Extra Life

We have the numbers final in!  Extra Life is an even bigger success than we imagined!  The Grand Total is $115,000.

$115,000 that is going to make a difference in the lives of thousands of families.  $115,000 that is going to help cure children of pediatric cancer.

Once again, we are amazed and humbled by the hard work and generosity you all put into this event!  Thank you!

Thank you to our sponsors:

Playswitch.com

TrittonTechnologies.com

SumoLounge.com

Your prizes will be in the mail soon!  Everyone who raised $192 will be recieving an Extra Life T-shirt.  The first five who reached $1000 will be receiving a Tritton Headset.  Everyone who reached $2000 will be receiving a Sumo Omni.  You will be notified if you qualify!

Here’s looking forward to next year!

Make sure you’ve gotten all of your donations in.  Tomorrow is the last day for Extra Life donations.  By now, all donations should have made their way to the hospital.  Tomorrow, Doc is going to add up the amounts for the final count.  This is your final chance to make sure you score the Extra Life t-shirt or try to snag one of the sponsored prizes.  Thanks again to everyone.  I’m excited to see what we’ll accomplish next year!

Get lots of good sleep tonight.  Tomorrow morning the marathon starts!

EXTRA LIFE INSTRUCTIONS:
Here’s what we’re asking you to do.

1. Check in on the Extra Life forums to let everyone know you’re present and accounted for at 8:45 a.m. in your local timezone.
2. Begin the marathon at exactly 9:00 a.m. IN YOUR LOCAL TIME ZONE.
3. Take a break every hour for a few minutes.
4. Eat well throughout the marathon, and drink lots of fluids.
5. If you simply can’t continue the marathon for any reason, IT IS OKAY.  Just walk away and finish the time later when you can.
6. At 9:00 a.m. IN YOUR LOCAL TIMEZONE log on to the Extra Life forums to find out the total, and celebrate with us in the forums.

I want to remind everyone to keep up the rally for this weekend’s makeup day.  I just checked in with Doc and Extra Life has made some significant progress past the last count of $106K.  So keep the donations up.  Send out your last rounds of emails to people on your list who haven’t donated.  Let them know that we’ve got a makeup day to cover and we’re still going strong to try to push as far past $106K as we can.

Remember it’s not too late if you’ve just heard about Extra Life.  You’ve still got time to make a difference and you’ve still got time to earn an Extra Life t-shirt.  Stay tuned for tomorrow where I’ll be bringing up some of Doc’s tips on how to stay awake for the 24 hour marathon.

Even if you just found Extra Life today, you can *still* make a difference and participate.  This Saturday, October 25th, is the “rain date” for everyone who had conflicts with last Saturday.  We have lots of gamers participating on this makeup date.  So, jump on in.  Extra Life raised a large chunk of the $106k in the last few days because everyone rallied together as the big day got closer.  So, I’d love to see yet another rally for this Saturday.

If you’re going to be playing this Saturday, we’ve got forum posts where people are gathering for the makeup day.  Go join in with them, send out your last donation requests, and get ready to rally for the cause.  Remember, anyone that raises at least $192 will get an Extra Life t-shirt.  You still have time.  Until the last penny is counted (on Oct. 28th), you’ve got time to raise a few more dollars for the cause and earn your t-shirt.

From Doc: I received this letter from a very dear friend of mine today, and I wanted to share it with you guys. Jo Ellen Enmon is Tori’s mom. Tori lost her battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on January 20th, and she is the inspiration for Extra Life.

Dear Doc,

I don’t know the words exactly to express to you what my heart wants to say. Whenever I think back on the days that Victoria spent in the hospital ~ I always smile. I smile because you were such a part of her life as well as others who loved her from afar. The many games that would arrive for Victoria - were total amazing! These helped her get through some rough times and gave her a great deal of pleasure and fun!

The last Christmas gift that she received was from Sarcastic Gamer and what a gift it was! It was such a total surprise to Victoria and such a thoughtful gift. Being able to sit in the hospital bed and have the games right at her fingertips, as well as the screen, was awesome. She loved everything about it! She was very humbled to learn that so many people had a part in sending games to her.

Not once during Victoria’s treatment did she expect any special treatment or things…. She was humbled each and every time that something was given to her and every time that her name and story was used for “advertisement”. Today the news of what the Extra Life of the Sarcastic Gamer Community has done to raise awareness for Childhood Cancer is beyond comprehension. I know without a doubt that our Angel Victoria is cheering in heaven. To think that by telling her story, a cure could be found for cancer, was one of her greatest dreams. With the money raised this weekend, that dream could become a reality.

To watch someone so young, go through so many trials in their lifetime has been very difficult as a mom. As parents we are suppose to protect our children yet, I could not protect Victoria from this cancer that consumed her body and ultimately her life. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to know that Victoria, while she was here on Earth, was surrounded by family and friends who cared so deeply for her.

Doc, you know that you were and still are a special friend to Victoria and will always be a member of the Enmon Family! To your friends from Sarcastic Gamer~ and Extra Life, I sincerely send my love and thanks to such wonderful people who cared so deeply for someone that they never got to meet. To your wife Lesley, I send my love. I know without a doubt that she is a wonderful loving wife and mother! I thank her for allowing you to spend time raising these monies for Victoria and the other children who are facing cancer.

Thank you all so much!

All my love,
Jo Ellen Enmon

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths that we take
but by the number of moments that take our breath away.”

Donations continue to pour into Extra Life, but as of 1:00pm, the total collected has surpassed $106,000.

Lots of gamers are taking part in the “Rain Day” this Saturday, and the pledge pages will remain open until Tuesday, October 28th.

If you found out about Extra Life too late to participate, the good news is you actually didn’t!  You can still join the fight against pediatric cancer today by creating your own fundraising page and getting your sponsors for THIS Saturday, OR by making a donation to support your favorite team.

Please don’t miss out on this chance to be a part of this huge first year.

I took a little nap and woke up to discover we broke through the 100k mark.

Told ya so.  Congrats everyone.

$98,591

That’s not a misprint.

Thanks to the efforts of thousands of players and sponsors, the first annual Extra Life marathon has so far generated $98,591 to fight pediatric cancer for the world-renowned Texas Children’s Cancer Center.

I am so exhausted I can’t think of much to say right now. That 24-hour marathon was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

There were so many amazing people and organizations that did so much to help Extra Life, that thanking them all individually would certainly result in my feeble brain leaving someone off the list.

With that said, my sincerest gratitude to all involved.

Thank you.

Thank you for caring about the kids, and for putting so much of yourselves into this effort. You have surpassed my wildest dreams for this event.

Thank you to every single website that helped us promote the cause.

Thank you to our sponsors, Playswitch.com, TrittonTechnologies.com, and SumoLounge.com for stepping forward to help this unproven event become an undeniable charitable force in both the gaming and charity worlds.

Thank you to the companies that gave so generously to the cause.

But most of all, to each and every gamer that participated in Extra Life…

THANK. YOU.

You worked so hard for every dollar that you raised. You left no stone unturned in the search for sponsors. You played the marathon without a single complaint. You put up with the chaos and the exhaustion, and the emails and the posts prodding you to try harder.

Whether you raised $2000 or $2. You should be proud of what you’ve accomplished here today.

You are truly the heroes we asked you to be.

I will never forget this day.

Sarcastic Gamer Community Members.

Just… wow. It started with you guys and gals. You helped us round up some of the loudest voices in gaming to support this cause. You gave your time, your money, and your unwavering support to Extra Life. To attempt to express my gratitude to you in a mere blog post would be futile.

You’ve reinforced something that I have long suspected to be true, (with deepest respect to every community involved in Extra Life…)

You might not be the biggest gaming community in the world, but in my humble opinion you are the best.

To the SG team. Thanks for getting behind this so much that you were ahead of it. You all did amazing things to promote Extra Life. Lono and Dave, thanks for supporting this from the word “go”. You are my brothers.

Finally, Lesley. You are the unsung hero in all of this. Thank you for taking care of so many details, coordinating with the other sites, handling the press releases, and all of the minute details. You are the most incredible woman, mother, and friend a man could ask for. I love you. Thank you sweetheart. For everything.

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Many of you might remember that I told you in emails and in posts here that we were “within striking distance” of a milestone total. I think you can see now what milestone I spoke of. We are CLOSE to a six figure check presentation for Texas Children’s Cancer Center.

Take heart. I have ZERO doubt that we will get there. There are still donations that have yet to be counted, and still company-matches that may not make it in for some time. In addition, there are still many people who were unable to participate today, who will be doing their marathon NEXT Saturday.

Your donation pages are still active, and will be active until Tuesday, October 28th. This means that for those of you who want to snag the official T-shirt for Extra Life that TxCCC is sending to everyone who raised $192, you still have about 9 days to get there.

$98,591 isn’t our grand total…. It’s just where we are RIGHT NOW.

We expect to be able to announce that grand total at the end of the month, once all of the dust settles.

If you are just now finding out about Extra Life, please consider endorsing our efforts with your own donation, or sign up and play the rain date.

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I have already received numerous inquiries about whether Extra Life will be an annual event.

The short answer is YES!

It will be some time before we can make any specific announcements to that end, but please know that as soon as details have been decided, we will give you heads up so that you can plan to participate.

That’s all I have for now. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but right now the only thing I can think of is the cool side of a pillow.

I’m tired y’all.

In loving memory of Victoria Enmon.

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Comments are open! Let’s celebrate an incredible day for kids, their families, and gamers everywhere.