We’re back, and the hubbub has finally died down a bit (a few of us are involved in education, so Gen Con falling in August often results in a busy schedule when we get back from the Con). I’ve been attending this convention since 1984, so…28 years. The last four have been under the auspices of Gamers for Humanity, and I can tell you that it’s a different experience. The Convention officially lasts from Thursday through Sunday. But when you have a booth to set up in the Exhibitors Hall, that extends the week at least to Wednesday. And when you work with Habitat for Humanity of Indianapolis on Tuesday morning each year, that extends the week to a Monday arrival. And seeing that, come Sunday, exhaustion has set in, departure time becomes the next Monday. A week straight of non-stop activity at a convention that had some 36,000 attendees leaves you somewhat breathless.

But also happy We have again exceeded our fundraising total from the previous year–we’re a small non-profit, and we make our funds go a long way. But it’s nice to see that our efforts pay off more every year in the fundraising area. Our Harry Potter charity game alone brought in right around $1400.

Our Booth

We also did very well this year in the publicity department. We got a lot of new folks signing up for our website and newsletter, which is fantastic. We rely on donations, and we can only do that if people hear about what we’re doing. If you’re interested, you can sign up for a username on our website, and that will get you signed up for our newsletter as well.

The theme of our booth this year was “Show Us Your Hero”. We like to have family and creative activities to draw people in, so this year it was a drawing contest–draw your hero, and your drawing is entered into the contest. Passersby vote for their favorite drawing with donations–the drawing with the most donations each day wins. We had some great participants and artwork, and a lot of great prize support donated from other vendors at the Con.

More of the amazing artwork we had submitted for our contest–drawn right on the spot in our booth…

It's Ripley!

Excellent anime work

And this one...

...was one of our winners!

Our hero is Science!

Our mission at Gen Con is part fundraising, part promotion, and both went very well for us this year. One of our primary goals is to get gamers involved in civic engagement and charity activity, and we’re seeing a lot of movement in that arena these days.

I would also encourage anyone who has any kind of fantasy or sci-fi or geek bug at all in them to try attending a day, or all four, of Gen Con some time. Over the years it has turned from a niche convention into something that’s incredibly family-friendly, and there is something for just about anyone to do there.

I’d like to thank the various companies that sponsored us at the Convention, in the way of donations, and general kindness.

Gen Con LLC
APE Games
SFR, Inc
Interaction Point Games
Epick Endustries
Silver Leaf Costumes
The Leather Lair
Hamster Press (I love these guys)
Out of the Box Games (incredibly generous)
Offworld Designs
Party Time Rental of Indianapolis (even though our plans there didn’t work out for other reasons, they were very generous)

and of course NameTag.

We also want to give a special bit of recognition to Five Year Mission, who graciously came to play our after-party for the charity game, and who rocked the house. These guys are a local Indy band, I definitely recommend catching their show if you are in the area.

Indy's own Five Year Mission

We have a couple of Habitat Game Library dedications coming up in Iowa City, so we’ll have more news soon.

If you come to Gen Con, watch out for the law.

Hello to all the friends and customers of NameTag. We’ve been a member of the NameTag Experience for a few years now, as they have been a generous sponsor of us for that time. But I thought it would be a good time to reintroduce you to who we are and what we do.

Gamers For Humanity is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit, incorporated in the State of Iowa. We are dedicated to helping improve the world around us through:

• increasing the participation of gamers (players of games) in charitable activities across the nation by providing opportunities for enjoyable and meaningful volunteer work.
• providing human services to people and communities in need.
• encouraging the enjoyment of life for people of all ages through the playing of games.

We work to accomplish these goals by doing the work of organizing volunteer opportunities and opportunities for giving, and by collecting donated funds and items to be distributed to people in need. In particular, we have a history of working with Habitat for Humanity, The Ronald McDonald House, and recovery efforts in New Orleans and other disaster-affected communities.

Our biggest fundraiser of the year is the Gen Con Game Convention, every August in Indianapolis (which is where our relationship with NameTag began–badge ribbons are a very effective way of drawing attention among a crowd of 25,000+ attendees). Gen Con is approaching in a matter of weeks, in fact, so you can bet that we’ll have a lot more to share here afterwards. We’ve got a lot planned for the convention, and for the upcoming year as well.

Check out our website and feel free to contact us if you have any questions, or would like to get involved (we accept gamers and non-gamers alike, although in reality most people find that they are gamers at heart

Tom Javoroski
President, Gamers for Humanity

Gamers For Humanity has been busy, so I’ve got a report to give and a project to announce.

Over the holiday season, we had a very successful Holiday Game Drive in Iowa. From November into December, we collected over $1000 worth of games and toys for the kids and families at the Iowa City Ronald McDonald House, as well as over 300 pounds of food for the Johnson County Crisis Center (an organization that provides a wide range of services for the poor and troubled of the area).

It was a remarkable experience to see the generosity of people. We used drop boxes for this event, which was new for us. People are usually happy to donate when there’s a person standing there, but drop boxes? Well, they worked, people were generous, and the results were great.

Secondly, we have coming up next month our biggest annual project, a week-long work trip to New Orleans, rebuilding houses for people affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita (back in 05…yep, plenty of people are still homeless over 3 years later).

Last year we brought 9 people down for the week. This year…we have TWENTY people volunteering. We are also bringing down over 11,000 pre-packaged meals, donated by Kids Against Hunger’s Iowa chapter, to be distributed to food banks in the New Orleans area. This is working up to be a great week, and I’ll post pictures and details when we’re done, so remember to check back here, or check our website at www.gamersforhumanity.org.

I have been seriously remiss in posting this update, and I apologize to everyone at Nametag, Inc. In my defense, we have just completed a very busy Holiday Game Drive, collecting hundreds of pounds of food and over $1000 worth of games and toys for Iowa City charities. So…we’ve been busy.

In August, Gamers For Humanity attended the Gen Con game convention in Indianapolis, IN–four days of games, gaming, and good people. We, however, spent a fifth day working with Habitat For Humanity, and the other four days fundraising at our booth in the Exhibitor’s Hall. We organized our first Game Drive there, collecting games and toys for the Indianapolis Ronald McDonald House, and the Wheeler Mission Ministry of Indianapolis. It was a big success, enough to make us decide to hold this recently finished drive for the holiday season.

We also collected enough donations at the convention to pay for our federal 501(c)3 application, so that status is now pending.

Nametag, Inc was gracious enough to provide us with some excellent-looking badge ribbons for the convention, and I know for a fact that those ribbons really helped us establish our presence to the gaming community in our first year of existence. Gamers love badge ribbons, and our shiny blue ribbons were coveted by a lot of people. Luckily, we had a lot to go around

We were so busy at the booth that we don’t have a lot of pictures ourselves, but here are a few. I’m waiting for more pictures to come in, and I’ll post them when they arrive.

Hardhats and Gamers!

Collections from the Game Drive:

Working with Habitat For Humanity

We were also able to use some of the leftover ribbons at a non-profit conference in October, to help spread the word about our mission. So the folks at Nametag have helped us in more ways than one.

I hope the rest of you are finding success in your missions as well. Visit us at our website, www.gamersforhumanity.org, and check back here as well for more updates on our projects.

Tom J
Gamers For Humanity