Nerds unite for charity
By EMMA O'NEILL (FW)
Fans of certain television shows have traditionally got bad reputations. The geeks known as Trekkies, or the nerds that still live with their parents at the age of 30, presumably still virgins who play Dungeons and Dragons.
But what happens when a group of people get together to raise money for a good cause? The result is amazing. So what happens when an entire community of people get together to raise money for several causes? It is unbelievable.
The past few years has seen just this rise in communities of fans fuelled by social media. Whether it’s Nerdfighters – fans of Vloggers John and Hank Green who commit themselves to “reducing world suck” – Harry Potter fans and their Equality FTW charity or a girl named Esther Earl who spent her last year with childhood cancer starting a charity called This Star Won’t Go Out to help other families in the same situation as hers, people across the world have come together to help others in need.
The Harry Potter Alliance and their Equality FTW campaign is arguably one of the biggest fan run charity organisations in the world. Started over seven years ago, it has grown to the stage where they raised $184,838 in one fundraising campaign. The money they raise goes to a wide variety of things from public library chapters to help provide access to books in economically deprived areas to donating to campaigns that fight for marriage equality and social justice.
Josh Wittage, a lead campaigner in the project is always amazed at the support it receives. “It’s great that people with a common interest are able to come together and make a difference.” He also thinks it makes people pay attention to these communities. “I think it gives a positive light to people who otherwise have a very nerdy reputation.”
Hank Green, at a recent conference, thought that their love of a specific group was just a small part of what they did. “It’s not really about Harry Potter. It is about who we are as a people and what we care about.”
Other charities have included fans of the TV show Glee and their charity Box Scene Project. What started off as fund raising to buy a script for an episode that was auctioned off turned into a group of people realising they could make a difference.
President Heather Kirkpatrick said that when people heard about them donating the money left over from the auction to an LGBT campaign group, they wanted to help and show thanks for what they had done. $14,000 was raised in one month of campaigning.
The Esther Earl foundation called This Star Won’t Go Out was started by a 16-year-old girl who was dying of cancer. She started a video blog in her last year where she talked about how bad she felt that some families didn’t have the financial capabilities that hers did, leaving a lot of children feeling guilty about the financial burden it had on their parents. In her last year, she started up her charity and to date has raised over $125,000 to help families with children who have cancer. People from all over the world, who have a common interest are regularly getting together and really try to make a difference through their campaigning and charity efforts. These nerds and geeks are working together to make the world suck less. And if you can do that while watching an episode of Glee, why not?