Greetings, friends!
I’m back with another article, this time focused on the role of charity in the wider Kings of War community. As a little background, I recently ran my first two-day KoW tournament, and as part of the event we held a charity raffle where we raised over $1,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I was completely blown away by the generosity of the attendees, and how everyone rose to the occasion. Needless to say, I went home on Sunday feeling pretty good about my club, and the players in the wider Northeast KoW scene. Over a glass of bourbon later that week my friends and I were talking about the donation, and the conversation ranged out to the other events that raised money for charity. Within a few minutes we had come up with a bunch of events, both large and small, that leveraged the giving spirit of the community to help people in need.
Our very own Jake Ciarapica’s club, the Mid-Atlantic Irregulars, host regular one day events where they raise money for a different charity each time. Part of each player’s entry fee goes toward donations. Steve Forster, another Irregular, spoke about how the club chooses their causes. “So for the charities we typically rotate between Ed (Fiske), Jake and myself to determine which charities to pick. Our first one benefited a cat rescue run by one of Jake’s friends. The food bank we did last time was a group decision. The next one is for the United Adrenoleukodystrophy Foundation, which my son has.” It’s not uncommon for organizers to have a personal connection to the causes they choose. “Any time your kid is sick it makes you feel helpless as a parent. So any small way I can do something helps to give me peace of mind. The disease is super rare, so I’m honestly grateful for any small amount of notice that the condition gets. Any monetary help is just a bonus.”
Chris Fisher, owner of Your Hobby Place game store, ran an annual tournament every December to benefit Toys for Tots. It seems appropriate for gamers to buy toys for charity. The entry fee for the event was a toy valued at $15, or a $15 donation. The store covers the cost of prizes for the players. “Most players would come in with over $50 in toys,” said Chris, “which was cool. I know Rob Allison and the Nerdhammer crew did something similar recently as well.”
“2021 was the second year Nerdhammer held a Toys for Tots one day tournament,” said Rob Allison. “I stole the event idea from Chris Fisher, who had held one at the start of 3rd Edition. For every toy that was donated by a player they’d get one dice re-roll. We capped the rerolls at three. For both events everyone that participated donated three toys. There were even a few people at the shop that day who were not playing in the tournament who bought toys and games at the store and donated them. As always, the Kings of War community showed why it’s the best in tabletop gaming.”
Mark Cox and Ryan Smith, the TO’s for Lonewolf, have been raising money for various causes for years. Being the ringleader for the biggest KoW circus in the US, Mark knows how powerful the community can be. “I pick causes that come across my view during the year,” said Mark. “Sometimes I use the same thing year to year, other times I’ll do something different.” Lonewolf uses a system where attendees have the option to get tournament points for donations, and they have a couple causes to choose from every year. “I don’t ‘require’ it. Players have four ways to get points so they aren’t forced to do the charity, but I highly encourage them to do so over other things that might ‘help’ the tournament more.”
Keith Conroy and Jesse Bilbija, organizers of last year’s Sweaty Gigante UB tourney, were able to rally the community when Jesse Cornwell sadly passed to cancer. They reached out to the wider community for donations, and boy, did they deliver. Jesse talked about how he was able to mobilize the base. “Thankfully Kings of War already had an incredibly well-connected community through the various facebook groups and the multiple content creators and podcasts that we are blessed to have. Once we had finalized the tournament pack and graphics for the tournament we approached our friends at Counter Charge, Dash 28, and Unplugged Radio to let them know what we were planning and then started our facebook posts regarding the event. Counter Charge was kind enough to have us on for an episode to talk about the upcoming event and how to register/donate moving forward.” From there it was easy to get donations. “We had various members within the community step up to help provide prize support (Huge thank you going out to Kyle & the Mantic Crew, Dash 28, Counter Charge, Unplugged Radio, Wolf Dottir, Billy Smith, & Eamon Linger) as well as a steady flow of cash donations for Jesse throughout the leadup to the event. Once the event was underway the entire day was streamed via Dash 28 and we kept running donation tallies for the day as the games progressed.”
“Financials are always a tough conversation for those who are going through the stages of grief,” said Keith. “We hoped that the money that we raised would help his widow and take the burden of funeral expenses off of her shoulders.” In the end Keith and Jesse were able to raise over $13,000 for Jesse’s family.
“This community is a truly special thing,” said Jesse, “and this event showed just how much we all care and value each other as people within it. The people that make up our player base are a truly kind group of humans, and I’m extremely proud to be able to be a part of it.”
It’s pretty obvious that the wider wargaming community, and Kings of War players in particular, are a generous bunch. TO’s can rally the troops and leverage that generosity to tackle all kinds of problems. In the end we’re a powerful force for good in the world. And that’s pretty awesome.
