Extra Life 2013

Image from GameEnthus.com

A lot of you know me as Scarfinger. Loud mouthed podcaster with a penchant for colorful language. Today I am Michael Corbin. I am a father of a beautiful little girl named Joyce. In 2008 I didn't know if that would happen. After trying and failing a few times I thought I would never be a father. My daughter was born 2 months early in February and honestly I didn't know if she would make it. It took a lot of work from a lot of people to get her here safely and to keep her here. That was the work of the people at Riverside Hospital and the folks at The Children's Hospital of the King’s Daughters (CHKD). Because of their help I now have a really amazing 5 year old that I and proud to say that I am the father of.

Unborn baby Hailey has a heart defect. A defect that is one of the causes for blue baby syndrome. She will require multiple open heart surgeries starting the moment of her birth and likely for the first few years of her life. Right now her family is just hoping she will have a normal life. Plans are already under way for the folks at CHKD to do what they can to give her a shot at that life.

Why am I telling you this? Good question. Tomorrow (from the day I’m writing this) a lot of good people form the gaming community will be taking part in the Extra Live gaming marathon where they will all be playing games for 25 hours to raise money for childrens hospitals in the US and Canada.They will need your help. Someone like my Joyce needs your help. Someone like Hailey needs your help. A parent like me needs your help. Donate what you can. Any amount can go a long way and there is a few different ways you can do that:

• Sherry Corbin is taking donations for CHKD, the same folks that helped our child and will help baby Hailey. Her goal is small but the cause means a lot. Every bit helps. http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=50978
• The Game Enthus team have already done their marathon a few weeks ago but donations can still be made by choosing any one of the participants on the page. At the time of writing this they are less that $50 away from their $6,500 team goal. http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=10434
• If you’d rather make a donation to somewhere closer to where you are you can find a place through the website donation page. https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donate.start&eventID=512&destination=E
• If you have no money to donate you can also donate some time. These folks are dedicating a day of their lives for the marathon. You and spread the word, offer encouragement, and participate by playing along and/or enjoying the many live streams available on the internet.

Do what you can. No amount of money or time is too great or too small. In addition to today donations can be made at any time. You will never be too late to support this great cause. Thank you in advance for whatever you can do.