Hoop & Stick, A Medieval Child's Play Event (in a Castle!)

So if you've been reading this thread, you know I'm buying a castle.

I'm not sure I can express how thankful I am that my family and I are in the position to be able to buy a castle. One of our objectives if we actually somehow miraculously completed this purchase was to use it to give back. We've got a number of charity oriented ideas in mind, but I believe one is likely to be of particular interest to this community.

While the details are still forming up, we're planning on having an annual event dedicated to raising funds for Child's Play. The working title of this event is Hoop & Stick. Get it? Hoop & Stick. A game possibly played by a child in a castle. As a fundraiser for Child's Play. In a castle. See what I did there? Aren't I clever?

I'm looking at early December for the event, likely the first or second Saturday (12/1 or 12/8). We'll set it up as a full day event, with board games, tournaments, a silent auction, etc. I'll rent rooms out at full price - but then donate 100% of the room revenue to Child's Play. Also going to Child's Play will be the ticket fees (assuming we sell tickets), proceeds from the silent auction, and a portion of any food/beverage sales during the day (still working out the technicalities of that one). My goal is to raise $10,000. Ambitious perhaps, but achievable I believe.

I'll provide official details as they become available, but at this point I have a few questions I'd like to pose to the group.

First, would you realistically be interested and able to come to such an event? I'd like to gauge interest level and number of possible attendees for planning purposes. Bear in mind that this is only a few months after PenCon, so if you're coming in from a distance it's two (count them, TWO!) trips to Ohio in a short period.

Second, would you be interested in assisting with such an event? I'm going to be contacting a variety of individuals and companies looking for sponsorships, donations, etc. While I already have a significant contact list, I'd love to pick up a volunteer or two who might be able to help make these calls.

So, what do you guys and gals think?

I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. I am interested in attending if I can convince someone (GWJ or otherwise) to split a room with me. I don't think I'll be able to pledge my assistance, however.

Ballpark on room rates?

One issue that might crop up is weather, at that time of year, as well.

We'd love to have you carrot.

And good questions. Rooms run anywhere from $130 to $250, and are eminently splittable. The more expensive "rooms" in fact are actually full on cottages, and can hold up to six folks very comfortably.

Weather could conceivably be an issue, but I'm assured that there is far less snow on average south of Columbus than us Northeastern Ohioans and Michiganders are used to. Doesn't mean it's not possible that we get hammered on that particular weekend, but if we do, I promise to have lots of extra beers in the pub so we won't have to go outside anyway

DAMN - I would love to. But after having just bought my own house (a mini-castle if you will) and with two kids in daycare, I have to cut back on ALL travel plans for the next two years.

Best of luck and I'm looking forward to hearing the awesome tales from your various events!

Teneman wrote:

We'd love to have you carrot.

And good questions. Rooms run anywhere from $130 to $250, and are eminently splittable. The more expensive "rooms" in fact are actually full on cottages, and can hold up to six folks very comfortably.

Weather could conceivably be an issue, but I'm assured that there is far less snow on average south of Columbus than us Northeastern Ohioans and Michiganders are used to. Doesn't mean it's not possible that we get hammered on that particular weekend, but if we do, I promise to have lots of extra beers in the pub so we won't have to go outside anyway ;)

That may be true, but driving down might be a bear! I definitely want to go, though.

Of course I am interested. CASTLE!!!

Life is too fluid to guarantee attendance now, but definitely watching this.

I think it is an awesome idea! We have talked about making a road trip out to your castle but will not be able to come and help in early December as we have prior commitments. If there is a way we can help from 800 miles away, let us know!

Definitely interested, might even be able to make it work this year too, since I should have the funds to at least split a room.

Great, love to have you trueheart and Crespin. You should definitely let us know when you can come out Kiri, we'd love to have you guys too, even if you can't make the event itself!

Definitely interested, and hardly a drive for us in Columbus. Here's hoping everything comes together.

Teneman wrote:

I'm looking at early December for the event, likely the first or second Saturday (12/1 or 12/8). We'll set it up as a full day event, with board games, tournaments, a silent auction, etc. I'll rent rooms out at full price - but then donate 100% of the room revenue to Child's Play. Also going to Child's Play will be the ticket fees (assuming we sell tickets), proceeds from the silent auction, and a portion of any food/beverage sales during the day (still working out the technicalities of that one). My goal is to raise $10,000. Ambitious perhaps, but achievable I believe.

I work at a hotel in Whistler, BC. We do a silent auction that takes place while the village isn't hopping, but isn't quite dead, and we have cleared $10k each of the two or three years that we've done it (primarily from locals). I have no idea what the community is like around your place, but perhaps it's doable for yourself as well. The money we raise is mostly through the silent auction, though a few hundred of it is through ticket sales and booze.

I'll give you some details to what we do just in case it helps.

We charge $10 for tickets. This gets you in to the event plus a shot at some appetizers while they last. It may also get a free drink, though I doubt it. I handle the auction and don't know about the ticket side of things.

The auction items we get are:
1) Stays at other hotels. We're branded so many of them come from hotels under the same flag, though not all of them. (As an aside, you'll find that you get a lot of requests from charities for free stays. Have a limit and think about limiting when the free stays occur or it will start to be painful.)
2) Free meals, etc from restaurants. One local high-end restaurant is donating a package worth well over $1k to the auction. A lot of other places chip in too.
3) Grocery/whatever gift cards. Because it's a charity, people will pay the full face value, plus a bit in some cases.
4) Pinch your suppliers for items to donate. Some will be fairly generous, depending on how much business they've got from your place in the past.
5) Other tourism related stuff.
6) Art.

We usually do the legwork on auction stuff, but if you think the charity will get more results (or if you don't have the time) then maybe leave it to them. Doing it yourself will get your name out there more, though. Local printers do posters for free to advertise the event. You can perhaps encourage more donations by putting company names on the poster. We've also had luck getting free ads on radio. It sounds like your event will be a much bigger deal, but hopefully that helps the auction/ticket end of things.

We (Wife and baby) would be interested, We are always up for a good board game get to gather provided the dates are free. I will say December is often a very busy month for most people. Other then Carrot's winter comment I wonder if Jan/Feb might get more people because there is less possibility of conflicts. Either way we are interested provided there are good accommodations for small children (1.5 years this winter). I also think it should be more then just one day. If I am going to drive for more then 6 hours I would like to get a couple days of games in.

Count me as excited.

Thanks for the info peedmyself, appreciate it. Any other words of advice, send them my way, the more the better!

Great Mono, we'd love to have you out! You bring up some good points. Re: the multiple days, my initial thoughts were to make the official Hoop & Stick event the one day only. That makes it easier to explain to folks who aren't in the gaming community and already used to conventions as it's basically just an extended charity dinner. It also makes it easier to draw local/regional attendees who would be willing to come in for the event itself, but wouldn't want to stay over for a weekend. For anyone coming in from further out, or who is more familiar with full weekend conventions, we could wrap an informal RavenCon around the event, having games on Friday and Sunday, etc.

As for the dates, I'd considered pushing it into January/February for precisely the reasons you mentioned. My concern was that the big Child's Play push is pre-Christmas. If I pushed the event out after Christmas, I was afraid it would result in a loss of interest and fund raising ability? What do you guys think?

Teneman wrote:

Great Mono, we'd love to have you out! You bring up some good points. Re: the multiple days, my initial thoughts were to make the official Hoop & Stick event the one day only. That makes it easier to explain to folks who aren't in the gaming community and already used to conventions as it's basically just an extended charity dinner. It also makes it easier to draw local/regional attendees who would be willing to come in for the event itself, but wouldn't want to stay over for a weekend. For anyone coming in from further out, or who is more familiar with full weekend conventions, we could wrap an informal RavenCon around the event, having games on Friday and Sunday, etc.

A sneak attack Con sounds like fun!

Teneman wrote:

As for the dates, I'd considered pushing it into January/February for precisely the reasons you mentioned. My concern was that the big Child's Play push is pre-Christmas. If I pushed the event out after Christmas, I was afraid it would result in a loss of interest and fund raising ability? What do you guys think?

I didn't realize there was a seasonal Child's Play push but that would make sense trying to get Christmas presents for kids and all. I would think this could go either way. After talking with my wife she was hesitant to have me plan another weekend event for December given all the traveling we will already be doing for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It always does seem like everything goes crazy in the family and at work up till January then there is a big sigh and nothing to do in Jan/Feb. I also get a fresh stock of vacation days in January. That being said my guess is better fundraising would probably happen with the better budget/tax write off time of December (maybe? I don't deal with the higher level money management so am just guessing).

I think it may depend on what your goal is. Is the goal to get a bunch of gamers together and play games and raise some money at the same time? Or is it more to raise money and if we can play some games that would be fun? I don't think the two are mutually exclusive but which way you lean could make one set of dates better then another. Then again you could do both.

I live in eastern Ohio and it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to said castle. If work doesn't have me traveling, I'd like to attend.

This sounds awesome!

I can drive to this so I'd like to attend, December is usually the busiest month of the year on the weekends though. I'm subscribing though, hopefully it works out!

Based on the comments in this thread, and the fact that PenCon is now confirmed to be at the castle only a month and change earlier, I'm giving serious consideration to pushing Hoop & Stick back into January/February.

Any further thoughts/suggestions are of course welcome.

Could you somehow combine the events instead?

I think you should push it back, just due to December being a busy family month.

We may do a Child's Play fundraiser of some sort within PenCon, that's really up to Oily though. I'm looking to do a full on, dedicated to nothing but Child's Play, raise a ton of money sort of event.

Teneman wrote:

We may do a Child's Play fundraiser of some sort within PenCon, that's really up to Oily though. I'm looking to do a full on, dedicated to nothing but Child's Play, raise a ton of money sort of event.

(with a sneak attack RavenCon for those in the know...)

I still think Jan/Feb would be better. Or at least there is a better chance I will get there.

If you're pushing it back, make it early Feb. January is still mentally very close to the holiday clamour. My 2c, at least.