One form of fundraising that's become more popular recently is live-streaming. Folks ranging from politicians to average people in their homes have seen the fundraising potential for charity streams on various platforms.
A content creator from Danville, DGR Dave, raised tens of thousands of dollars for a foundation that helps sick or injured children have a more joyful experience during their treatment.
He did all that while streaming himself playing video games on the platform Twitch.
DGR Dave began his YouTube channel in 2016 and now has over 560,000 YouTube subscribers — plus, more than 130,000 Twitch followers.
From December 1st to the 24th, DGR Dave live-streamed himself playing Christmas-related games on Twitch. All the money he raised that month, over $80,000, went to the Starlight Children's Foundation.
Starlight helps kids who are either severely sick or injured and their families to make their experiences happier and more enjoyable when going through so much.
"What prompted you to start this charity effort?" Braff asked the content creator Wednesday.
"Ever since I was a kid, I loved Christmas," DGR Dave said. "There's a lot of kids that are stuck in hospitals over the holidays. And I just thought [I would] take my love of Christmas and try to do something good with that and help some kids and families that maybe aren't quite as healthy as mine are."
DGR Dave has firsthand experience with Starlight. He and his wife began dating in high school, and at one point she became seriously ill.
"Tell me about when you brought your wife to Janet Weis Children's Hospital and how you were introduced to Starlight," 6 News reporter Douglas Braff asked.
"While we were there, Starlight was actually there, when we were waiting for her appointments, and waiting [for] pre-surgery and after surgery. Starlight actually had some video game stands they would bring to the room and we were able to play and...it took my mind off of it, and I know it...took my wife's mind off of it for a little bit."
And he says he's learned a lot over the past month.
"I definitely learned the power of community and the generosity of community — like, especially in this economy and everything like that — to see that much money raised to help kids and putting others before themselves," DGR Dave told 6 News.
DGR Dave will also donate a set of video game consoles to where his wife got surgery in Danville.
Allie Naumann, an Annual Giving Coordinator at Geisinger Health Foundation who does a lot of work with the hospital, cannot emphasize enough how video games make patients forget about their troubles for a little bit.
"We've heard that so many times from families that...that one second that they got that gaming system, or they just had that slight distraction, that they saw their child that they know again, and it wasn't this child who's sitting in a hospital bed," she told 6 News.
For DGR Dave, the world isn't as bad as it's often portrayed.
"Sometimes you look out at the world and you think it's all doom and gloom, but there's a lot of good people doing a lot of good things," he said. "This made my Christmas a lot better, seeing the generosity of others."
This was DGR Dave's first charity stream, and he told 6 News he definitely plans to do more of them in the future.
To support Starlight, you can check their website.
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