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!
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 totally 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.”
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.
Jim Sterling is about to begin what COULD be a 24-hour SingStarAThon in support of Extra Life, to be streamed live! Hit the jump and prepare to be amazed (Begins 11am Central US).
Having seen the rest of the content that went up on the site yesterday, I felt a bit awkward. There were all the staff pouring their hearts out, while I just made a video about how I prepared for the 24 hours. Oh well, hopefully it will provide a bit of light, if boring, fun.
Notable Note with high Notoriety: Sorry for the squashed video width, I’m not really sure what happened.
Oh yeah (1), and my room’s a mess. I’m doing some sorting.
Oh yeah (2), my room isn’t yellow, it’s just the light I had on.
I can’t believe it has been 2 months since Doc first told us about Extra Life. PAX seemed like it was yesterday… and tomorrow is the day of ” trip to McDonald’s for breakfast, Call of Duty 4, 4-2 liter bottles of Coke, Gears of War, 1 Large pizza, Dead Space, a sub (hero) delivery, Civ. Revolution, a few pieces of cake, Wipeout HD, 10 bucks to bribe my roommate to run out to pick up some Dunkin’ Donuts, and the glory of finishing Bionic Commando 17 years after I played the first one” type of 24 hour day.
Cancer sucks, and so does staying up for 24 hours. But finding an excuse to eat, and game for 24 hours … count me in.
Find out why this could be the fattest 24 hours of my life… after the break!
This time last year, I was living out of an Extended Stay America (a hotel chain) while trying to finish my college education. For the first month and a half of the semester, I commuted from my house in Louisville to the University of Kentucky in Lexington (about an hour drive for you non-Kentuckians). However, after totaling my car on the highway, I was forced to find temporary housing in Lexington until graduation in December. It was during this time that I first stumbled upon a little site called Sarcastic Gamer. I was hooked after listening to one podcast. I began to visit the site hourly, consuming all the content that Doc, Dave, Lono and the rest of the crew managed to publish (favorite article: Volkov’s Bacon Salt trials).
As I visited the site with more frequency, I found myself becoming more interested in videogame journalism. I have been a core gamer since birth, but I always thought I would end up being a sports writer. The introduction of the SG community blogs provided an opening. I took the opportunity and ran with it. The rest is history. Now, instead of simply consuming content, I am an active contributor for this fine community of gamers. I thought writing for this blog was the best thing Doc could ever provide.
We all want to do our best for the Extra Life cause, and those of us who are playing for donations are pretty stoked for the marathon waiting for us tomorrow. That said, 24 hours is a very long time to be doing one thing, and while we appreciate your tenacity, we don’t want anyone suffering from any health issues resulting from this cause.
So after the break, you’re going to find a list of tips, tricks, and general advice to help you power through the 24 hour gaming session and feel no worse for wear at the end of it.
I suppose I’m one of the lucky ones, you could say. I can say that I’ve never personally known anybody who has suffered from cancer. It’s hardly bragworthy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know anybody who has been through the agony that cancer can cause, and not just for those suffering from it. On a hugely personal level, my girlfriend Stephanie has been through it in a huge way, and it’s to her and to her mother I’m dedicating my efforts.
Dear Doc,
