Charitable donations surge during the winter, but take a nose-dive during the summer. Tiny Box Tim Day is, among other things, a reminder that there are still people in need year-round.

It's also a way to encourage people to get creative with their contribution! I started the holiday back in 2016 after watching Markiplier unbox a ton of super creative gifts while expressing that he felt overwhelmed by the flood and wished that the donations would go to people in need instead of to him. (He eventually closed down his post office box, but fans still found ways to send him gifts.) So the intention of the holiday was, initially, to channel that creative energy toward people in need. I figured that kids in foster care, or in the hospital, would be thrilled to get Markiplier-themed gifts, and Mark would be pleased to know that people who enjoy his work were making kids happy.

Over the past few years, my TBTD contribution has been to help the homeless; there's a large number of homeless people in my area, so I pass out burgers and drinks and sometimes little kits of useful supplies (initially in boxes that look like Tiny Box Tim). This year, given COVID-19 and my reduced budget, I'm trying to figure out how to donate something useful that won't pass along a hidden virus, so we'll see how that goes; I've got a week to figure it out.

Anyway, here's the original proposal (6 minutes, somewhat wordy but it goes over a lot of why this holiday exists, and my aspirations for it) and the short version (1 minute, basic guidelines). The hashtag for social media is #TinyBoxTimDay, and I hope that people post photos or videos of their efforts under that hashtag.

(Note: Apparently there's at least one other Tiny Box Tim Day around -- September 1st? -- but it looks like a little meme instead of a charity-focused effort, and it didn't show up when I initially checked Twitter and such to see if it was already a thing.)

Side Note: Felicia Day shares Markiplier's birthday. They've played a married couple in a short film. My nephew came up with Tiny Box Felicia without knowing about Felicia Day, and that's just too perfect to pass up ^_^

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In addition to TBTD, I participate in the Extra Life charity fundraiser for hospitals in the Children's Miracle Network. Over the past four years, we've managed to raise almost $360 for Seattle Children's Hospital.

What's funny is that when I started taking my YouTube channel seriously, I had anticipated being able to run some charity fundraisers, but I never expected that it would happen during my first year -- let alone just after I got started. I happened to learn about the Extra Life event just days before it started, realized that it was a weekend that the kids were coming over to spend the night, went "Wait... can we actually do this?"... asked the kids if they wanted to join, got the ball rolling, and somehow managed to raise almost $128 out of the blue.

I also participated in the Project Awesome fundraiser for 2016, though I honestly don't know what sort of effect that had on the giving. My pet charities are the ones that create sources of clean water in areas that need them. Access to clean water promotes health and good hygiene. When gathering water is a toilsome daily chore, the community has trouble raising crops and livestock, and a lot of effort that could go to furthering their interests gets wasted just lugging jugs of water, sometimes for miles and in dangerous conditions. And a disproportionate amount of that effort falls on the shoulders of girls, who then have no time and energy for schooling. Basically, easy access to clean water is the foundation for any community to grow.

The other charities that I support are related to the positive role games can play in the lives of children. Child's Play gets gaming systems into hospitals, so that kids who end up in the hospital can focus on something besides the pain and worry and loneliness. Able Gamers and Special Effect find technological solutions to allow disabled kids to play games that would otherwise be beyond them -- everything from modified controllers (for kids with motor skill issues) to cameras that read eye movement (so that tetraplegic kids can play games or browse the internet all on their own).

Games matter. I could write a post on that topic alone, from the direct benefit to certain groups of people, to the various ways they raise money for charity, to the way a game can make the player better understand the challenges faced by someone who's disabled, or traumatized, or trans. It's one thing to read about such an experience, or to watch it play out on a screen; it's another to step into those shoes and make decisions from within the experience.

So, those are the charities that I support, and I thought it'd be a good way to start out here. Hope you'll consider doing something for Tiny Box Tim Day!