Vita Player Sponsored 24 Hour Gaming Marathon Raising Funds For GamesAid

GamesAid

For over a decade I’ve run charity fundraising activities as part of Auto Assembly, the Transformers convention I run each year that takes place in Birmingham, England. At the same time, I’ve tried to do what I could on a personal level supporting various charities. I was a regular monthly donor to one and after losing my job in 2010 I became an Oxfam volunteer working in a local shop until I was forced to give that up on health grounds.

For some time, I’ve wanted to do something else again and my daughter inspired me recently. For Sports Relief, she and her friend did a lengthy sponsored walk around the hills and mountains near where we live and I felt that it was time I did something again. I’m not really in the shape to do anything physical any more but as you all know, I’ve got an insatiable passion for gaming and I’ve decided to put that to good use…

The Challenge

When doing any sponsored event of any kind, it’s tough trying to think of anything suitable to do but as we all love the PS Vita here at Vita Player we thought it was only right to do something connected with gaming and the Vita itself…

We’ve all seen people raising money for various charities before doing all manner of endurance challenges. At school kids often do sponsored silences (much to the delight of their parents and teachers) and as we get older, sponsored endurance sports events but as a gamer I want to let my passion for the PS Vita come into the equation so I’ve decided to challenge myself to endure (if that’s the right word) a 24-hour gaming marathon session on 2nd – 3rd May 2014 playing a wide range of games non-stop on the PlayStation Vita only taking necessary toilet breaks in a period between 12:00 noon GMT on Friday 2nd and 12:00 noon GMT on Saturday 3rd May.

In essence what I will be doing is this:-

  • A 24 hour PS Vita gaming marathon running from 12:00 noon GMT on Friday 2nd May 2014 until 12:00 noon GMT on Saturday 3rd May 2014
  • I’ll be playing a minimum of 100 different games on the PS Vita during this time
  • Setting as many personal records on these games as possible
  • Making the marathon as interactive as possible, letting everyone who has sponsored me choose the games I play and much more!
  • Aiming to raise at least £1,000 (hopefully much much more) for the video games industry charity GamesAid

To find out exactly what I will be doing throughout the challenge, check out my PS Vita Sponsored 24 Hour Gaming Challenge Fundraiser Schedule.

 

More About The Charity – GamesAid

It made sense to us that gaming had to be involved with our fundraising so we’re supporting GamesAid. GamesAid is a UK based video games registered charity which acts as an umbrella to support a number of smaller charities who help disadvantaged and disabled children and young people. The charities that are supported by GamesAid are directly selected by members of the games industry and money raised is shared between them equally each year.

Funds raised will predominantly be used to support children’s charities in the UK, with limited application for overseas causes; for education, health, housing and social welfare. Funds may also be deployed for career guidance and sport. Where possible, there will be some form of technology/interactive play element, but that is not a funding stipulation and the charities supported by GamesAid are most likely to be small-to-medium sized, rather than the better-funded larger ones.

Target

I’ve said that it’s my goal to raise at least £1,000 for GamesAid. While this may seem like a high target, I don’t think that it’s impossible and in fact I believe I could raise a lot more than that. Vita Player has almost 1,000 followers on Twitter, almost 200 people liking our Facebook page, and personally I have over 400 friends on Facebook. Even if each person there donated £1 each then that target is reached easily but I’d hope that everyone could help more, or spread the word to help me raise much, much more.

While the challenge isn’t taking place until 2nd May, our fundraising page is live now so if you’re able to spare any money at all the sooner I can start raising money for GamesAid the faster I can reach this goal and hopefully exceed it so if you’re planning on donating, please don’t leave it until the last minute!

How You Can Help

I’m asking for as many people as possible to get involved and help me to raise this money for this great charity either directly with a donation through the link at the bottom of this post and at the Vita Player GamesAid Sponsorship Page or by helping in any other way that you can. No doubt you’re asking what exactly you can do to help. Well, you can be involved in several ways…

  1. Make A Donation – pretty simple really and every penny really does matter. Whether you can only spare £1 or you can donate a lot more, please help with whatever you can to support GamesAid. Just head over to the Vita Player Sponsorship Page and give what you can. Apart from a small administrative fee taken by the JustGiving website, 95% of the money donated goes directly to GamesAid so please give generously.
  2. Donate By Text – not able to donate online? You can also donate using your mobile phone! Just text GXGA60 £1 to 70070 – every pound helps so please spare whatever you can.
  3. Spread The Word – whether you can make a donation or not, please tell as many people as possible about what I am doing. Whether it’s by sharing this page or the sponsorship page on Twitter, Facebook, talking about it on your own forums, blogs or websites – the more people who know about it, the more we can try to raise.
  4. Follow Us On Twitter – I’ll be updating everyone live about the Gaming Marathon as it happens on 2nd / 3rd May so you can follow my progress on our Twitter page at www.twitter.com/vita_player, as well as posting updates on the website and our Facebook page but if you want to help spread the word, we’ll have updates that are easy to share from here
  5. Youtube / Podcasts – if you have a Youtube Channel or gaming podcast, I’d really appreciate it if you could mention this and help give the campaign more exposure. I may have set a target of £1,000 but I really want to go beyond that figure.
  6. Old Games – have you got any old, unwanted games lying around that you don’t need any more? If you do we can make use of them to raise even more money for GamesAid! If you can send these to us we will be able to sell these online either through eBay or directly and add any money raised to the total raised from sponsorship on our JustGiving page. If you are able to help, send us an email to contact@vitaplayer.co.uk

Updates

We want to keep everyone updated on the campaign, our plans and on how much we are raising so we’ll be doing that here on the Vita Player website and on Twitter. Keep checking back for details of our current fundraising progress, our plans for the day itself (including any plans we have for online multiplayer gaming sessions for anyone who wants to join us) and much more!

Interactive

I do want this to be as interactive as possible. I’ll be posting updates non-stop via Twitter and here on the website in between games so you’ll know what I’m playing, what online multiplayer games I’m on for anyone who wants to join me and thanking people real-time who make donations throughout the 24-hour period. I’ll also open things up for people to suggest games for me to play and if it’s a game I’ve got then I’ll play it! If you’re generous enough to support me and GamesAid then it’s the least I can do.

For those of you with PSN accounts, please feel free to add me (my PSN ID is maximalcheetor) and for my multiplayer gaming sessions feel free to come and join me for a game. I’ll announce either on Twitter or in advance when I’ll be in these games so you can find me. For chances when you can vote on what I’ll play, I’ll post these online as well and I’ll also thank donors personally throughout the day as they come in as I’ll be monitoring the donations page constantly!

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Anyway, thanks for your time reading this and I hope that you’ll be able to support us with this fundraiser and that we’ll be able to reach this target as quickly as possibly and hopefully raise much much more!

Simon Plumbe
Site Editor, Vita Player

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About Simon Plumbe 1052 Articles
Husband, father and lifelong geek. Originally from the West Midlands, now spending my days in South Wales with my family and a house full of animals. Passionate about video games, especially retro gaming, the Commodore 64 and PlayStation Vita. Love pro wrestling, sci-fi and I'm an animal lover and vegetarian. Enjoyed this and my other articles? Why not buy me a coffee: http://ko-fi.com/simonplumbe

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