Gen Con 2010, The Opening Ceremonies

This year, for the first time ever, Gamers for Humanity was invited to be a part of the official Opening Ceremonies of Gen Con 2010. Gen Con LLC is very active in non-profit activity, including selecting an official charity for each year of the Con, and sponsoring a number of others (Gamers for Humanity included). This year the official charity of the Con was The Pajama Program, an organization that provides new pajamas and books to children in need.

Also represented was The GyGax Memorial Fund, an organization created by Gail Gygax, the wife of the late Gary Gygax. Gary was one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons and of the gaming industry as we know it today, and he touched the lives of millions of people both through his work and in person.

Note from Tom:
I got to meet Gail Gygax before and during the Opening Ceremonies, and she is one of the warmest, most genuine people you could care to meet. As it turns out, she and I have been attending Gen Con for the same number of years. She met Gary in November of 1983, so her and my first Gen Con's were in 1984, the final year the convention was at UW-Parkside in Wisconsin. I thought that was pretty cool.

Tom and Gail Gygax after the Opening Ceremonies

Gamers for Humanity and Gen Con LLC also provided a brass band for the ceremonies--the Bay Street Brassworks, an Indiana 5-piece brass band, played during the opening ceremonies and also on Saturday throughout the day. They played a mix of New Orleans-style jazz (to fit with our Mardi Gras booth theme) and some excellent gamer favorites like the Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Next Generation themes, and always had an appreciative crowd gathered (including a belly dancer at one point on Thursday).

The Bay Street Brassworks helping open the Con, Thursday, August 5th

Gamers for Humanity was given a couple of minutes during the ceremonies to help welcome the crowd of gamers, and to tell everyone a little about what we do. We were able to promote our Game Library, and introduce our newest program, the 28k Project, to a very receptive audience.

Note from Tom:
GfH, the Pajama Program, and Gail Gygax were all given stage time...and I count my blessings that we got to go first. I don't know how you'd follow someone like Gail on stage. She was great, and she got an outstanding welcome from all the gamers. Overall, it was an overwhelming experience. Gen Con 2010 was my 27th Gen Con, and standing on the stage in front of everyone eager to get the convention underway was surreal.

A true keepsake...a picture from the stage of the opening ceremonies of Gen Con 2010

Following that, the band played, a giant die was rolled, the exhibitor's hall doors were opened, and flood of gamers stormed the aisles in search of all things gaming and good. We'll have more specific news about our booth and the activities there in a later post.

Thanks as always to Gen Con LLC, their staff and volunteers, for all the consideration, generosity, and hard work they put in.

Gen Con 2010, Habitat Work Day, Pt 1

As we have every year since we've been in existence, we once again spent the Tuesday before Gen Con working with the Indianapolis affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. A number of us spent the morning in the shop, working with their Tiger Team (retiree volunteers, great guys) prebuilding walls for their houses. A select few of us attempted to spend the morning outside, repainting a shed in the yard of a Habitat house that will be going to a new family. However...these next two pictures were taken within ten minutes of each other:

You can see that in the second pictures, my camera decided it needed to have the flash on...which was likely due to the ominous storm clouds that had suddenly filled the sky in the span of a half hour. So we were chased inside, to work with our lead volunteer Dave on repainting interior walls. Painting is painting, though, and we had a good time.

It turns out that Dave, in fact, is a gamer from a long time ago. He used to spend his time playing AD&D and Gamma World. Thanks to Gen Con's generosity and Dave's being a regular Habitat volunteer, we were able to hook him up with a badge to come see the show, which he had never done before. I was able to connect with him during the show--he came and watched, and even helped out with, a game I was running--and he had a great time.

We have some pictures of the wall prebuild lying around somewhere as well, and we'll have those up in the near future. We want to send a big thanks to all the Gen Con attendees who decided to also be Gamers for Humanity volunteers for the day. It was a lot of fun, and we provided some good labor for Habitat Indy.

-Tom