Hello everyone, Tyler here with a story to tell you.

About two weeks ago, we at Jacksonville Game Center were contacted by one of our regulars that goes by the name of Oreo, about the sudden passing of a long-time member of the Jacksonville gaming community named Scott Young. Scott passed in his sleep due to an infection that had spread to his heart, and was survived by his family of a fiance-of-seven-years Jessica, and three children.

Oreo worked together with his long time friend Tea Rorstrom to set up a GoFundMe for Scott’s funeral, which as of this typing has reached $2100 out of the goalpost set at $2000, raised by 32 people in 11 days. About a week ago, we were approached about the possibility of hosting a charity and remembrance event, to which we decided to create a Magic: The Gathering tournament and place a booster box of Eternal Masters into the prize pool. The plan was that the tournament would cost $20 to enter, and that there would be raffled giveaways that were provided as donations by the community, with additional tickets available at $1 each.

At the end of the day, all of the combined fees and ticket sales were to be combined and put towards the family in as a donation.

The outreach from the gaming community was instant and powerful. Expensive product and cards from people’s personal collections began flowing into the prize pool, along with actual donations via “ghost raffle” purchases. To be honest, the amount of promotion we put into this event paled in comparison to the spread by word-of-mouth by friends and family of Scott, and local gamers here in Jacksonville. People were eager to give, and it showed. With over $450 in raffle ticket sales alone, there were prizes worth winning.

We also ran a livestream “feature match” tables during the event via Twitch.tv, and kept a running track of how much had gone into the donation pool. It was around this threshold of donations that several players stepped up between rounds to announce they were adding more cards from their collection to the raffle prizes in order to break the $1000 mark. We even received a phone call from a regular who was watching us on Twitch, who had just placed an order through our website, asking us to place the items he ordered into the raffle prizes.

We’re happy to report that the $1000 barrier was successfully broken.

Jessica arrived later in the night after leaving her workplace and picking up her children. Her friends had only informed her that there was a check available and waiting, but had not informed her as to the total value. When she arrived we all said hello to the kids and stood around for a few minutes, greeting each other as most of us outside of the know had met for the first time that day.

I was unsure of the reaction that I was receiving at first as I handed her a check for $1039, the total sum contributed by the twenty six (and those at home or away) players of the evening, possibly disbelief even, but then a shift of tone followed shortly after. As Jessica’s close friends, Oreo, Chuck, and Tea, explained how much love they had for Scott, informed her that the GoFundMe they had established in her name had recently passed $2000, and how most of all of the events had transpired today, the emotion in the room was absolutely palpable.

Hugs, tears, and thank yous began flowing. It took a bit of strength to not openly join in.

We sincerely wish to thank the community, players, regulars, and strangers alike for not only allowing us to hold such an event by coming together to join in, but also for the staggering amount of generosity shown by all who participated and donated above and beyond from not just their wallets, but their personal possessions as well.

Our wholehearted thank yous,

from Tyler, Jonathan, and all of the JGC crew.