Our Stacks kicked off 2021 with a number of awesome events, from handing out food to those in need to hosting gaming tournaments!
Our Stack Leads are hard at work balancing doing good in their communities with being safe during COVID, and the program has managed to adapt to be both a force for good AND a safe and responsible volunteer opportunity. If you would like to get involved with your local chapter of The Stacks and participate in events like these, please check out more information HERE. No Stack in your area? No worry! Learn more about working with us to establish a Stack in your area HERE.
Stacking Up in Delco, PA
For the Delco Stack's first-ever event, we joined the incredible people at the Nile Swim Club in Yeadon, PA for their Food Distribution Event. The Nile Swim Club is America's first - and oldest - African-American owned membership swim club.
This was Nile Swim Club's first Food Distribution event of the year, and they reached out on Facebook seeking volunteers to help set up, pack, and distribute food to community members in need. The focus of this event was distributing food to families with children 18 years of age or younger. Each box contained 5 breakfasts and 5 lunches, to cover the free meals for the week that children would be eligible to receive in school. Due to COVID, it is increasingly difficult for families of virtual students to obtain these meals.
Our Stack was honored to have collaborated with the Nile Swim Club and other local volunteers to distribute 1,000 boxes - 10,000 meals - to families in need. We look forward to continuing to volunteer our time to this cause moving forward!
Our social event for January united our Stack Members - those who were vaccinated and/or recently COVID negative, of course - for the 2021 WWE Royal Rumble!
Professional wrestling has been a big part of both the Stack Lead and Alternate Stack Lead's lives since they were young, and we have not been able to get groups together for Wrestling events in far too long. Doing so responsibly was important, so this event was not even open to all members of the Stack - only those living in the same house, and/or part of our "pod" group.
We had an absolute blast being together, being safe, and being thrilled by the awesome matches. Most of all, we were thrilled by watching Edge win the main event! We're excited to continue to balance these fun social events with the important community betterment projects that help our local community thrive!
Stacking Up at Holloman Air Force Base
For January we took it slow and decided that after the holiday breaks a coffee social with tabletop games would be appropriate. We met at Plateau Espresso, our local coffee shop that has been extremely accommodating for local events. This gave everyone a good chance to share their holidays and just relax and share.
We took this opportunity to discuss our community involvement plan for 2021. We are all on board with supporting a local community center/shelter in our area that is just standing up.
Everyone had a good time sitting back and sipping coffee with our extended family and letting the kids play. This has become a very regular and positive event for our Stack and very well received. Much fun was had playing games with the families and kids!
Stacking Up in Albuquerque, NM
We worked with Christ United/Pink ladies to hand out food, clothing, and blankets to the homeless around Albuquerque. I and my battle buddy worked around the downtown area to provide food to the less fortunate. We worked for about four hours driving and looking for spots where the homeless were huddled together from the harsh New Mexico weather.
It was an amazing experience to really get to see and talk to these people and to see them from another side other than me driving by. My plan for this stack up here is to work closely with this church in the future and hopefully have the Stack Up team do this in future events.
Stacking Up in Sedgwick County, KS
The Veterans Providers' Coalition of Sedgwick County as part of the Vet-To-Vet Support Command met with Stack-Up leadership in Sedgwick County to discuss goals for 2021 events including the unveiling of the Valley Moving Wall Project in Valley Center.
Together the groups discussed upcoming events for 2021 including the Vietnam Moving Wall project headed by Ron Colbert which will be completed in October of 2021.
Both organizations look forward to growing our partnership in 2021 and helping to better our community.
Stacking Up in Rochester, NY
To kick off the new year, I decided to host my first solo tournament under my platform, Roc Gaming Network, to help launch our Call-to-Arms 2021 donation drive. We played a 2v2 Gunfight tournament under a bracket-style format. We had 8 teams sign up. Normally I would want a higher number, but since this was my first attempt alone I figured a smaller pool would be easier to manage. We had a couple of teams drop out last minute, but I was able to reconfigure the setup to include a first-round elimination bracket to give other teams another chance. Through a link in the stream and cash donations, I was able to raise almost $100(my goal is $1,000 for the year).
I had a blast hosting this tournament(live match shot). Anxiety ran a little rampant just imaging every technical failure before the start. I think my military background with always having to be early and giving enough time for mission prep, I was able to avoid any major issues save for some in-game logistics. However, one must always learn from previous attempts, and I believe this tournament will only help ensure better ones in the future!
I believe all fundraisers must have some sort of lighthearted (at the least) entertainment. To bring the next level of immersive experience to my gaming tournaments I even did my own pregame show akin to what major league sports broadcasts do. The picture linked is just one of the 'players to watch for' section of the showcase. This was easily the viewer's favorite part, and mine as well since I got to roast my friends on stream. As a bonus to the viewers, I spent a few hours one sleepless night creating a hype video for the tournament pregame. Overall, despite the small number of teams, this was a huge success. In the future, we will start branching into other games but plan on keeping the formula we started with.
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