Despite all odds, this year's Child's Play charity has once again broken the previous year's record, standing at $1,780,870 in cash and donations. The first of a special two-part PA TV has gone up to mark the occasion, which addresses the motivations behind the charity's creation. It also tells and shows some of where that money goes, by way of an interview with a hospital employee.
The record-breaking success comes during a year that we really wouldn't have expected it to. With the economy reeling and unemployment rates rising, donations logically should have gone down, not up. Even more impressively, this year-over-year increase of about 350,000 is just as strong as the increases we've seen in previous years, meaning tightening wallets haven't slowed down the charitable resolve of gamers.
In early December, Jerry Holkins (a.k.a. Tycho) wrote about the goal: "This year, more than other years, it's crucial that we obliterate last year's total - a sum which taunts us from its lofty perch, crowing at $1,434,377. This amount is our enemy; an index of our old selves, without the benefit of a year's spiritual growth. This year, when conventional wisdom expects less charity, let us deny that thesis and its cynical comforts. Let us, instead, be better than we have ever been before." The gaming community responded, so take a moment to feel good about yourselves.
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