For 27 years now, Nintendo of America has been helping the Starlight Children's Foundation bring seriously ill children joy, through the power of play.
Today, the newest addition in the Starlight Gaming program was revealed: the Nintendo Switch Gaming station. It was officially unveiled at the Mary Bridge Children's Hospital located in Tacoma, Washington.
Here's what Nintendo of America's Executive Vice President of Operations Don James had to say about the long-running partnership:
It’s been our pleasure to work with Starlight and observe them bringing happiness to kids when they need it the most. As with everything we do, we hope the new Starlight Nintendo Switch gaming stations will put smiles on the faces of children and their families.
These new machines are specially designed and manufactured by Nintendo of America for use in hospitals and include a mounted playback monitor that can be rolled anywhere within a hospital - allowing children to enjoy games from the comfort of their own hospital beds or in a playroom with other children.
Child Life Supervisor at Mary Bridge explained how the systems help kids get through tough experiences:
The gaming stations are important distraction tools that normalize the health care environment and help kids through difficult experiences. They provide choices for kids, motivate them, and give them the opportunity to have fun when it is needed most.
Since the partnership began in 1992, Starlight with the help of NoA has delivered more than 7,200 gaming stations (covering every major hardware generation) to hundreds of hospitals across North America, while bringing smiles to more than 11.6 million seriously ill children.
You can learn more about Starlight Gaming Stations and donate one to a hospital near you by visiting the following webpage: https://www.starlight.org/gaming/
[source starlight.org]
Comments (18)
Wholesome stuff <3
Oh, heck yeah! This is an amazing move.
They better unlock the rest of the characters before they roll it around to kids. They deserve better than just the starting roster.
God bless! This is a wonderful story and I can't keep quiet!
Awesomeness!
Amazing move, I like that idea. However, like 20 or so years in the future, how much will the kiosks go for? The obsessed collector in me is taking over. Dont worry, I will wait until these are no longer used in the far away future to buy them
I'm in.
Donating here is an instabuy purchase.
These kids look so happy and they are part of our gaming family.
You can even do monthly donations too.
Nintendo is far and away the most child friendly gaming company and this not only a good thing for the kids but also the right image for a gaming company to project.
We all loved games as kids. We still love games as adults. This will help the healing for all these little ones.
I'm a little surprised that the console makers aren't producing game stations such as these for arcades, play centres, cinemas, hospitals, or any other organisation/individual that may seek them.
Beautiful I love it.
I’m at the local Children’s hospital fairly regularly and have seen some of these (usually with a Wii). Nice that they are updating them for the kids.
What a wonderful story! This is one of the reasons that I have always loved Nintendo, after buying my first Mario Bros.Game & Watch!
Great move Nintendo. Will have good public reaction on people. Good Nintendo advert
This is wonderful and hugely important I spent a lot of time in hospital as a kid and can tell you this kind of stuff is a godsend. Keep it up👍🏻👍🏻
I remember there were game stations like this (although of course, not for the Switch) when I had to stay in the hospital for surgery as a kid. It really brightened up my stay! Glad to see they’re still a thing.
This is great stuff. I remember my mom being in the hospital when I was young and the children’s area had an NES set up. In retrospect, it’s a nice thing that kids could still be kids for a few moments while serious things go on around them.
This thing is fantastic. I dated a nurse that had video games in the kids rooms. Things would always end up missing so they had someone to take inventory of everything.
They should make these machines commercially available.
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