Medicine Hat gaming marathon raising memorial funds for Alberta Children’s Hospital

“We’ve been doing it for 13 years now. Once a year, we do a 24 or 25-hour game day where we play board games, video games, and other kinds of games nonstop. Because kids in the hospital don’t get a break, they’re going through the toughest time in their lives,” Rooney said.

“This is something that we can do to give back. Everybody has different reasons. My reason is my son, who passed away 10 years ago from leukemia,” he added.

“We’ve raised more than $355,000 in his name. It’s a big deal for us to try to give back to the hospital. They gave so much for us.”

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Beginning on Saturday, Nov. 1, at 8 a.m., and ending on Sunday, Nov. 2, at 8 a.m. Rooney and his group of gamers will begin game day. The public is invited to join them from noon to 10 p.m. that day.

“Come on down, play some games with us. We’re happy to teach you some games. We’ve got a whole stack of games we’ll have for you there. You can of course also do the Six-One-Six games,” Rooney said.

“That’s the in-person part of it. We’re hoping we get lots of people out there for that. But if you don’t want to do that, if you still want to help out, we’ve got donation pages,” he added.

“You can donate right online; the money goes straight to the Alberta Children’s Hospital.”

With a $10 donation, the group will roll two 20-sided dice to determine a task.

“The first dice decides who’s going to do something, and then the second dice decides what they’re gonna do,” Rooney said.

“The dice roll range anywhere from I’ll have to take a tablespoon of insanely hot hot sauce, to you adding a temporary tattoo to my head,” he added.

“We’ve got 20 different things we could be forced to do for every single $10 minimum donation that comes in.”

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The group will also be live-streaming the event on the #DominicStrong Facebook page.

A weekend that includes a time change adds an extra hour to the event, which would normally span 24 hours, and a unique element at 2 a.m., when Rooney will hope to defend his first-time title.

“We have what’s called an hour that doesn’t exist tournament that we do between ourselves, and there’s a WWE-style title belt,” Rooney said.

“We have one person every year who’s the game manager for the hour that doesn’t exist tournament, and they come up with whatever they need to do for gaming to have a winner by the end of that hour.”

The overall goal, Rooney said, is to raise $25,000, and they are hoping for a big push in the last week.

Any donation that comes in before game day starts, he will add a temporary tattoo with a #dominicstrong logo to his head.

Rooney said they are so thankful for all the support the community has given them through the years, and for any additional support.

“Even when Dominic was sick before we even got into the charity fundraiser, part of the reason we want to give back and do so much is because the community was so helpful to our family when Dominic got sick. I had to take time off work, and my wife basically started living in the hospital with Dominic,” Rooney said.

“This community comes together for big things, and we were so blessed that we’re able to be a voice in that and have people rally towards such an important cause.”

Donations can be made through the #DominicStrong Extra Life team page.

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat gaming marathon raising memorial funds for Alberta Children’s Hospital

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