You don’t generally want to hear screaming in a children’s hospital, but during a recent visit to Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center, those shouts came from a child laughing and cheering while racing through Mario Kart 8.
Polygon was there to see firsthand how the Starlight Children’s Foundation’s Gaming Stations transform hospital stays. Now, together with TheGamer and GameRant, we’ve partnered with Starlight to bring that same joy to even more kids in hospitals across North America through our new initiative, Gaming 4 Good.
Starlight’s mobile gaming stations include a Nintendo Switch, a Pro Controller, and two Joy-Cons powering a colorful upright cart. The carts — five of them — sat in a row in the playroom when we arrived. By the end of the day, they were being wheeled from room to room, reaching patients who couldn’t leave their beds but still deserved the chance to play, connect, and smile. Because all kids do.
Every year, there are over 3 million pediatric hospitalizations in the United States. Some are short. Others last weeks or months. But each one disrupts a child’s life, pulling them away from friends, family, school, and the simple routines of childhood. A hospital stay can be isolating. It can be scary. It can feel endless.
Gaming 4 Good aims to alleviate some of those feelings by giving kids a chance to play like they would at home, with the Starlight Gaming Stations. The Gaming Stations are mobile, safe, and easy to sanitize, with 25 pre-loaded games — from Nintendo favorites like Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario Party to indie gems like Stardew Valley and Cuphead.
And this is where you come in. Our goal is to raise $25,000, which Valnet will match dollar-for-dollar for a total of $50,000. Every $5,000 raised places another station in a hospital, creating more moments of laughter like the one we witnessed in New York. Your donation helps make that possible — and thanks to Valnet’s match, every dollar goes twice as far.
We’re proud to kickstart Gaming 4 Good with a generous $5,000 donation from Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP (MSK) and $2,500 from Index Exchange toward our $25,000 community goal. That’s already one and a half hospital-safe gaming consoles for children in need!
In addition, throughout the Gaming 4 Good campaign, we will be facilitating a series of giveaways made possible through the support of the following sponsors.
Together, we can bring play back into the lives of children who need it most — helping them feel connected, comforted, and like themselves again, even in the hardest of times.
Donate here.
