This past weekend four gamers from Kalamazoo, Michigan raised $1,500 for children; all while playing video games. The group ran an event called "72 Hours Remain", playing video games for 72 hours in a row and encouraged everyone watching to donate to Child's Play. From 6 am on Friday December 18th to 6 am on Monday December 21st Daniel Frandsen, Kelly O'Neill, Keith Furry, and Simon Tower played Mario, Metroid, and Zelda games, with an average of 21 people watching the whole event. "The results far exceeded our expectations. We were worried that nobody would tune in and we would be far below our $1,000 goal, but we were pleasantly surprised", said Daniel Frandsen about the event. Over 2,000 people tuned in over the whole event, and 55 of those people donated.
The players took turns playing 4.5 hour shifts, sleeping and resting between their shifts. When not playing, they were chatting with the audience and making sure everything was running smoothly. "There were a few problems that came up along the way, but the audience rarely noticed", said Daniel Frandsen. "The only major issues we had were with a few cued sound effects we had which were too loud." The four gamers plan to run another marathon during summer 2010.
Child’s Play (www.childsplaycharity.org)
