Gaming to Fight Cancer

Just a quick note about a good cause, here, not to mention a somewhat unique fundraising idea: on October 18th, SCR writer/local H-town music scenester Jonathan Updegrove is doing the Extra Life 24-hour gaming marathon to raise money for treatment of kids with cancer and research into a cure at the Texas Children’s Hospital. Yes, you read that correctly — Jonathan (among others) will be playing video games to help kids who have cancer.

The basic idea is that you sign up, then you try to get friends/family/etc. on board to pledge at least $1 an hour you manage to survive the marathon. They’re apparently aiming for at least 4 sponsors a player, but more is obviously better… I don’t think that means the same game, btw, because that could make it a real short pledge drive (particularly if you’ve got crap-ass reflexes & coordination, like I do), but that you have to do the Iron-Man thing and play games, whatever games you play, for the full 24 hours. Which, admittedly, would’ve sounded like a much more enticing idea back when I was a 12-year-old Atari fiend than it does to my middle-aged self now. Jonathan’s playing as part of a team for his Epic Default Productions crew, and they all reportedly play from 9AM on Saturday, October 18th to 9AM on Sunday, October 19th.

Anyway, I think it’s a pretty neat concept and a very good cause — I lost a good friend to cancer when we were both kids, and I suspect that these days nearly everybody out there’s been touched by it somehow. So I’d encourage anybody & everybody to hook Jonathan up and pledge your support; just go to his Extra Life Fundraising Page and donate your $$$. You should have plenty of dough floating around, since Ike’s made it next to impossible for you to blow it all on Starbucks & whatnot, right? Oh, and if you’d like to sign up to play games yourself, you can do it here.

(No word, btw, as to what games Jonathan’s planning on playing. I’d be curious to know, actually…)