We wrap up our 2017 Gamers Give Back Tour with some special stops on both coasts of the country.
At the end of September, along with Child’s Play Charity, we made two stops on the East Coast. First up, we met with Child Life staff and handed out gifts to child patients at the Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo in New York. The Minecraft plushes were a big hit and Hope The Monkey’s were aplenty and given to the younger patients right alongside our toys and books.
Thank you to the awesome team at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo for having us! Looking forward to seeing you all again!
Next up, we took a short jaunt over to the fine city of Brotherly Love.
While we didn’t get a flick of Hope The Monkey running the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art via Rocky we did get the chance to have a cheesesteak after our visit!
Of course, this was not our main intent while visiting Philadelphia…
We came fully prepared to meet and greet with the wonderful patients and Child Life staff at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. For this stop, along with meeting with the patients and bringing a catered lunch to the staff, we brought along a mobile gaming station with a PS4 set-up so the kids and staff could play some games and enjoy their day together.
A bit later in the month, we made our way out to Sacramento for a unique day where we made stops at two different hospitals.
It turns out that UC Davis Medical and Shriners Northern California are right across the street from each other. This allowed us to deliver gifts to the patients and treat the Child Life staff members to lunch and/or a snack at two facilities in one day!
We spent the first half of the day at UC Davis Medical. At this Children’s Hospital, as well as all the others, we always meet special children with eclectic little personalities. Below is a picture of one of the special patients who was extremely excited that she had just received a Littlest Pet Shop play set.
We enjoyed having lunch with the Child Life staff at UC Davis Medical where we were able to discuss options on how to improve their gaming set-ups! To note, we were able to send a few new controllers to the facility after we saw they needed them!
If you’ve ever experienced visiting a Shriners Hospital you know they are places that pay special attention to their child patients. The size of the recreational spaces and options for activities bring life to the floors and a positive vibrant energy fills the space that is simply impossible to ignore.
We met up with the Child Life staff at Shriners Northern California for a sit down conversation on all things gaming. Along with the Childs Play team, we will be working with Shriners to ensure that all of their gaming platforms are up to date and that the endless possibilities of the VR and AR space are available to them.
Next up, along with Childs Play, we headed up to into the great Pacific Northwest to meet with the Child Life staff at Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital. It was here that we spent some time discussing all of the gaming options we could provide for their patients. The staff had a lot of questions about our program and we were happy to provide them with answers, and we were excited about possibilities in VR and AR!
At each and every one of the stops we make on the Gamers Give Back Tour, we are humbled by the genuine love and kindness the Child Life staff shows for the patients they care for.
While it must be incredibly emotional to be involved with children and their families going through their daily motions while facing life-threatening illnesses head on, the Child Life staff approach their jobs in a human way with the knowledge and diligence to do what is right for the kids and do so in a caring manner on a daily basis with grace and a smile on their face. Our whole team is constantly in awe of their strength and it only makes us even more committed to doing what we do as a charity.
To all of the Child Life staff we meet, a humble “thank you” for having us!
