Something Worth Saying. (Child's Play)

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a gamer.

Not just a gamer, but a pretty oldschool, grew-up-on-the-Atari-2600, thinks of LucasArts as the creators of Sam-and-Max, Tron Quoting, Max-Payne playing, Mercury adoring, Gordon Freeman emulating, geek.

I imagine that some of you are too.

For those of you that don't know, there is a charity drive for us, every christmas.

It's called Child's Play.

The idea started last year, when the creators (the boys from the Ultimate Gamer Comic: Penny Arcade) generated a wish-list of toys, (mainly video games) for the Seattle Children's Hospital's long-term illness wards. The idea is that these kids are trapped in these hospitals, sometimes for months at a time, undergoing barrages of tests, treatments, and absurd medical practices, and often the hospitals have little-or-no outlets for these children to enterntain themselves and distract themselves while they are there. Families are forced to import whole collections of toys, movies, and games to try and keep their child's spirits up.

Child's Play suggests a better plan: set up 'game and toy libraries' for these kids, where they can check out games, or play in community areas with other kids, to keep from being driven insane by the boredom and frustration of it.

After the phenomenal success of last year (they nearly drowned in donations, and had to rent whole trailers, the likes of which frighten motorists in normal-sized cars, to move the toys to the Seattle Children's Hospital), they decided to expand their reach this year, and have included 3 west-coast hospitals, one texas hospital, and one in Washington DC.

So this is my plug for them. Go pick a hospital and donate something. It's all handled through Amazon, so if you've already got an account, it's a painless 5 minute process (the most anguish for me was deciding which gift to send).

I just ordered my donation (yeah, last minute, I know) and I know you're wondering, so here's the answer: I sent a copy of the original Spider Man game to the Texas Children's hospital.

One more thing: you need to hurry if you want them to reach the hospitals before christmas. But if you choose 2 day shipping anytime between now and monday morning, you'll get it there by the 22nd.

So go donate! Let a little of that christmas spirit get to a kid who will be waking up in a hospital on Christmas Morning.

(Hindsight-o-matic: This holiday season, Child's Play raised over $300,000 for five children's hospitals throughout the US).