The cause that led 100 Meridian students to game for 24 hours straight
The school bell rang at 3 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28, but instead of busing off to extracurricular activities or home for the weekend, Meridian Technical Charter students donned headsets and grabbed wireless controllers. For the high schoolers, the day was just beginning.
Over 100 students at the high school on Locust Grove Road, some of whom brought sleeping bags or decks of cards for down time, proceeded to play video games for 24 hours straight.
The gaming marathon was organized by students in Meridian Tech’s chapter of SkillsUSA, a national career and technical student organization. The purpose: to raise money for St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Boise.
“We realized that’s like the perfect thing for our school, because our school is just filled with gamers,” said Marco Duarte, a senior in the school’s web-development track who helped organize the marathon.
Duarte said that the SkillsUSA adviser, Meridian Tech teacher Duane Erickson, told students about a fundraiser called Extra Life through the Children’s Miracle Network where groups can raise money through game nights like trivia or bingo.
Putting their own spin on the fundraiser, students first had the idea to hold a “tech party,” which the school sometimes hosts. Then that idea grew.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever done a 24-hour event at this school,” said Mar Bradford, a junior in the cybersecurity track. “So it, you know, gained a lot of buzz.”
Bradford teamed up with Duarte and Ethan Mensior, a junior in the software track. Together, they reached out to local businesses for help donating prizes for gaming competitions within the marathon. Kokusai Electric, a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer with an office in Boise, sponsored prizes including a custom gaming PC and a drawing tablet.
The entire marathon was live-streamed via Twitch, a live-streaming platform popular in video gaming and esports.
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“We projected it on the TVs around the school so people could watch,” said Bradford. “People at home could also tune in.”
“And whenever someone would donate, it would pop up, so you could see the amount of money that was raised at that time,” Mensior added, “which was really fun to look at.”
In total, 121 Meridian Tech students, friends and alumni participated in the marathon, and others could donate online, Mensior said. The participants raised almost $23,000, just shy of their $25,000 goal.
“I’m just so incredibly proud of our school and how ... our small community came together to raise this much money,” Bradford said. “I’m still baffled by it.”
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Erickson said the funds will go toward the remodeling of a teen room on the pediatric floor of St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital at 190 E. Bannock St. in Boise. The room provides a “vital refuge” for hospitalized teenagers, he said in a statement.
The students hope the remodeled room will include some improved gaming features.
