By: Leta Lohrmeyer & Elle Love
It all started with a girl.
Extra Life, a fundraising platform, was created 10 years ago because of Victoria Enmon. Radio host and friend, Jeromy Adams or “Doc” gathered boxes of donated video games for Victoria to provide her an escape from her constant cancer treatments. Victoria received so many games that she gave them out to the other children in the hospital.
Relapsing a third time, 15-year-old Victoria died after fighting leukemia for four years. Doc wanted to do something special in her memory, so he expanded the annual hospital radio-thon fundraiser into what’s now known as Extra Life.
Currently, Extra Life unites thousands of gamers around the world to play games in support of their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. Since its inception in 2008, Extra Life has raised over $50 million for sick and injured children, according to the Extra Life website.
Now there are over 70 different “guilds,” which is a registered group of members, spreading across the United States, including one in Omaha.
The Omaha Guild members gathered at the Bellevue Community College last Saturday. Several groups surrounded large projection screens, computers and tabletop gaming surfaces. Whenever someone shouted “for the kids” it caused a whole wave of people to echo, “FOR THE KIDS!”
The Omaha Guild became official five years ago. The President of the Omaha Gamers Guild, Tony Pileggi, has actively participated in the Guild since its creation. He first gained interest
after learning about Extra Life through the entertainment company, Rooster Teeth. The company puts on 24-hour live streams that raised over $5 million in the past five years.
Pileggi explained that the Omaha Guild raises funds by having members crowdsource through social media, charging a dollar admission fee, shirt sales and different prize giveaways. On the first day of fundraising, the Guild accumulated $4,500.
“All the money will stay here in Omaha,” said Pileggi.
The funds raised at this event will be given to the Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha. This money, including the funds from past years, will aid in the hospital’s expansion project.
Omaha’s Children’s Hospital is what attracted and prompted Virginia native Siddi Felix to move to Nebraska. She was fundamental to raising enough money to create the Omaha Guild and is affectionately referred to as the Guild’s “mascot.”
Felix alone has raised $30,000 for Extra Life. She said that a lot of that money came from a few charitable people, including Scott Cawthon, the creator of Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Her ability to raise money attracted some attention. After a conversation with an Omaha Children’s Hospital representative, Felix decided to see how great this hospital actually was.
“And I was hooked,” said Felix. “I decided to fly and take a look at the hospital. And for the next two years, even while in Virginia, I raised money for the hospital. It was like a no brainer. It was easy to tell everyone ‘Hey, you want to help this hospital? They do great things for the local community.’”
Felix said it should be noted that this is the only children’s hospital in the state of Nebraska. Surrounding states also use this hospital, which creates a great need for donations to help heal those children.
Even though the fundraiser is promoted to gamers with the tagline “Play Games. Heal Kids.,” Felix says you don’t have to be a gamer to help contribute.
“You can do whatever you want,” said Felix. “You can tell your friends, co-workers, do it in any way that’s comfortable for you. But know, at the end of the day, you’re doing a good thing.”
