Welcome to our quarterly check-in! Before we begin, notice anything different? We quietly just gave the Gamers Outreach website a much-needed refresh, and we hope you like it! One feature we’d love for you to check out is the interactive map at the end of the homepage, which shows where every GO Kart is. We really appreciate all the support you’ve given us through the years.

Can you believe half of 2026 is already behind us? It’s already been a buzzing year, but let’s look back at an exciting second quarter.

As usual, if you want a full look at our 2025 objectives, refer to our annual report. This year is all about scaling the programs that make play possible in health care facilities. Doing this includes continuing to fulfill our hospital wishlist by bringing GO Karts to new locations, launching Save Point’s latest backend software to streamline operations, growing Player 2, activating our warehouse, and expanding our global footprint. To make it all happen, continued fundraising and exposure to our mission and programs remain paramount.

When it comes to Q2, it starts and ends with the biggest events we host every year.

Flagship Events

Gamers for Giving 2026

Gamers Outreach’s roots lie in Gamers for Giving (GFG), a LAN party event in Michigan that, back when our founder, Zach Wigal, turned a canceled Halo 2 tournament into an annual charity fundraiser, would eventually become one of the video game industry’s philanthropic mainstays.

Since its inception, GFG has served as a platform for our biggest announcements, and thanks to the event opening up and becoming one of our premier streamathons, it’s also become our biggest fundraising event of the year.

In addition to the LAN party, charity streams, tournaments, and the plentiful activities we have every year at the George Gervin GameAbove Center, GFG 2026 also marked the first time we hosted GFG Cards For A Cause. This series of trading card game tournaments opens the door to even more growth in the coming years, and we’re looking forward to continuing to innovate and elevate the entire event for years to come.

Our community, alongside our biggest supporters and creators, helped GFG 2026 raise over $1.9 million to support our mission of bringing video games to kids in hospitals worldwide. Read more about GFG 2026 here.

VTuber Summer Slam 2026

After our biggest event of the year, our biggest event of the summer is where our favorite VTubers come to play! VTuber Summer Slam (VSS) is our annual community streaming event where VTubers, creators, and anybody willing to help come together to support Gamers Outreach’s longstanding programs.

Over 1,000 campaigns supporting VSS were created as part of this year’s 10-day event (up from five), and while it was amazing seeing all the gaming, performing, and other forms of streaming entertainment, it always makes us proud to see these same contributors talk about the importance of the power of play to children. Many of our VTubers and supporters were hospital patients themselves, and their testimonials on how video games added another dimension to their care always remain inspiring.

Speaking of creativity, every GO Kart that’s created thanks to funds raised from VSS will be affixed with a special donor card highlighting art created by the winner of the VSS Art Contest. This year’s winner features our VSS mascots, Sunny, Shelly, and Sandy, happily gaming together, which is what the gift of gaming is all about.

Everybody’s efforts during VSS 2026 raised over $435,000. You can read more about VTuber Summer Slam here.

In-Person Events

ACLP Child Life Conference 2026

It seemed like right after GFG 2026 ended, members of our team were on the road again! Gamers Outreach was once again present at the Child Life Conference hosted by the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP). 

Held in Chicago this year, the Child Life Conference is ACLP’s premier annual event designed for child life specialists, students, and allied healthcare professionals to attend workshops, earn professional development units, and explore the latest research in the field. 

Games Outreach partners with hundreds of child life programs at facilities around the world, and the Child Life Conference allows us to continue spreading awareness of our mission while catching up with partners we don’t often see.

Evo Las Vegas 2026

Evo is, bar none, the biggest fighting game tournament in the world. The fighting game community (FGC) and gamers alike come from all over the globe to Las Vegas for competitions featuring the most popular fighting games, and it’s grown from a humble collective to a highly anticipated convention.

The event has been kind to us, as we’ve been able to fundraise enough for three GO Karts to donate to hospitals in the greater Nevada area. Gamers Outreach was a proud part of the event for a third consecutive year, raising over $4,000.

Check out our full recap of Evo 2026 here!

Project GO Kart

Last year, we launched GO Kart 3.1, and with our Ann Arbor warehouse up and running, we’re able to provide faster fulfillment, helping us more quickly reach our hospital wishlist goals.

As of July 10, we’ve shipped 267 GO Karts so far this year, leaving our existing GO Kart fleet standing at 2,931 GO Karts. These GO Karts are currently placed in 548 hospitals around the world, and we estimate that these GO Karts currently account for 23,256 daily play sessions. That’s over 8.4 million play sessions a year!

Now in 17 countries with deliveries recently made to Colombia and Austria, we’ve been able to expand our global footprint and continue growing internationally. If there’s a kid at a hospital who wants to play, we want a GO Kart there, and we appreciate all the support to make that happen.

Save Point

As we’ve improved our infrastructure, we’ve been able to provide more support for the Save Point Program as we continue software testing and other integration efforts. 

Our current Save Point machines are in the beta phase of their new backend portal with fully functional units at hospitals located in Methodist Children’s Hospital in Texas, Cohen Children’s Hospital in New York, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Advent Health in Florida, Nemours / Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, and Renown Children’s Hospital in Nevada.

We also currently have four machines being prepared for deployment into new hospital homes, so look out for an announcement on those soon! If you or any healthcare facilities you know of are interested in having their own Save Point machine, you can request to be added to the Save Point Wishlist here!

Player 2

Our Player 2 Program has seen some growth over the last couple of years, and we’re ready to see even more.

Player 2 is a volunteer program initiated by Gamers Outreach but completely handled by participating hospitals. In addition to GO Kart upkeep, a “Player 2’s” responsibility is to make sure patients who need someone to play with on a GO Kart have a second player!

21 hospitals are currently participating in the Player 2 Program, with 71 volunteers active. 

We're always looking for more Player 2 participation. So if you're interested in volunteering or know a hospital interested in enrolling in the program, definitely check out our Player 2 page!

Recent Deliveries

Our favorite part after we make deliveries is seeing healthcare professionals and patients alike taking pictures of their GO Karts–or even better, actually seeing them in use! If you subscribe to the Gamers Outreach general newsletter or you’re a member of The GRID, you might have come across some of these already, but we wanted to make sure everybody sees how happy people are!

Congratulations to all the hospitals for their new GO Karts, and if this is a first, we hope they bring smiles to families and their children and help with everything they’re going through! We also wanted to extend further congratulations to the new GO Karts in Weston-Super-Mare, UK, and Zurich, SUI – everliving proof that Project GO Kart is global!

The Quest Continues!

There’s no Intermission for Gamers Outreach. It’s on to Act II! 

There are countless ways to help bring smiles to the kiddos! Whether it’s by you kindly making a donation, volunteering at an event, or streaming during a fundraiser like this fall’s Spooktacular Streamathon, here are some of the best ways to contribute!

Be A Part Of Monthly Gifting!
Our monthly giving program, The GRID, exists for those looking to support Gamers Outreach programs year-round. By becoming a member and making a monthly donation, you’ll have the ability to witness the impact of your support over time while enjoying perks like occasional giveaways in our monthly GRID Newsletter delivered right to your inbox!

Monthly donations are a huge help in maintaining and repairing GO Karts, restocking Save Points, and keeping programs running strong — all while providing you with exclusive updates and behind-the-scenes stories from our team. One day, we hope our Monthly Giving grows to the point where it can fund a GO Kart every quarter, but we're not quite there yet. Joining now brings us another step closer to accomplishing that goal!

Stay In Touch!
You don’t have to wait for the next blog to see what Gamers Outreach is up to. You can communicate with the foundation on our Discord server, and you can always be on the lookout for future updates, activations, and all sorts of fun through the Gamers Outreach social channels!

Until next time!

Keep helping others level up!
The Gamers Outreach Crew