these before and during the event!
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| Some of this year's prizes |
The other raffle we had was a numbered box raffle. We had 50 items behind the counter, each with a number on it. These items were mostly board games, along with some war games (1st edition ASL books). There were also boxes with little holes in them numbered 1-50. People would buy tickets for $1 each and put them in the box with the item they wanted. This way they could load up on tickets, but more importantly they could try and get exactly what they wanted. (Again this was a HUGE hit.)
This year, like last year, we will have some tournaments running throughout the day, including my personal favorite the Ascension tournament. The others are still under wraps but I can tell you, they will be fun for all involved - so keep an eye on our web sites for details.
The number one thing, outside of raising money for an amazing cause, is spreading the gaming hobby to the public. We had such a high amount of foot traffic that gamers new and old alike intermingled and played throughout the day. We showed the community that there are a TON of great games outside of Candy Land and Monopoly, and I have even started to see some of the new initiates to the hobby at local game nights at some of the stores in the area.
If you would like to donate either money or new games/promos to this year's event please feel free to contact me through Josh or through the Gamers For Cures web site. Or, monetarily you could go to our First Giving site.
Awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much to Josh for featuring our charity on his site. We are real excited by the feedback and cannot wait for the event day. If anyone wants to help or has Q's please let myself or Josh know :)
ReplyDelete