CREDIT: ERIKA FAUST
Mathew Hoy (top left) and Greg Picken (holding sign) are the two creators of Project Play. They dropped off a bundle of gaming goodies at Merrymount Children's Centre on November 17.

Christmas came early this year for Merrymount Children's Centre when the Project Play team dropped off stacks of brand-new board games and video games, as well as a big-screen TV.

Project Play hosted an event in Fanshawe's Student Centre building this past September, bringing together London's geek community in a celebration of video games, board games, cosplay, anime and more. The event saw over 400 attendees and raised over $4,000 to create gaming bundles for one Strathroy charity, Women's Rural Resource Centre, and two London charities, Merrymount and Women's Community House.

Since the event wrapped up, the Project Play team — led by the masterminds behind the event, Greg Picken and Mathew Hoy — has been hard at work shopping at local retailers, collecting donations from companies and packaging gaming bundles for the charities.

Altogether, the team gathered quite a stack of goodies, including over 75 board, card and strategy games; 41 video games; two Wiis with 10 Wiimotes and Nunchuks; two Xbox 360s with Kinect and some extra wireless controllers; two big-screen TVs with media stands; $170 in Rainbow Cinemas gift certificates; and two $2 HDMI cables, "because we refuse to accept standard definition!" according to the Project Play Facebook page.

When the team dropped off the gaming bundle at Merrymount on November 17, the kids weren't the only people overwhelmed with joy. "We think it's amazing," enthused Anne Brooks, Merrymount's communications and development coordinator. "Our main priority is helping the children and families who come to Merrymount, so extras kind of just get pushed aside if we can't afford them. This donation will put smiles on the faces of so many kids who come here."

Each year, Merrymount helps around 7,000 local families in crisis or in transition, and provides a safe retreat for children. "We're about having the kids having fun here," said Brooks. "We're really grateful for the games and the TV that Project Play was able to provide through their fundraiser. We never imagined that we would get this many items. The kids love it, and it's all going to be heavily used."

The kids of Merrymount patiently posed for some pictures before getting to play with all their brandnew goodies, and Picken remarked how impressed he was. "They were really well behaved for kids with brand-new games. I would have wanted to rip into them!"

Though Christmas may have come early for the kids at Merrymount, Hoy laughed as he remembered how the team "almost ruined Christmas" for a lot of other Londoners. When they walked into LA Mood with $1,300 a few weeks ago, the team just started pulling things off the shelves for each gaming bundle. "Then we realized, '(The store's) going to have nothing on its shelves when we're done here.' They said, 'Well, this is our Christmas stock.' If we took everything off their shelves, they won't sell anything for Christmas." The team decided to limit what they purchased from LA Mood so other local families could have a fun Christmas, too.

After completing the drop-offs at Merrymount and at Women's Rural Resource Centre earlier in November, Hoy said he was "elated" with the response he has gotten from the charities and the children. Some of the children at Merrymount signed a poster thanking Project Play for the donation and expressing excitement to play the games. "Getting posters like this, seeing some smiles, that's the goal. We know that we're doing good."

He added that he is very proud of London's geeky and gaming communities. "They really came together and helped us do (this)," said Hoy. But, he added, Project Play isn't really about the team, and it isn't even about all the gamers; "it's about all these kids who get a chance to explore and learn new things and try new things," and even find some escape from the problems they face in their everyday lives.

"Because of the success of this, we've got a million ideas," Hoy exclaimed. He and Picken are already looking ahead to next year's Project Play. They've been in talks with Fanshawe and the Student Union about renting space on campus once again. Hoy hinted that next year the focus will be on geek culture — cosplay, movies, music and more — and that the team is looking into putting on a concert and screening movies. He added that the theme will extend beyond the day and may even have an influence on the kinds of charities they select for next year, such as local cultural resource centres.

For more information on Project Play, check them out at facebook.com/ProjectPlayLondon.