Why is it only hospitals for children on the West coast? Do they want to keep it close to home or something? I live in the poorest major city in the country, why don’t you send those consoles over here… I’ll make sure they get properly distributed :)
Frankly, the only charity I ever see doing anything is the Salvation army. I use to work in the heart of the ghetto and the only people out giving people meals was the Salvation Army. In my entire life I’ve never met anyone who benefited from a charity. Not to say that people don’t benefit, but I only give my money to places where I can see it going to do some good. Giving games and what not to sick kids in California is nice. Why don’t you California people send some stuff to our hospitals over here? It’s bad enough E3 is in L.A. every year. I could put a kid on the kidney machine for six months with the money I’d save if it was within driving distance.
Child’s Play is a gamer-oriented charity, so it’s understandable that they’d give gamer-oriented stuff rather than just going money donations. And as for the choice between giving games to poor kids or sick kids…well, nobody ever saw being bored out of your mind as a problem except for people in a hospital. Ultimately it’s still a charity. If people want to give dollars in other directions rather than games to hospitalized children, then there are plenty of ways to do so (Kevin’s observation notwithstanding).
We don’t even know if the sick kids actually keep the stuff. If I had to guess I’d say that the hospital retains ownership of all the equipment and gets as much use out of it as possible over the next two to five years. But I’m sure Chet will take a potshot at the fact that I’m just guessing rather than admit that all of his Scroogisms are guesses as well. We don’t know all these details, but that doesn’t give us a license to bitch any more than it gives us a license to praise.
Best guess: they’re doing the logistics work themselves and would rather put the money towards more gear than spend it on cross-country shipping.
I don’t believe anyone has actually said that, including the Child’s Play people. Here’s what I know about how Child’s Play operates from my research and contact with the people involved during the making of the X-Play segment.
The money and items collected by Child’s Play go to the Childrens’ Hospitals, who then typically place the game systems and games in common rooms or permanent inpatient rooms in the hospitals. These are available to kids in the hospital on a long term basis as well as outpatients. Last year there were enough GBAs to make one available to every patient who wanted to play with one. Enough was leftover to outfit the Ronald McDonald House across the street (where many patients’ families stay during long-term treatment due to not having enough money to pay for both treatment and hotel rooms) with all three consoles and a fleet of GBAs. Additionally, they were able to leave gift bags of various toy types for each long-term patient and provide for a toy or gift on most patients’ birthdays.
Overall, the donations go toward outfitting the hospitals with, as I understand it, what amounts to a “media library” that patients can access to pass the time in the hospital. Games have been found by the staff to be very effective because children are so absorbed by them. Escapism and distraction are important when you’re dealing with children who are going through frightening and sometimes painful illnesses and treatments. Last year it was only Seattle’s CH, but this year there are five. Seattle, Oakland, San Diego, Washington DC, and somewhere in Texas (Dallas, I think).
But again, since this is all obviously false, take the 5 minutes out of your response and point me to the info correcting me.
Chet
Well, it’s not a link, but the above is true from what I have seen firsthand. They’re not handing out Gamecubes to every kid who has their appendix removed. These are in-hospital items designed to make children’s stays in an intimidating and scary environment more tolerable. Yeah, I guess one can always pull out the “Y DONT U GIV HOMLESS KIDZ SUM FÜD?” thing, but what they do is valuable. Hospitals are hardly budgeted for entertainment items, and CH in particular runs a tight ship. Considering the nature of the CH’s focus and patients, providing ample play items, both electronic and non, seems like a worthwhile cause. I don’t think anyone on this forum is a stranger to the escapist and therapeutic quality of a good game, and to a kid stuck in a cancer ward awaiting his next chemotherapy session, a rousing game of Mario Party with a few other patients might do a world of psychological good.
This is only the second year. Looking at the map on their web page, I see two hospitals in CA, one in OR, one in TX, and one somewhere around DC-ish. Last year, yes, they were trying to keep it close to home, because they stored all the stuff in one of their friends garages and drove it to the hospital themselves (with volunteers and whatnot of course). I’d say they’re making pretty good progress for two guys who write a webcomic to be coordinating all this as it is.
Best guess: they’re doing the logistics work themselves and would rather put the money towards more gear than spend it on cross-country shipping.[/quote]
Negative. This year the items are shipped directly to the hospitals from Amazon.com, so shipping is not a concern. As I understand it, a hospital simply has to contact CP to get involved. They have five this year, only three of which are on the West Coast. The map is right here, folks.
Thanks for the answer MattKeil, that is why I was asking. Makes sense to handle it that way.
I kept getting people like silverlight who think if you say charity, it isn’t fair to ask a question. And that if the word charity is involved, you can just say that is all goes to the sickest worstest pastient even if you have no idea - AND IT MUST BE THAT WAY BECAUSE THAT IS THE WAY SILVERLIGHT IMAGINES IT!!!
Sometimes the stupidity around here surprises me, and sometimes the knowledge and reach around here surprises me. This thread shows both.
I thought that the CP stuff was given to hospitals, who then loan the games out to children who are patients. That way, when someone dies, they can just hand it off to the next child.
If the stuff is just being handed out to everyone who happens to be a pre-pubescent patient for keeps, I completely agree with Chet. But the next time -I’m- in the hospital, let there be a GBA for -me- to use. Assuming there isn’t a line of cancerous kids waiting to use one, anyway.
I’m 99% sure that most of the gear is going to the hospital itself, not the kids. I don’t see how that could be anything but a good thing. Sick kids certainly would like to be distracted from their sad lot.
Assuming that Child’s Play is somehow a negative thing, simply by dearth of an optimal solution, is a zero-sum fallacy. If Child’s Play makes some sick kids happier, what’s the harm?
Oh right, it doesn’t cure cancer. Don’t let a sick kid play Zelda–you’re only forstalling the end of this horrible disease.
Common rooms with outpatients? A given that a hospital is no library, and probably doesn’t have any sort of anti-theft system. I can only imagine that teenagers hanging out in the common room are lifting the games. Except for the Acclaim titles… They should of contacted the auctioneer, they could of gotten half a million titles…
I can only guess that many an orderly will have a fine Christmas with their new hot Xbox and selection of titles. While the kids in the hospital are relegated to the Colecovision.
I volunteer in a Child ward at the hospital near my university, and the play room they have means a hell of a lot to the kids, who need a whole slew of distractions. And it has a lot to do with the variety. The fact that they can go in, play Gamecube or PS2, or watch movies, or play on the computer for a few hours means a lot. They’re potentially stuck there for a long time. Imagine being a really young kid and being stuck with the same GBA game for the whole stay.
Also, the play room means one system can potentially benefit every patient in the ward, whereas donating to the disadvantaged child only helps one.
Plus, even if they already own game systems (which a lot of the kids don’t; remember, they’re pretty young, and a lot of parents are just “discovering” the pros of video games through their experience at the hospital), it’s hard to lug the thing into a room (especially since the little TV sets that come with beds don’t have the proper hookups).
EDIT: Ok, MattKeil pretty much said what I had to say, but a bunch of posts sooner. Yay me.
Shrug. I’ve seen several game machines in homes of people on welfare over the years. You get too “disadvantaged” and you get homes where the games will get stolen, or sold for crack.
No, I’m not exaggerating. Child’s Play is a good, unique charity that serves a useful purpose. No sense fucking with their program.
Don’t worry Silverlight, chet just likes making shit up and attributing it to whoever he doesn’t like that day. He’s a troll who seems to think that because he owns the server, he can try to make it into own little somethingawful. It’s kinda funny to contrast 95% of posts which are bile, and the other 5% where he’s actually insightful and/or helpful. It either shows that even morons can be alright once in a while or that chet’s really a decent guy trying too hard to pimp his internet grouch persona. Regardless, ignoring him is the best response. Like I’ll do when he posts his abusive response to this.
Most gamers here may associate themselves with Child’s Play, but from standing in line at the local Babbages, I’d associate gamers in general with Spike.
