Gamers Outreach Foundation
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| Founded | 2007 |
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| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Location | |
| Slogan | Helping others level up! |
| Website | http://www.GamersOutreach.org |
Gamers Outreach Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to use interactive entertainment in ways that improve the lives of others. The organization's efforts bring together video game enthusiasts of the world to promote concern for others and engage in philanthropic activity.
In March 2007, seventeen-year-old Michigan native Zach Wigal had spent three months planning and organizing a Halo 2 tournament for his fellow peers and classmates at Saline High School. The teenager, along with a group of friends, had received permission from administrators to host a video game tournament in his high school’s cafeteria. Nearly three hundred individuals had registered to take part in one of the area’s first-ever competitive gaming tournaments.
Three days before the tournament was scheduled to take place, a local police officer (who belonged to a media censorship organization called the Parents Television Council) heard news of the teenager’s tournament, and adamantly protested the event be allowed to take place within the high school. According to a voicemail left for the school district’s superintendent, it was the opinion of the public safety officer that Halo 2 was “corrupting the minds of America’s youth” and that the gaming tournament was a hazard to the public safety of the community. Comparing the game to other M rated titles such as Grand Theft Auto and 25 to Life, the officer strongly suggested the event not take place on school property. The high school’s superintendent, convinced by the officer’s voicemail, quickly canceled the permit that had been given to Zach and his friends months earlier; citing public safety concerns as reason for cancellation.
Still determined to host a Halo tournament, Zach and his friends began putting together a new event with the hopes of raising money for charity to instead illustrate the positive impact people can make when they come together to play video games. The high school students set out to seek redemption, refuting the negative stereotypes and misconceptions they had experienced first hand that are often associated with video games.
Over the next few months, Gamers for Giving was born, an event that aimed to benefit a local chapter of the Autism Society of America. In the process of planning this new event, Gamers Outreach Foundation was created. Though the organization was originally established to help encourage and facilitate donations for the event, the foundation quickly began taking on a life of its own, maturing eventually into an organization with a clear vision and a simple goal – help people through video games.
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