Take a moment to imagine the following scenario… It’s the holiday season, people are making plans to host parties and starting to decorate their homes with lights and ornaments.

There’s one problem, though.

You lost your home and everything you own. You can’t host a party with friends. There is no home to decorate, and you can’t think about gifts because you don’t even have a toothbrush anymore.

As sad and devastating as that scenario sounds, it’s the reality for some of our friends in the esports community. The recent fires in California devastated entire communities. Over 1,000 students at one school in Paradise, California, lost their homes and all of their belongings.

Several of our NASEF clubs have been directly affected.

In many cases, families didn’t have enough time to pack things - they had to simply drop everything and evacuate. Can you imagine how helpless you would feel in the same situation?

Here’s What YOU Can Do

Fortunately, instead of feeling helpless, there is something that you can do today. NASEF is raising money to help the families of students who have been impacted by the recent fires.

Best of all, your donation is automatically DOUBLED because the Samueli Foundation and the Anaheim Ducks Foundation have generously committed to matching all donations up to $50,000!

We know that it’s the holidays, and money can be tight this time of year, but we’re hoping that each of our high school students could make a donation of $5. How great would it be to see a slew of $5 donations coming in from our high school students across the country?

Clubs: How You Can Get Involved

One of the fun aspects of an esports club is the camaraderie during competition. We’re encouraging all NASEF-affiliated clubs to get involved with our call to raise money for our fellow students and teachers. Your club can help by doing any of the following:

• Encourage each of your club members to donate $5 each. Those will become $10 donations thanks to our generous partners!
• Ask your administrators if you can hold a one-day sale of holiday treats at lunch time and donate your proceeds to the cause.
• General Managers: Are there prizes you can give to the students who can raise the most money? Is there a club close by that you can compete against to see who can raise the most money?
• Contact your local businesses to see if they would want to help. Offer to thank them via social media, and share it with NASEF so we can thank them too!
• Leverage social media to reach a wider audience. Send tweets to influencers, your alumni, and fellow clubs. Send out email blasts to your families. Send your club members home with this blog post to show their families.
• Get the rest of your school involved. Does your school do daily announcements? This would be a great way to raise awareness for your club and provide exposure to this fundraiser.
• Speak with your student government representatives to see how they may want to help.

Parents, Teachers and Administrators: What We Need

We hope that by raising awareness about the students and families in need, we can be an example of how to come together as a community. It’s during times of tragedy that we see kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity shine.

You will make a great impact on this fundraiser by encouraging your students to get involved.

Let’s lead by example and show how we’re willing to sacrifice our time and resources to help others in need. We’re trying to accomplish more than simply getting people to go online to make a donation. We want to empower these young men and women to think critically, become organized, work as a team, and achieve a desired outcome.

Encourage your students to set a “stretch goal,” something that is within reach but will take work to get to.

How to Give to the Families

All donations are being accepted by OC STEM in partnership with NASEF. OC STEM is a fiscally sponsored project of OneOC (Tax ID 46-4555223), so you will receive a receipt from OneOC.

The funds being collected will go to directly benefit the families in need. We’d like to purchase school supplies and materials to help students and teachers who have been displaced and are living in temporary shelters.

At NASEF, one of our core values is Community, where “we build a strong community of interconnected scholar players who demonstrate leadership, accountability, commitment, and fortitude.”

Please join us as we help our students put the value of Community into action so that we can make a difference for fellow NASEF members.