Child’s Play
Lots of bloggers have favorite charities. In the gun blogosphere you’ll often see Soldier’s Angels or The NRA Foundation, which are both excellent programs. Right now, though, I’m going to plug my favorite charity: Child’s Play. Child’s Play was started in 2003 by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade fame.
Child’s Play assists Children’s Hospitals around the country by donating video games, movies, board games, books, and other forms of entertainment to help children keep their minds off the pain and loneliness of extended hospital treatment, similar to what Project Valour-IT does for wounded soldiers. Here’s how it works: each participating hospital sets up an Amazon.com wish list which anyone can use to purchase the items the hospital needs. This is, in my opinion, the one of the best things about the charity. With the Amazon wish lists, I know exactly where my donation is going, because I choose the hospital and buy the items with my own money, and then they get shipped directly to the folks in need. There’s no worry about how much of my donation is being spent on the children, because I decided how the money is spent. Genius! Better still, there are participating hospitals all over the US and Canada, so there’s probably one near you that you can help.
In addition to the wish lists, you can always donate cash at the main site, or at the Desert Bus For Hope fund drive, or if you’re in the Seattle area there’s a pretty sweet charity dinner and auction hosted at the same venue as PAX. All the cash collected (less 2-3% for administrative costs) goes straight into the hospitals.
Head over to the website. Check it out. I dare you to read the letters from grateful children and parents and not contribute.