As the sun goes down for the night, businesses around downtown Lethbridge started to close, there was one restaurant that remained open for 25 hours straight all for charity.
The Extra Life charity started in 2008, the organization has raised over $50 million for the Children’s Miracle Network. Video, board and tabletop gamers all across the world will play their games for 24 consecutive hours and raise money for their local children’s hospital.
The Round Table Board Gamerie hosted their annual Extra Life 25-hour charity event that started the morning of Saturday, Nov. 2 and concluded on Sunday at 8 a.m.
Casey Rupps, Co-Owner of Round Table had said that the earnings of the event will go to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.
When asked about Round Table’s yearly event, Rupps had said as the gaming culture expands, the charity event changes every year.
“As the gaming culture has expanded it has gone from just video games to board games, RPG’s [Role Playing Games], tabletop games. It’s gotten bigger, a lot more companies are getting involved with it, websites are doing a lot of 24-hour streams.”
Rupps has been apart of many Extra Life charity events, as he has participated in before getting involved with Round Table.
“It’s something I was doing personally for the last four years or so before I even started Round Table, then when we started I thought ‘I gotta do something for Extra Life,’” he added.
To raise money for the hospital, the restaurant charged $10 per person, half of that cost will go to the charity. Customers could stay as long as they like and could come and go as they please.
Eli Mason, a participant of the Round Table festivities that evening had said he was quite happy to see businesses participating in the charity.
“It’s nice to see businesses doing good in the world and not only making profits.”
Bryn Watts, the other half of the duo running the Round Table said the entire collection of funds haven’t been calculated yet, but the restaurant raised $600 on admissions alone as of the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 4.