If you shop at Target, here is how you can support GameChanger

1. Open your Target app
2. Tap on “Circle”
3. Select “Vote for nonprofits”
4. Add your votes to GameChanger Charity

About Target Circle

Using Target Circle, shoppers can earn 1% in Target Circle earnings rewards each time they make an eligible purchase at Target, in-store and online. Shoppers can save on items, claim earnings for discounts, and keep track of the amount of money they’ve saved/earned using the program. Alongside these many benefits, Target Circle members can earn votes to support a nonprofit in their community. Shoppers can earn one vote on every eligible purchase. Sign up and learn more at www.target.com/circle. 

The post Vote GameChanger for Target Circle first appeared on GameChanger Charity.

Though these times were difficult, we at GameChanger never strayed from our mission: To change the game for sick kids. That still remains priority number one! The last couple of years were especially difficult for hospitalized children who, during the pandemic, were more isolated than ever. This motivated us more than anything.  With our absence on social media, we realize that you may have not heard about the amazing things GameChanger has been doing recently so we’d like to get you caught up:

• We partnered with EA to bring consoles, games, and love to hospitalized kids. GameChanger was able to deliver over 825,000 hours of gaming for hospitalized kids and families. We were also able to provide educational services and gifts of EA games for kids to bring home from their hospital stays. 
• Donated Playwell gaming systems to 7 children’s hospitals. These systems empowered hospitalized children with the power of gaming and entertainment.
• When the war in Ukraine broke out, GameChanger sent aid to displaced Ukrainian children with illnesses.
• Provided funding for 5 college scholarships to students that instead of being at school, were stuck in hospital rooms.
• Began work with top-ranking pediatric health care providers to test patients using video games to keep them on mental health, diabetes, and asthma protocols. In this program, children get video game downloads when they do their protocols.
• Dropped off gifts while traveling from San Francisco to San Diego during our “Road Trip for Good” program.

Because of our disappearance from social media, we weren’t able to keep our amazing supporters updated, which is something we never want to happen again. We have some incredible things planned for 2023 and want to bring everyone along for the ride. By the time you’re reading this, our social media accounts will have been relaunched. Follow our journey and change the game in your own ways: 

instagram.com/gamechangerorg

twitter.com/gamechangerorg

facebook.com/gamechangerorg

linkedin.com/company/gamechangerorg/

The post GameChanger Returns to Social Media and Reviews 2022 first appeared on GameChanger Charity.

Along with our team, volunteers from EA and Twitch were in attendance to play games with the kids and hand out fun gifts to hospital patients and their siblings.

When bringing therapeutic gaming and VR to children in hospitals, there’s always a source of inspiration to behold. It comes from witnessing the resilience of children patients who have a sense of wonder that only a young person can have and from the caring Child Life staff we meet.

In a similar way, inspiration fills the room when you experience volunteers coming to one of our Play Days. Generally speaking, these are people who like to take a moment out of their busy schedules to bring a bit of cheer to children staying in hospitals.

Volunteering was a core element of our recent GameChanger Play Day.

GameChanger Charity was thrilled to be invited to EA’s 11^th Annual Nonprofit showcase. Located at EA’s headquarters in Redwood City, California, the day featured various charities that expressed interest in working with volunteers from the EA team.

The offer we established for employees was to join us for a Play Day at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital where they would spend time playing games with children staying at the hospital in order to bring a bit of fun to their day.

The more we talked with folks at EA the more we could see that the people who came by to discuss GameChanger’s mission were enthusiastic about putting energy toward a cause.

Fast-forward a couple weeks later to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. Not only did we have four amazing team members from EA join us, we also had a crew from Twitch Charity in attendance along with talented music streamer Tammy Byerly.

We had two rooms available for use. One of them, a digital AV lab that UCSF Benioff created to be used exclusively by their patients, featured a green screen along with just about any resource one would need to create a TV show and let their imagination run wild.

We set up 2 VR devices. One, an HTC Vive, which had various games like Fruit Ninjas and Tilt Brush. The other, a PSVR with VR Worlds that featured a virtual luge game. David Arditti and Nate Aschenbach, our resident VR Specialists and all-around good guys, managed the gaming and helped guide the kids through new experiences in the virtual reality space.

The next room over was a teen lounge where multiple consoles were set-up with a variety of games including Guitar Hero, Star Wars Battlefront, FIFA 2018, Super Smash Bros on Wii-U, and an Oculus VR headset featuring Medium, an art game where you draw in a 3D space!

We also had games spilling out into the hallways including Marvel’s Lego Avengers and Angry Birds Star Wars, which is also where our table of gifts was located where patients, brothers and sisters were able to choose from an assortment of fun gifts.

Toys we brought along were supplied by our awesome partners at Hasbro and included Mr. Potato Head, Nerf Basketball sets, Upwords Board Games, Baby Alive dolls and Marvel Iron Man Action Figures. SkyLanders were available as well, which Activision has so graciously donated.

It seemed that as soon as we set up a group of kids came to play! With excited smiles, the patients and siblings adventured through VR landscapes and enjoyed playing the various games with our volunteers.

A highlight to note, Tammy Byerly played her guitar for one of the patients who was delighted to experience such a unique talent singing right in front of them. As a special bonus, EA donated some of their top new games to the hospital so patients could have access to some of the newest and best video games out today.

A big thanks goes to the volunteers from EA and Twitch that joined us for GameChanger Play Day! Of course, we can’t thank UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital enough for having us. Stay tuned for more from GameChanger Charity and our partnerships with awesome companies like these by following us on our Twitter!

The post Play Day at UCSF Benioff first appeared on GameChanger Charity.

September 2017 has been another busy one for the GameChanger Team! This month, while on our Gamers Give Back Tour, we visited our lovely friends to the north in Canada. Each healthcare facility we visited was innovative in their approach to healthcare, showed special attention in caring for their very special young patients, and were all ears when it came to pushing forward with new ideas.

One of the items we take along with us to our GGB tour stops is the “Therapeutic Video Game Recommendation Guide” that our partner Child’s Play Charity has created. We bring copies along with us as reference for games that can help with a variety of symptoms. Erick (@eribek on Twitter), one of our friends from Childs Play who is frequently with us on visits, is always more than happy to go over the guide with staff after gifts have been distributed on a visit.

Below are some highlights from the Gamers Give Back Tour stops including thank you notes and pictures from our visits.

“I just want to thank you so much for the visit! The team was awesome and the gifts were much appreciated by all the kids! Lunch was very good and we had a good chat! We will definitely speak again for future plans” – Jean Pascal, Shriners Hospital, Montreal

Following our visit to Shriners Hospital, Montreal, Don Johnson, CEO here at GameChanger, attached us to an email:

“I will tell you that Shriner’s of Montreal was a real inspiration and highlight…you and the team at Shriner’s are truly “GameChanger’s”!!  We are humbled to have had the opportunity to get to know you and your entire team!”  – DJ

Thank you for having us!

Next, we stopped at IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Not only was the hospital gorgeous, it’s also worth to note that the sights in Nova Scotia are breathtaking and worth a visit to see for yourself!

We were greeted kindly by Chantal LeBlanc and her team of Child Life professionals and handed out many gifts throughout the wings of the children’s hospital. Once we finished up and said our goodbyes we received this pleasant thank you note that warmed our hearts:

“I just wanted to send a quick note of appreciation for the motivating group lunch we just had. I don’t think that GameChanger realizes the impact their visit had. I truly feel their timing was perfect. It was so inspiring to have such passionate people meet with us and have a true understanding and appreciation for Child Life. Hearing them speak validated what we do and why. To know there are people like that out there advocating for us, our patients and our families is so refreshing. I feel recharged having a group get together and it was very thoughtful for them to treat us to lunch, that was a nice bonus.” – Chantal LeBlanc, IWK

Thanks Chantal! We love what you all do for the kids as well!!

Last but certainly not least, we made a stop at Janeway Children’s Hospital Foundation in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

“I just wanted to send a quick thank you to Terri and Jenine, for your assistance in the GameChanger & Child’s Play Charity event that took place today at the Janeway.

The event was amazing with Child Life staff along with Eric, Don and Darla from GameChanger & Child’s Play, able to visit and provide gifts to the Janeway patients, plus the opportunity for Child Life staff and the Give Back Tour representatives to meet and discuss the gaming ( both electronic and board games) needs of the hospital from both a diversional and therapeutic aspect.

We would like to thank both groups for including the Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre in your Canadian east coast Gamers Give Back Tour. We look forward to continued collaboration with your group.

Also, thank you for the lunch it was a wonderful treat.” – Arlene Scott, JaneWay

As autumn the autumn temperatures start to cool down and set the stage for winter, we would like to give our sincere thanks to all of the hospitals we’ve visited for having us while on our Gamers Give Back Tour. We can only hope that the work we do brings happiness to these special kids who need it most. A million thanks to each and every Child Life team member out there helping kids through tough times!

Keep up with our Gamers Give Back Tour dates by following us on Twitter and signing up for our newsletter!

The post Gamers Give Back Goes to Canada! first appeared on GameChanger Charity.

The final month of summer began with a stop in Burlington, Vermont at the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital. On August 7, our very own Brandon Llinas joined forces with Erick Blandin, who is with us on many of the Gamers Give Back Tour stops, from Childs Play, and met up with Sierra Scheller, head of the Child Life team of specialists at the hospital.

Sierra showed our team around the facilities and helped put together a free forum style event where, rather than visit room-to-room, arranged it so gifts could be distributed in one location of the hospital. The patients, many of them older kids and teenagers at this particular stop, came to us where they received gifts along the lines of Monopoly board games and Skylander action figures accompanied by Hope stuffed animals and Childs Play blankets.

A couple days later on August 10^th, Brandon continued on to the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland, Maine where he met with Liz Shaughnessy, her team of Child Life Specialists, and a total amount of 55 kids.

The hospital was gorgeous and serves as a wonderful example of a facility that caters to the needs of their patients. The children were appreciative of the gifts they received which included toys from Hasbro, one of our amazing donors.

The team went room-to-room handing out toys, chatting with patients and families, and were welcomed by smiling faces as they handed out GGB Tour bags filled with fun items.

Later in the month, David Arditti, one our awesome GameChanger team members, traveled to Nebraska to make a couple special stops for the tour.

After David’s visit to Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Rob Harding, Community Resource Specialist, sent us this heartfelt and genuine thank you letter:

“ I wanted to thank you effusively for Erick and David’s visit and for the lunch! What a tremendous gift you all provided for our patients and staff and we can’t thank you enough. I can only imagine the time, thought, energy and effort that goes into planning a visit like this – you all are a well-oiled machine. I’d also like to thank everyone for their overwhelming generosity in providing the bags of gifts for our patients, too! Wow!

Then, on August 24^th, David Arditti, along with players from the Iowa Cubs, made a visit to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines.

David sent this write-up back to GC Headquarters as a recap of his visit:

We met Lori in the lobby of Blank’s who showed us to the room and brought the gifts a little before 9.  We started the day collecting gift bags for the patients and were joined by the Cubs shortly after who helped put the bags together.  We all chatted with the Cubs team who were eager to help and enthusiastic about the cause.  Once we were all packed we went to the rooms.

The Cubs team members and the Child life staff distributed the bags to the patients, who were all very excited to be visited by the team and their mascot.  After that, the Cubs departed and we got a tour of the facility, their PICU and a couple playrooms.  Then we finished the day having lunch with the Child Life staff and chatting about their tech questions.

Shelby, the team representative for the Iowa Cubs, wrote a wonderful note to us about their experience:

“We have been fortunate to visit Blank Children’s, but never before today were we able to have our hearts touched by the passion that GameChanger and Childs Play shared with our players. Yes, we have passed our baseballs to the kids and walked the halls- but never have we seen kids faces light up when they received the gift bags that we felt so honored to deliver. Whether the patient identified with our baseball uniforms, the baseballs, or CUBBIE our mascot… we definitely hit a home run for the kids at Blank Children’s.”

Our mission continues! As summer time winds down and everyone goes back to school we’re working toward connecting with more companies who share our passion to bring innovative technology to hospitals worldwide. Learn more about how you can help GameChanger Charity and follow us on Twitter!

The post Gamers Give Back Across The U.S.A. first appeared on GameChanger Charity.

More often than not, when we visit hospitals, the patients we meet are going through mental and physical strain due to the nature of the treatments they’re receiving. At each and every stop, we do our best to bring a smile to the face of the children and families we meet by supplying a break from their time in the hospital.

While we strive to bring a bit of hope to every stop throughout the Gamers Give Back Tour, there are times we feel compelled to make an extra push to create a larger than life moment. On Wednesday August 23^rd, together with the good folks at Morgan Stanley Hospital in New York City, GameChanger Day was one of those moments.

Before the kids arrived in the game room, we set up an Xbox one with NBA 2K17, Minecraft, Halo 5, and LEGO Marvel Superheroes. We also had a PS4 with a Guitar Hero station ready to go so everyone could rock out as needed! Not long after we finished setting up, many different patients, along with their parents and siblings, arrived with pleasantly surprised looks on their faces. It was time to have some fun!

Nate, our resident VR expert, brought our virtual reality set up and shared new and exciting worlds with the children. The kids loved creating sculptures, characters and shapes using Medium. Faces across the room lit up when the kid’s realized they could create a sculpture in 3D and walk around with it. We also had the PS4 VR complete with a driving wheel and pedals with Driveclub ready to go along with Eagle Flight and Google Earth VR on our two Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers set-ups.

Sometimes, the raucous nature of a playroom at a hospital can be a bit intimidating for a child. It’s extremely important that we remain sensitive to the needs of the patients. In these cases, it’s the small things that count to make every child feel included. One of the boys we met was a bit shy and quietly mentioned to his mom that his favorite streamer had played Job Simulator in VR. We looked up the game and downloaded it on the spot. The mom and son duo, in which the young man used his right hand while his mom helped control with her left, played for 40 minutes and enjoyed every moment of it.

The hit of the showcase? A 4 Player version of Rocket League (think of it as soccer but with rocket-powered trucks) projected onto a jumbo screen! 4 kids at a time were at the helm clutching Xbox controllers while music from the awesome game soundtrack and sound effects emanated from a large state of the art speaker.  The matches were epic to say the least and culminated in the last game of the day where the kids were on a 4-player team against 4 CPUs.  The kids were down 4 points and came back in the last 90 seconds and won by a point!

A huge thanks to each and every team member on the Child Life staff at Morgan Stanley Hospital. We’re already in talks with their team on expanding our relationship to help build out their VR experience in the hospital and will be assisting with upgrading their teen lounge in the near future.

Like all of our efforts, none of this would be possible if not for the help of our amazing supporters who host the fundraisers that keep GameChanger Charity moving along. This past year, we had incredible efforts hosted by San Francisco Giants baseball star Hunter Pence and YouTube/Streamer star (and all around good guy) Markiplier. Portions of the funds raised from each of their efforts went toward making GameChanger Day a reality.

Engadget wrote a beautiful piece about the day. Check out this excerpt:

GameChanger takes just about anything that companies are willing to give, much of it being items that are just slightly too old for sale and are destined to be destroyed anyway. That includes tablets, gaming consoles, games and even marketing goods. Jim said GameChanger wasn’t allowed to bring tech on a recent trip to Cuba but was able to bring shirts and hats from gaming companies, which the children loved. “We’ll take anything that’s new, that’s excess material that can be repurposed that these families would love to have,” said Jim.

Click here to read the entire article.

Keep up with GameChanger Charity! Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all of our events and efforts!

The post GameChanger Day Celebrates Giving, Gaming for Children in Hospitals first appeared on GameChanger Charity.