Hawty McBloggy Invites You to Play

Child’s Play Charity Dinner Auction is an annual event hosted by Penny Arcade, the same people who bring us PAX each year. This swanky fundraising dinner includes a silent auction with hors d’oeuvres and wine and then moves into the dining room for a formal dinner and live auction. Gabe and Tycho emcee the live auction and if you have ever had the pleasure of seeing them in person, you know it is quite an entertaining event. I had the pleasure of attending this function last year and it was an amazing experience. The highlight of course was the bidding on the voice lines in Halo 3 which Red vs. Blue ended up winning!

This event raises money for Child’s Play which is widely known as the gamer’s charity. What is Child’s Play?

Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child’s Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over two million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.

This year, we have continued expanding across the country and the globe. With over 45 partner hospitals and more arriving every month, you can be sure to find one from the map above that needs your help! You can choose to purchase requested items from their online retailer wish lists, or make a cash donation that helps out Child’s Play hospitals everywhere. Any items purchased through Amazon will be shipped directly to your hospital of choice, so please be sure to select their shipping address rather than your own.

When gamers give back, it makes a difference!

I am excited to be attending the Child’s Play 2007 Charity Dinner Auction again this year (tomorrow!). Special guest Wil Wheaton will be sitting at the head table so perhaps I will set up stalker central around there. I will take lots of pictures of interesting items up for auction (among other things) and will come back with plenty of stories as well.

Wondering how you can help? There’s a neat eBay listing by video game music label OneUp Studios who is auctioning off “a collection of albums representing the entire span of its music history. This includes 12 albums (14 discs) of music, two limited editions T-Shirts, and sheet music.” All of the precedes of this auction go directly to Child’s Play.

There is also the 8-Bit Brigade 2007 Child’s Play Fundraiser which is going on right now until December 21st. This fundraiser is neat because you donate money, 100% of which is donated to the charity, for a raffle ticket ($5 will get you one ticket and $20 gets you five) where you then have a chance to win one of several prizes. Although it’s not listed on the prize list yet, I will be donating a package of my video game cards to be given away as well. If you are going to donate anyways, you might as well try for a chance to win something, right?

You can also support Child’s Play by participating in an online video game tournament run by G4O (Gaming 4 Others). They offer tournaments in Gears of War, Halo 3, and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2. A $50 donation will get you and four of your gamer buddies a team spot in their tournament ladders. I actually have some friends that are participating in a Halo 3 tournament ran by this site and they are having a complete blast. Nothing like playing your favorite video game to support a worthy charity!

Read more about Child’s Play here.