Resolutions to Charitable Commitment for Changing Kids’ Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world of medicine on its head. The unexpected strain on children’s hospitals has been immense. Up to 50% of revenue has been lost for children’s hospitals across the United States and Canada with costs to cover personal protective equipment for patients and staff and the equipment necessary for remote medicine raising their expenses by over 10%. Over 67% of children’s hospitals reported that without serious philanthropic assistance, they won’t be able to meet their financial needs for 2021.

While that can seem overwhelming, and make no mistake, the problem facing children’s hospitals in the COVID-19 era is overwhelming, it’s important not to lose hope. One of the specialties of the Extra Life community is its ability to exceed expectations by finding solidarity in one another. By banding together with a true commitment to changing kids’ health, we can improve the treatments, facilities, and address the most insurmountable of problems.

You might be wondering what you can do to starting working with the wider Extra Life community. The key is to embrace three simple steps and commit to following through on them throughout 2021. Here are the ways you can help transform how we care for children in the here and now:

Step 1: Sign up

Registration stands as one of the easiest parts of every Extra Lifer’s journey. Simply head over to the Extra Life website and click sign up to be taken to the registration page. Once there, fill in your information and you should be good to start fundraising immediately! While you’re at it, you can sign up for Platinum Membership to support the Extra Life organization with a $19 USD donation and earn some awesome stuff while you go about your fundraising!

Step 2: Fundraise and Recruit

Here’s where some people stumble when it comes to Extra Life. Once you’ve registered, come up with a plan of action. Follow your gaming passion, even if it takes you offline and away from streaming. Figure out what to do and then lay the groundwork for your success. You can do this by setting up an effective Extra Life profile, setting up fun incentives and milestone goals, and joining the Extra Life community on Discord. Once you’ve done all of that, it’s time to take to social media and your personal networks to let people know about your story and the awesome thing you’re doing. You might even inspire others to follow in your footsteps!

Step 3: Play games to help change kids’ health

Once you have you have registered and planned, it’s time to actually follow through! Whether you are gaming from the other side of the planet, tinkering with bicycles, or throwing together a puzzle-building fundraiser, remember that the goal is to have fun and help your local kids.

Extra Lifers raise money for 170 children’s hospitals across North America and the need for the assistance you and your communities can bring is enormous. 37 million kids rely on Medicaid and millions more aren’t covered by insurance at all, meaning that there’s always a huge need for funds to help keep hospitals able to cover children from families living in desperation. In 2021, that number is expected to rise substantially due to the economic pressures of COVID-19 while hospitals start hitting their financial limits.

In 2019, the entire Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals organization managed to raise $81 million USD that went toward charitable care – we need to do even better in 2021. We believe in the Extra Life community; each and every one of you has given so much time and effort to help the kids are your local children’s hospital. We know we’re asking a lot, but this is the year we all need to step up to make sure our kids have the future they deserve.

Change kids’ health, change the future.

Don’t forget to sign up for Extra Life to help sick and injured kids in hospitals around the US and Canada by playing games!