>Extra-Life: Thank You
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At the moment of writing this post, that’s how much our community has contributed to Children’s Miracle Network hospitals all over the world.
It all started for me on August 31st when I received an email regarding the event. I discussed it briefly with Dan, Scott, Brandon, and John – all said yes, without hesitation. As I discussed it with more and more people, I never was told “no.”
We decided to actively recruit, and begged you guys to respond. Boy did you ever. Roughly 50 more participants than I was expecting, in all honesty. At one point early in recruitment, I had offered $5 for the first 10 team members to join. Let me tell you, that didn’t take very long at all.
Many of you took it up as your personal mission to raise every penny that you could. You asked your parents, your family members, your friends, your co-workers, your followers on twitter, and many of you asked your subscribers. Several of you made emotional appeals that hit me hard, as I watched your “ah ha!” moment on camera. One that really got me good was Nick aka BlackLightAttack: (Youtube / Twitter)
I choked up a bit watching this video for the first time. I knew exactly how Nick felt. 5 years ago, I was in a very similar situation – but I didn’t have the perspective, nor the torch to carry. It was inspirational. I sent it off to Jeromy Adams, Director and Founder of Extra-Life and in short order received this response:
Bob,
Thank you for sharing Nick’s video. His video had a very profound impact on me.
You see prior to starting Extra Life I felt much like Nick did. It wasn’t until I started living to help others, that I found my true self.I can not tell you how much your team’s participation means to our entire team. For us watching you guys work for the kids we serve is a lot like watching your favorite sports team, and they just keep winning bigger and bigger.
But this. You guys. Nick’s videos. Yours. That’s the good stuff.
While we are excited to HOPEFULLY announce an enormous total for Extra Life this year, my personal measure of success is connecting with people like you and your team. Watching passionate people do amazing things, for kids they may never meet. Watching Nick’s epiphany on Youtube. Hearing from young people who are so on fire to help others that they don’t want it to stop.
Bob, you guys are rock stars to me.
Thank you for everything you are doing, and that you will do moving forward. If I can be of any assistance please do not hesitate to call, email, or text me anytime day or night.
To be clear it isn’t the dollars you are raising that are inspiring me, but the passion with which you doing it.
Here’s to passionate people changing the world. Here’s to you.
Jeromy (Doc)
Jeromy Adams
Founder/Director
Extra Life
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals
I had shared this privately with Nick, and with the KBMOD contributors, but I think it’s appropriate to share it with all of you.
A few days before the 15th, Kevin (iMovingTarget/zXNoRegretzzXz) (Youtube/Twitter), Andrew (TheAINDREW) (Youtube/Twitter), Michael (MunchGamer) (Youtube/Twitter), and Jamie (Utorak007) (Youtube/Twitter) kicked off their live stream with a bang. At any given time, they had around 2,000 to 4,000 people watching, and raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 – I lost track. Kevin finished with a mind blowing $11,174 – good enough for second overall, and held first place for a long time. Andrew made it in to the top 10 with an amazing $3,541.
I’m sure as a result, many of you were even more excited for the 15th, just as I was. Personally I didn’t expect a lot of donations, or even much time on the main stream at all (which didn’t work out, after Borderlands broke for Dan) – All I could hope for was that both of our main streams, from the KBMOD channel and John, would be successful. They were, big time.
Dan, Brandon, and I started late evening on Friday. Equipped with my Red Bull, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 branded Mountain Dew Game Fuel, and my “Gunnars” (Home Depot safety glasses), I started with my game of choice, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and later moved on to League of Legends with a few friends. At the ripe old age of 28, with 3 kids, I fell asleep in my chair like an old man around 8am Saturday morning roughly when Nick and Mike joined in. I was on and off of the PC throughout the day, tending to my kids – but every time I checked in there were plenty of people in our public ventrillo server, and plenty of people watching the live streams. Donations were pouring in and we were getting to interact with guys that we wouldn’t necessarily have been able to before – it was a true community building event.
What turned out to be one of the highlights for me, was the Amnesia playthrough by Mike. At one point or another, Mike had issued a challenge that if he reached $500, he would do a play through of Amnesia in the dark. Leave it to me to push him over the edge. Starting late evening, Mike took over the kbmod channel and played it in his pitch-black room. Terror, hilarity, and trolling ensued.
I completed my 24 hours around 4am on Sunday – I would have liked to have played it straight, but life circumstances wouldn’t cooperate. I understand that a few of you stayed in our streams, and in our vent server for 24 hours as well to cheer us on, or to play along side of us.
A few special thanks that I’d like to briefly shout out:
Justin Wong, aka FuzzyOtterBalls (Twitch/Youtube/Twitter) for helping us out with all things twitch.tv related.
NetSkyUK (Website/Twitter) for providing the promod server for John
GSNgaming (Website/Twitter) for providing their BFBC2 New York Rush server, admins, and plenty of players for the event (as well as a generous donation to me)
From the moment we announced that we would participate in the Extra Life event, your support was amazing. From donation, to participation, to “marketing”, to urging us on and playing with us – you guys did everything that you could to help, and we here at KBMOD want to thank each and every one of your for your effort. Children everywhere benefit from your commitment and dedication.
Who’s in for next year?
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