A dedicated group of student gamers at IUPUI hope to help bring a smile to some deserving children’s faces with the first-ever “1-Up for Riley” gaming tournament and fundraiser benefiting Indiana University Health’s Riley Hospital for Children.
“1-Up for Riley” is a Pokémon card and video game tournament scheduled for April 9th from 12 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in IUPUI’s Informatics and Communications Technology Complex (535 W. Michigan). To participate, entrants must bring a cash donation or new, packaged game from Riley’s Amazon.com Wish List. All proceeds and donations will be used to supply patients at Riley with much-needed board, card and other games to play during their stay.
The event is organized by the Gamers’ Guild, a recognized IUPUI student organization founded in 2003 and sponsored by the School of Informatics and Computing. The group’s mission is to provide a place for members of the IUPUI community to come together in celebration of their mutual passion for gaming in all its formats.
The fundraiser stems from the group’s recent desire to give back to the local community, in part to fight negative stereotypes of gamers as lazy and uninvolved. During a lunch at the McDonald’s within Riley Hospital for Children, the idea took root that there is no better audience to share in the group’s love of gaming than kids – particularly those whose access to or supply of games for entertainment may be limited due to hospitalization and illness. And the “1-Up for Riley” concept was born.
Gamers’ Guild members hope to eventually personally play donated games with the children at Riley, and has goals of seeing at least one hundred people participate with $500 in cash or gift donations raised.
More information can be found through the Gamers’ Guild’s website at www.gg.drakeweb.net.
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