Child's Play 2007

For going on four years now Crystal and I have been donating to Child's Play. I have never been much for charities, call it lack of interest, selfishness or a lack of income in grade school and then college. When I first read about Child's Play though I was intrigued on a number of levels. Firstly it is run by the guys who create Penny Arcade, my favorite web comic to date. Second the charity takes no administrative fees off the top. Every single dollar, toy, book and game goes directly to the children's hospital of your choice. Finally it is easy to do, it is an Amazon wish list that is a point and click transaction, maybe 1-2 minutes out of your day tops.

It is also an opportunity to give gamers and geeks a good name. Video games and the people who play them are so often portrayed in the media as violence minded drones. The reality is that gamers are people too, we have families, friends and heart that pumps blood just like yours. Child's Play is an opportunity for us to show off how caring we can be. It gets some media coverage, but for an organization that has raise over 2 million dollars for children's hospitals around the world from individual donations, it should get a lot more.

Even if you are not a gamer, which I think most of the people who read this aren't (hey family and friends), you can donate. The wish list make it easy to donate toys, books and games that hospitals are requesting. That or you can simply make a cash donation.