Extra Life Gamathon

I've been enjoying the excellent contributions for Inktober.  Especially +Jim Jones.  I hadn't spoken to him before this started and when I see an artist with chops I want to trick them into selling me a few pieces.  I spoke to Jim briefly about this and he told me about 24 hour Extra Life gamathon.  I'll let his words explain it to you.  

It's a gamathon for charity. We play board games for 24 hour to raise money for Riley Children's Hospital. It is the hospital that saved my daughter's life with a cranial reconstruction when she was just over a year old. 

People come and play over 70 donated games. Each time they play them, they get a chance to take it home at the end of the event. We also have a silent auction with over 150 donated items, and we have various tournaments and a game show version of Wits and Wagers. 

The core group of people are sponsored players. They seek out donations from friends and family to play for 24 hours and generally raise about 60% of our funds. Last year, we raised over $10,000 and over the last four we've raise a total of over $23,700. It gets bigger each year and it is a lot of work (it takes up a couple of months worth of free time to plan and coordinate each year).

But we do it because we want to honor the hospital that has changed our life and the lives of friends and colleagues and community members who have similar stories to ours.

All the money that we raise as sponsored players and through the event goes directly to Riley. All our space and prizes and auction items and insurance are donated or covered by the community that has sprung up around running the event. It is completely volunteer driven. We're all very passionate about it.

Here is the link to Extra Life to read more about the event and to also donate if you chose.  I donated because it's a fantastic cause.