Child's Play Begins Again

Many of you are surely familiar with Child's Play, the annual Penny Arcade-run charity that seeks to provide sick hospital-bound kids with music, movies, books--and, of course, video games. Mike Krahulik (Gabe) over at PA has posted that Child's Play has now officially begun its third year of operation, with a slick new website and an increased number of hospitals to which you can donate. There are now a dozen hospitals in the United States linked to Child's Play, as well as two in Canada and one forthcoming in the UK. Donations can be made either by buying items from Amazon on behalf of your chosen hospital, or simply by contributing money directly.

These Kids need toys though. They need games to play and crafts to make in order to take their minds off their situations. Something as simple as a Game Boy can make the stay in one of these Hospitals much more bearable for a kid. ... People like Jack Thompson are welcome to scream at the top of their lungs about the gamer menace. They can go on television and lie about our hobby until they're blue in the face. In the meantime, we as gamers will come together and quietly change the lives of hundreds of thousands of sick children all over the world for the better.

Certainly this sort of measure goes towards the eradication of negative gamer stereotypes, but more importantly it's just a really good cause. When I was younger I had several major spinal surgeries at various times, when I was stuck in a hospital bed for weeks at a time it was always most bearable when there was an NES available. Even if I wasn't in much shape to concentrate on the game, having something fun to try to focus on was just as good as pumping morphine into my veins. Believe me, this is the sort of thing worth supporting. This year's target amount is $350,000. Penny Arcade is currently taking reservations for the annual fundraiser dinner auction in Seattle on December 13.