Showing posts with label Charity. Show all posts

Friday, 11 November 2016

Extra Life 2016 wrap up

Extra Life 2016 happened this past weekend (November 5th and 6th). For this year Windsor gamers returned to Brimstone games for 24 hours of gaming. I thought I would take some time today to re-cap the event.

This year the awesome gamers of Windsor Ontario raised $2819 USD for The Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals. This money went to the Children's Health Foundation in London and Sick Kids in Toronto. This brings us to a grand total of over $11,000 USD raised for Extra Life by members of the Windsor Gaming Resource since we started participating four years ago.

A large chunk of the money raised this year came from the live gaming and geekery auction which was held at 8pm on November 5th. The auction alone raised $1419 CAD and I would like to personally thank everyone who donated items to this auction. Also eight local gamers joined the online Windsor Gaming Resource team and the highest earner from this group was David Hutchinson who raised just over $500 USD. Congratulations on your first Extra Life silver metal David! The rest of the money was raised through the sale of baked goods and The Cheat Box.

The Cheat Box is something I encourage anyone hosting an Extra Life event to have. For a $1 donation to the Cheat Box, a game player can cheat in their current game once. Discard and draw an extra card. Re-roll a die. Ignore an event for one round. Etc. All players playing have to agree to this when it's done but remember it's all about having fun and helping kids.

A shout out to our awesome sponsors:

The biggest thanks goes to Brimstone games which hosted the event for the fourth year in a row. Special thanks for letting our auction winners use your debit machine :D

This year I approached and was approached by a variety of local companies to be sponsors. This was fantastic to see The Cheese Bar, Robbie's Gourmet Sausage Co, Little Foot Foods, Rogues Gallery Comics, The Walkerville Tavern, Villains Beastro, The Coffee Exchange and Hidden Trail Escape Rooms as sponsors. All of these great Windsor small businesses stepped up and offered their support in the form of cash donations or gift cards which we used to reward participants who raised money for the event.

We also had the support of some fantastic game companies who provided us with cash donations, games to play and games for our auction. Big thanks to CMON (Cool Mini or Not), Stronghold Games, AEG (Alerac Entertainment Group), Rio Grande Games and USAopoly.

It's not too late to show your support!

If you couldn't attend the event or didn't hear about it in time, it's not too late to show your support through an online donation. Donations for this year's event are open until December 31st 2016. To donate click here and choose one of our team members to donate to:

Next year I hope to see even more local support, even more gamers out gaming for this great cause and even more money raised, For The Kids!

Sunday, 6 November 2016

Extra Life 2016 - gaming for a great cause on November 5th and 6th

November 5th and 6th 2016 members of the Windsor Gaming Resource will be gathering at Brimstone Games to play games for 24 hours in support of Extra Life.

This is our fourth year in a row supporting Extra Life as a group (some individual members have been doing it longer). Over the last three years we have raised over $8700 U.S. for the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals. This year we are striving to break the $10,000 mark!

What is Extra Life?

Extra Life was started in 2008 by the Sarcastic Gamer Community as a tribute to one specific leukemia victim: Victoria Enmon. The group created a 24-hour long video game marathon to raise money for the hospital that treated and fought beside Tori. 100% of the funds raised went to the local Children's Miracle Network.

Now thousands of gamers have joined in this annual event. In 2009 the event spread allowing participants to donate to the Hospital of their choice and now hundreds of websites and tens of thousands of gamers will take part in this charity event this year.

What is the WGR doing for Extra Life?

As many members as possible are going to head to Brimstone Games at 10:00am on Saturday November 5th. Once there it's simple: we game, and we game for 12 hours straight. Then we repeat the same thing on Sunday November the 6th, at 10am, gaming for another 12 hours straight. That's 24 hours of gaming total! We will be playing board games, miniature games and maybe even some pen and paper roleplaying games.

In addition to all the gaming, at 8:00pm on Saturday night we will also be hosting a live game auction. Anyone is welcome to attend this portion of the event. We've got a great selection of games to auction off and 100% of the proceeds will be going to Extra Life.

You can find Brimstone at 1421 Tecumseh Rd E, Windsor, ON N8W 1C2. Parking is available in back.

What can you do to support us?

Come play games: You should come join us on the day of the event and play some games! Even if you can't come out for all 24 hours it would be awesome if you could stop in and show your support. While there play a game or two. We would love the support and encouragement. You can show up at any time during the event. Stop in after work, say hi at lunch, whenever.

Join our team: Extra Life lets groups of participants make a team page and we have one for the Windsor Gaming Resource. Even if you aren't going to actually come out to Brimstone and play with us, if you are going to participate at home or at your own FLGS we would love to have you on our team. Click here to join up!

Participate in the live auction: The auction will be held at 8pm on Saturday November 5th and there will be a wide variety of new and used games and other geeky items on the auction block. All money raised will be donated to Extra Life through the group page.

Donate games: Are you a game publisher? Do you have too many games and don't know what to do with them? How about donating your games to the cause. You can either give them to us to play during the event or you can donate them to be sold at the live auction. Any donations can be dropped off at Brimstone Games up to and including the day of the event or contact gilvanblight(at)gmail.com to make arrangement before then.

Thanks to our sponsors:

While organizing this event I sent out emails to a variety of game companies asking if they would be willing to support the WGR in this effort.

Huge thanks to Stronghold Games for supporting us four years in a row!

Thanks to Mantic Games, Alderac Entertainment Group, Rio Grande Games and Hidden Trail Escape Rooms for supporting us again this year.

A big welcome to our new sponsors this year: CMON (Cool Mini Or Not), The Cheese Bar. Blue Collar Tattoers, Robbie's Gourmet Sausage Co, Rogues Gallery Comics, Little Foot Foods, The Coffee Exchange, USAopoly, Villains Beastro and The Special.

Sunday, 8 November 2015

Gaming for 24 hours straight, to raise funds for Extra Life!

November 7th 2015 members of the Windsor Gaming Resource will be gathering at Brimstone Games to play games for 24 hours straight in support of Extra Life!

This is our third year in a row supporting Extra Life as a group (some individual members have been doing it longer). Last year we raised an amazing $4,575.70 (That's in US!) for The Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals blowing away our $2000 goal. This year we are hoping to break the $5K mark.

What is Extra Life?

November 7th - Live gaming auction in support of Extra Life

It's that time of year again. Time for Extra Life, the 24 hour gaming marathon done in support of the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.

Last year members of the Windsor Gaming Resource raised over $4000! in support of this great cause. A large portion of that money came from our 8pm live game auction. Due to that we've decided to do another this year.

The auction will be held at 8pm on the night of Extra Life, which is November 7th. It will be at Brimstone games which can be found at 3298 Walker Road in Windsor Ontario Canada.

The auction items will be a mix of new and used games and other cool geeky items. There will be hand knit dice bags from Mercantile 519, games from Z-man Games. Bezier Games, Break From Reality, Game Salute, Black Shark Enterprises, and way more.

We are still looking for more items to auction off. If you have something you would like to donate to the auction you can either bring it to the event, drop it off at Brimstone Games or contact Moe Tousignant some time before November 7th.

If you are interested in supporting us in some other way, perhaps joining us for 24 hours of gaming or making a donation to the cause, check out this post for everything we are doing for Extra Life.

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

The Great Canadian Board Game Blitz is back! October 18th

The first stop on The Road to Extra Life is the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz! Come out October 18th play some great games and support a great cause.

This all day, no elimination, five round board game tournament will be hosted at Brimstone Games. Sign up will happen between 10am and 11am. The tournament starts at 11am sharp and will run until 8pm at the latest.

For this years event we will have five rounds:

Round 1 - 1 hour
Round 2 - 1 hour
Round 3 - 1.5 hours
Food Break 1 hour
Round 4 - 1.5 hours
Final Round - 2 hours

Each round players will score points based on their ranking in the game. These points are weighted by the game length (so you get more points for winning a 2 hour game than a 1 hour game). At the end of the event prizes will be awarded based on total points earned.

You can find out more about The Great Canadian Board Game Blitz including the full rules and scoring system over at: http://www.gcbgb.ca/

The cost to participate in this Blitz is $10. $5 of this will be going towards Extra Life. The other $5 goes towards prizes for First, Second and Third Place in the form of Brimstone Games gift certificates. This means that the more people that enter, the better the prizes will be and the more we help out a great cause. There will also be door prizes that can be won by anyone participating. Knowing Brimstone they may through in a few extra deals as well.

This will be the sixth time we have hosted a Great Canadian Board Game Blitz here in Windsor. Each previous event has been awesome and we've seen more and more people out ever year. We've got room for 40 people so let's make 2015 a record year.

What is Extra Life? Extra Life is gaming based charity event that raises money for the Children's Miracle Network of hospitals. The main event is a 24 hour gaming marathon that will be happening on November 7th this year. Last year members of the Windsor Gaming Resource raised $4575.70 and we are hoping to top that this year. Though the marathon is set for a specific day there is nothing stopping participants from raising money year round. This Blitz is the first stop on the Road to Extra Life and half of the entry fee goes directly to Extra Life.

If you aren't able to attend the event but would still like to support the awesome gamers of Windsor Ontario, you can make a donation on our Extra Life page. Just click on the Roster button, pick a member to support and hit the "Support Me" button.

You can sign up to attend on the Windsor Blitz Facebook Page

The tentative (and subject to change) game list for this event can be viewed on google drive: 2015 Windsor Blitz Game List

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Less than one month until Extra Life! We need your help!

October 25th many members of the Windsor Gaming Resource will be gathering at Brimstone Games to play games for 24 hours straight in support of Extra Life! This is an amazing geek driven fund raiser that is in support of the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals.

That's less than a month away and right now we are only at 33% of our goal, so we need your help!

What exactly are we doing?

Saturday October 25th at 10:00am a group of local gamers will be heading to Brimstone Games. Once there it's simple: we game, and we game for 24 hours straight. We'll be going until 10:00am on Sunday. We will be playing board games, miniature games and maybe even some pen and paper roleplaying games.

In addition to all the gaming, at 8:00pm on Saturday night we will also be hosting a live auction. Anyone is welcome to attend this portion of the event. We've got a great selection to auction off and 100% of the proceeds will be going to Extra Life.

What can you do to help?

Come play games: You should come join us on the 25th and play some games! Even if you can't come out for all 24 hours it would be awesome if you could stop in and say hi, bring us some caffeine and/or play a game or two. We would love the support and encouragement. You can show up at any time during the event. Stop in after work, say hi at lunch, whenever.

If you want to join us or stop in to show your support, you can find Brimstone at 3298 Walker Rd. Parking is available on the south side of the building and on the street around back.

Join our team: Extra Life lets groups of participants make a team page and we have one for the Windsor Gaming Resource. Click here to join up!

Sponsor a Windsor Gaming Resource member: Any amount helps, even a buck. The Extra Life site has a wide variety of payment options and offers charity receipts. Just click on our roster and pick someone to support. If you want to support me, the captain, directly click here. You can also donate in person at Brimstone Games or PayPal to gilvanblight(a)gmail.com.

Participate in the live auction: The auction will be held at 8pm on Saturday October 25th and there will be a wide variety of new and used games and other geekery on the auction block, including some awesome Dice Bags donated by Mercantile 519. We will even be accepting Debit (Interac) for the auction so you don't need to bring a ton of cash.

Donate games for the auction: Are you a game publisher? Do you have too many games and don't know what to do with them? How about donating your games to the cause. Any donations can be dropped off the day of the event or contact gilvanblight(at)gmail.com to make arrangement before then.

Huge thanks to our sponsors:

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

Gaming for 24 straight, to raise funds for Extra Life!

Support Windsor gamers helping sick kids.

October 25th members of the Windsor Gaming Resource will be gathering at Brimstone Games to play games for 24 hours straight in support of Extra Life!

This is our second year in a row supporting Extra Life as a group (some individual members have been doing it longer). Last year we raised $1800 for The Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals blowing away our $1000 goal. This year we are doubling that goal to $2000 and we would love to blow that away and hit at least $3000 or more!

What is Extra Life?

What is the WGR doing for Extra Life?

As many members as possible are going to head to Brimstone Games at 10:00am on Saturday October 25th. Once there it's simple: we game, and we game for 24 hours straight. We'll be going until 10:00am on Sunday. We will be playing board games, miniature games and maybe even some pen and paper roleplaying games.

In addition to all the gaming, at 8:00pm on Saturday night we will also be hosting a live game auction. Anyone is welcome to attend this portion of the event. We've got a great selection of games to auction off and 100% of the proceeds will be going to Extra Life.

You can find Brimstone at 3298 Walker Rd. Parking is available on the south side of the building and on the street around back.

What can you do to support us?

Sponsor a Windsor Gaming Resource member: Any amount helps, even a buck, and the Extra Life site has a wide variety of payment options even including a monthly donation deal. They also offer charity receipts. Support me directly by clicking here.

Participate in the live auction: The auction will be held at 8pm on Saturday October 25th and there will be a wide variety of new and used games on the auction block. All money raised will be donated to Extra Life through the group page.

Donate games: Are you a game publisher? Do you have too many games and don't know what to do with them? How about donating your games to the cause. You can either give them to us to play during the event or you can donate them to be sold at the live auction. Any donations can be dropped off the day of the event or contact gilvanblight(at)gmail.com to make arrangement before then.

Thanks to our sponsors:

While organizing this event I sent out emails to a variety of game companies asking if they would be willing to support the WGR in this effort. Last year Stronghold Games and Z-Man Games were awesome enough to support us. This year many other companies have stepped up to the plate.

Huge thanks to Z-man and Stronghold Games for supporting for two years in a row!

Thanks to Rio Grande Games, Loony Labs, Mantic Games, Game Salute, Alderac Entertainment Group, Minion Games, Blue Orange Games and Arcane Wonders for supporting us for the first time this year.

Saturday, 12 October 2013

We are going to game for 25 hours for the Extra Life charity gaming event

November 2nd members of The Windsor Gaming Resource will be gathering at Brimstone Games to play some games. Sure that's not unusual, we have events at Brimstone every month. The difference is this time we are going to do it for 25 hours straight and we are doing it for an amazing charity event!

What is Extra Life?

What is the Windsor Gaming Resource doing for Extra Life?

As many members as possible are going to head to Brimstone Games at 10:00am on Saturday November 2nd. Once there it's simple: we game, and we game for 25 hours straight. We'll be going until 11:00am on Sunday. We will be playing board games, miniature games and maybe even some pen and paper roleplaying games. A couple truly awesome game companies have even donated a few games for us to play.

At this time of this post we have already raised $475 of our $1000 goal. Thank you very much to all of you who have already offered your support.

What can you do?

Well if you are a local gamer, you should come join us on the 2nd and play some games! Even if you can't come out for all 25 hours it would be awesome if you could stop in and say hi, bring us some caffeine and/or play a game or two. We would love the support and encouragement.

You can join our team. Extra-Life lets groups of participants make a team page and we have one for the WGR. Even if you aren't going to actually come out to Brimstone and play with us, but you are going to participate at home or at your own FLGS we would love to have you on our team. Click here to join up!

You can sponsor a Windsor Gaming Resource member. Any amount helps, and they have a wide variety of payment options even including a monthly donation deal. They also offer the option of getting the appropriate charity receipt. Support me directly by clicking here.

A special thank you to Stronghold Games and Z-Man Games

While organizing this event I sent out emails to a variety of game companies asking if they would be willing to support the WGR in this effort. Both Stronghold Games and Z-Man Games were the only two to write back. Not only did they acknowledge my emails but they both agreed to send us some of their awesome games to play. Stephen Buonocore of Stronghold even went beyond that and made a cash donation to the group. A huge thanks to both companies for being awesome and supporting their fanbase.