Puna resident Shane Hanley and his son Tristan recently raised more than $600 for Kapiolani Medical Center while playing the game Dungeons &Dragons on their YouTube show called Saturday Morning Wartoons.
“We have a lot of fun playing together,” said Shane. “D&D is such a good bonding activity and we wanted to help families that don’t get to spend that kind of quality time together because of illness. I feel really lucky and we both want to help others when we can”
Their fundraiser was part of a global fundraising effort in the gaming community called Extra Life, where gamers stream their gameplay live online via websites like YouTube or Twitch. The gamers then encourage viewers to make donations. Saturday Morning Wartoons was one of many D&D streams to raise money with Extra Life this year.
“It will help sick kids get the care they need,” said Tristan. “I had a lot of fun and I want to do more fundraisers so that we can help more kids and families in need.”
Shane is the owner of Behold Enrichment which connects children and encourages academic, social, and emotional engagement through playing Dungeons &Dragons.
He has been a part of Hilo’s D&D community for several years and Tristan, a third grader at Mountain View Elementary, has been playing for more than a year.
Shane got the idea for the company when he needed a way to help Tristan practice his math skills and came up with the idea to include math puzzles in a D&D game.
Saturday Morning Wartoons is broadcast live on the Behold! YouTube channel.
Behold Enrichment also offers online D&D games for kids to join. If you would like to sign up your child visit beholdgamers.com.