St. Jude PLAY LIVE [Images]

[JasefWisener]

I was extremely privileged to have been invited to the St. Jude PLAY LIVE Summit in Memphis this week for the chance to learn more about St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, see firsthand the good that St. Jude does for extremely deserving kids and families that are going through some of the worst possible things that they ever could, and learn more about how to better raise money for them through charity events.

For anyone that doesn't know, St. Jude PLAY LIVE is the charity gaming arm of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. PLAY LIVE encourages and empowers gamers to fundraise together in an effort to raise money for St. Jude and eliminate childhood cancer for good. Since the program began five years ago, over $7,000,000 has been raised for St. Jude, 100% of which goes directly into research and support for St. Jude families. When a kid is brought to St. Jude, they are a St. Jude kid for life, and the mission is that families will never have to pay for treatment or housing while they are they so that they can focus on the one thing that matters: getting healthy and defeating cancer.

If anyone would like to contribute to my campaign (running now through the middle of June), that would be amazing! Donations go directly to St. Jude so that they can immediately begin helping those who need it! You can donate at https://tiltify.com/+tsg/thespeedgamers/donate. If anyone has any questions about St. Jude, the PLAY LIVE program, or TheSpeedGamers (my charity group), I would love to answer them! As someone who has been around cancer through family members and, at the moment, a best friend, St. Jude is a cause that's very close to my heart.

The 160+ attendees of the 2018 St. Jude PLAY LIVE Summit in Memphis, Tennessee

This is one of the walls of the Target House, one of the on-campus housing facilities for patients and their families at St. Jude. This wall is full of drawings that celebrities (including Robin & Zelda Williams, Justin Timberlake, and so many more) have done for St. Jude. Elephants represent hope at St. Jude, so elephant art is all over Target House.

One of the most emotional areas at the hospital is the ABCs of Cancer gallery. These drawings are all created by St. Jude patients, and they offer 26 views (one for each letter of the alphabet) about living with cancer and lessons learned along the way.

This is an area on the only remaining original wall of the hospital that features some dedications from donors and a central display with a quote from St. Jude founder Danny Thomas.

We were lucky enough at TSG to be able to send three people to the Summit, so here I am with two of my best friends in the world at the afterparty.

PLAY LIVE was started by a man with a dream named Zach Whitten, and he is an absolute hero.

One of the coolest aspects of the week was the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals who are all committed to raising money for St. Jude, and loads of new friendships were created. I got to do (and complete!) my first escape room with one of my best friends (to my right) and members of another similar group that were a blast to be around.

[Qbix]

I heard of this. Didn't know you were one of the participants. What is your group playing ? I recall that there are a lot of twitch streamers involved.

[JasefWisener]

My group in particular focuses almost exclusively on charity marathons instead of regular streams. We recently did a Zelda Marathon back in March (to celebrate our ten year anniversary) that raised over $10,000 for St. Jude. Our next event (our 45th marathon) will be a weeklong Pokemon "Catch 'Em All" Marathon, also for St. Jude. We've played a ton of different franchises over our ten years, and, as one of the first charity gaming groups ever, we were the biggest point of inspiration for groups such as Zeldathon and Games Done Quick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheSpeedGamers

[Tawmis]

My group in particular focuses almost exclusively on charity marathons instead of regular streams. We recently did a Zelda Marathon back in March (to celebrate our ten year anniversary) that raised over $10,000 for St. Jude. Our next event (our 45th marathon) will be a weeklong Pokemon "Catch 'Em All" Marathon, also for St. Jude. We've played a ton of different franchises over our ten years, and, as one of the first charity gaming groups ever, we were the biggest point of inspiration for groups such as Zeldathon and Games Done Quick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheSpeedGamers

We need you to do a Sierra Marathon, damn it.

[JasefWisener]

That would be fun! One of our streamers actually played through some Sierra games a few years back. I can't remember which specifically, but I do know that one he streamed was Space Quest IV.

[Tawmis]

Bah! I forgot in my previous post to say, "All kidding aside, this is great work you're doing - and having fun (I assume!) doing it!"

That would be fun! One of our streamers actually played through some Sierra games a few years back. I can't remember which specifically, but I do know that one he streamed was Space Quest IV.

I could see trying to marathon through some Sierra games - because of the puzzles, it could be a fun thing to do to try and complete as many in a time crunch (ideally, of the same series).