Wizard101 Community Raises $126,000 for Children’s Charities
Wizard101 players showed their strength as a community in benefiting two worthy organizations – Austin Children’s Shelter and Child’s Play. From Dec. 14 to Jan. 5, players were able to purchase an in-game riding mount, the “Meowmodon”, for approximately $15 with all proceeds from the sales going to the two charities. The $126,000 raised by Wizard101 players will be evenly distributed between the charities. The endeavor was the first for the award-winning, magic-themed massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.

Wizard101 selected the two beneficiaries – Austin Children’s Shelter and Child’s Play – to support the local Austin community as well as the global gaming community. Austin Children’s Shelter provides emergency shelter and care for abused and neglected children, and Child’s Play is a game industry charity dedicated to providing games and toys to children in hospitals worldwide.

“Wizard101 fans have shown that there truly is strength in numbers,” said Elie Akilian, CEO of KingsIsle Entertainment. “We were thrilled to see the Wizard101 community band together to benefit these two great organizations.”

Wizard101 Unveils New Mount to Raise Money for Children’s Charities
Sales of “Meowmodon” to support Child’s Play and the Austin Children’s Shelter

We are proud to give our players and their friends a unique way to support children this holiday season. The purchase of an in-game mount, the “Meowmodon”, will benefit the Austin Children’s Shelter and Child’s Play. The Austin Children’s Shelter provides emergency shelter and care for abused and neglected children and Child’s Play is a game industry charity dedicated to providing games and toys to children in hospitals worldwide.

The black and white Meowmodon resembles a large tiger and sells for 7,500 in-game Crowns per mount. For each Meowmodon mount sold, KingsIsle will donate the full amount (a retail value of approximately $15) to the two charities, divided equally. The Meowmodon is available for purchase through the in-game Crown Shop from December 14, 2009 through January 5, 2010.

“We have an opportunity to give back by tapping into the power of our Wizard101 community – our 5 million players can make a real difference to deserving children,” said Elie Akilian, CEO of KingsIsle Entertainment. “We chose these organizations because we wanted to support the communities that we are a part of – one located in the same city as our design studio and another with global reach, just like Wizard101.”

http://www.austinchildrenshelter.org

The Austin Children's Shelter provides emergency shelter, high quality care and hope for the future to the abandoned, abused and neglected children of our community.

In 1984, a group of concerned citizens joined together to do something about the lack of shelter space for abused and neglected children in Austin and Travis County; thus the Austin-Travis County Shelter for Infants and Children was born. Since its inception, the Shelter has continually grown in response to the needs of the children of Central Texas, adding new programs to help children lay a foundation to build upon. Throughout the years, the Austin Children’s Shelter has received only the highest ratings on all inspections and evaluations. Because of leadership’s strong commitment to providing high quality care, it gained a reputation as one of the very best agencies in the state for children in crisis a reputation still held today.

http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

Child’s Play is a Seattle based, gamer-run organization that holds an annual toy drive for children's hospitals. Many of the gifts donated by gamers are, as you might imagine, age appropriate videogames and gaming systems - but they are by no means the only things donated. We received eager donations of coloring books, art supplies, crafts, movies, cartoons, virtually anything a young person could ask for. We asked the world-wide community of gamers, and they gave so much we had to move to larger storage facilities three separate times.

For more information on how you can be a part of Child's Play, please contact program coordinator Kristin Lindsay at
klindsay@childsplaycharity.org