Gamers’ Outreach – Silent Auction

Bringing Games to the Community

Gamers’ Outreach is a local effort to bring board games to hospitals, schools, and other places they can help make a difference in peoples’ lives. We’ll be raising money through a Silent Auction at Whose Turn to help them with their efforts. (for full details/history see the bottom section of the page)

Cape Fear Games is the first to donate items to the effort and we think you’ll be excited to hear about these items.  Get your bidding pens ready!

Cape Fear Games has donated:

  • Arboretum Deluxe
  • Pandemic 10th Anniversary (w/ painted figures)
  • Zombies!!! Ultimate Collector’s Edition
Wow!!

In light of CFG’s generosity, we hope that you might offer additional help make this auction a success!  If you know of a company/vendor/restaurant/event that might donate something awesome for the silent auction, please contact us (or have them do so!)

Not sure what makes a good Silent Auction item?  Start by considering what you would enter a bid on!

Some options to get you started:

  • Restaurant Gift Certificates
  • Event/Entertainment Tickets
  • Out of Print Board Games

Experiences! (Maybe you’re a podcaster and could have someone on as a guest.  Maybe you’re a game designer and could name a game piece/location/whatever after the winner)

Rules for the Silent Auction will be available in this year’s program and at the event!

History

Rob Reinhardt, Lead Organizer of Whose Turn

I’ve always enjoyed spreading the love of gaming and gifting games to others when I can.  It’s long been a goal of mine to have events like Whose Turn somehow benefit the community by donating games to hospitals, schools, and libraries. My original thought was that, eventually, the events would generate a bit of extra revenue that could be spent toward such endeavors. As it happens, however, Whose Turn has historically broken even each year.

Tired of waiting for option A to materialize, I started to explore other options. It was then, that I was very fortunate to meet Maegan Mohr. Maegan and some friends have already been making efforts to bring and teach games at Ronald McDonald House (RMH) and are interested in expanding that effort. It seemed only natural that we devise a plan where the over 300 attendees of Whose Turn could help.

To that end, we are putting plans in motion to offer a Silent Auction at Whose Turn to benefit Gamers’ Outreach and put more games at RMH and other places in need in the Triangle. Here is what Maegan has to say:

 

What Is Gamers’ Outreach?

from Maegan Mohr

Gamers’ Outreach is a new group of people using our passion for gaming to make a difference. As gamers, we know how much gaming has brought on a sense of achievement, camaraderie, and excitement to our lives. Our mission is to find groups who could also benefit from all games have to offer and to help them get as much out of gaming as we do. We plan to do this by packaging games specific to the recipient and hosting game nights and teaching sessions. We hope to get to the point where games can be donated to specific groups who can then keep playing on their own. We are already reaching out to local groups like the Ronald McDonald House, schools, and hospitals, but would like to expand to low income after school programs, social skills groups, prisons, and more with the right assistance.

Donations of games may be used directly with our groups or exchanged to a game more specifically targeted for one of our groups. Donations of money will be used to purchase games strategically selected for our groups and/or other ways specific to the mission (i.e. lacquers that allow games to be sterilized for vulnerable gamers, like those currently inpatient at the hospital). Donation of time and ideas are always welcome- this is a tiny passion project, but has generated a lot of excitement among gamers who’d also like to make an impact.”

What are the ways to help with this initiative?
  1. Donate games (see next question)
  2. Donate items for the Silent Auction (items do not have to be game or even gaming related; see below)
  3. Participate in the Silent Auction (i.e. bid on items)
  4. Donate money (information to be provided later)
  5. Donate time (contact Maegan Mohr for details)
Do donations have to be gaming related?

Absolutely not. Especially for the Silent Auction, items simply need to be highly desirable. Gamers love to eat, so restaurant gift certificates are a great example. See the post above for more ideas.

What are good games to donate?

The answer depends on your goal. If you’d like to donate games that can be directly used in the initiative (i.e. go straight to hospitals, libraries, and schools) think simple, easy and quick to learn, and family/kid friendly.  Games like: Dixit, Imaginiff, Sorry Sliders, Dr. Eureka, Spot It, Survive! Escape from Atlantis, Forbidden Island, Castle Panic, Bugs in the Kitchen, Dragonwood, Codenames, Exploding Kittens, King of Tokyo, Blokus, Qwirkle, Tsuro and Apples to Apples.

If you’d like to donate a game that can be sold/auctioned to raise money, then it should be a desirable game that has a chance to raise funds.  If your game didn’t sell at the yard sale, for example, we may not have any more luck selling it.

I have several games I'd like to donate. What should I do?

Contact us to work out the details.  Some general guidelines are these:

  1. Items for the Silent Auction need to be highly desirable. This might mean one very desirable game, or a bundle of nice games. We don’t want to have 50+ items up for auction
  2. If you have a lot of games you’d like to donate, we might consider making a Silent Auction bundle of several of them.
  3. If you’d just like the proceeds from the sale of several games to go to the initiative, it’s probably most helpful for you to sell them yourself and then donate some or all of the proceeds.

Let us know what you are considering donating and we can offer suggestions.

What Will the Money Be Used For?

100% of the funds raised (minus credit card processing fees where applicable) through the Silent Auction will go to Gamers’ Outreach. The funds will be used to:

  • Purchase appropriate games for the intended environments
  • Purchase supplies to make the games safe and durable for the intended environments
  • Cover any additional costs involved in getting games to those in need. (i.e. shipping, packaging, etc. when necessary)