Child’s Play Charity, Twitter, and You
So today I did a very silly thing: I set myself up to donate $500 to Child’s Play.
Child’s Play Charity started in 2003 (wow, has it been that long?) when the Gentlemens of Penny Arcade, The Gabe and The Tycho, decided to use the collected power of their readership, 4.5m strong at the time (likely stronger now), and funnel it at giving toys to sick kids. It has since spiraled out of control into a million-dollar-plus charity ($1.4m last year, already over $1m this year) giving money and toys to hospitals worldwide.
Note how I said “money and toys.” At PAX this year, a story was shared of a hospital in Egypt who asked — asked, because they did not want to be dishonest about where the funds were going — to buy paint for the walls. Paint. So the children aren’t surrounded by drab grey cement walls. My cold black heart grew three sizes that day.
The only problem I see with Child’s Play is that, as big as it is, I want it to be bigger.
First I tweeted that I would donate one dollar for every RT about Child’s Play (I had to not-count some because they didn’t include the Child’s Play name or URL, which is more important). Then The Gabe went and retweeted, and it became only a matter of time.
My honest hope is that this continues being RT’d. I don’t need my name attached to it anymore, because I’ve hit 500 and there’s no need for me to keep track of the RTs. I just want people to go and give what they can, and encourage others to do the same. And I want to get more people involved.
I’m sure there are haters out there, suspecting I did it for the glory. Go ahead and think that. I really don’t care. Nothing I argue will change your perspective. But at the end of the day, five hundred dollars are going from my pocket to Child’s Play, and I get to feel really good about that.
