Canadians .... Would you like to help?

[P_A]

Recently, there has been a somewhat quiet movement to run
fundraising events to help support our Canadian Pokemon TCG team at
Worlds, particularly the third and possibly the fourth place
champions. As you may know, our national top two Pokemon TCG
players in each age category win paid trips to the Worlds event but
third and fourth place win invitations only.

In an effort to lend support to those dedicated players and their
families, and to ensure that our champions are not facing financial
hardship in order to represent Canada at the Worlds, we are hoping
to generate Canada wide interest in fundraising at our leagues,
with our Tournament Organizers and our Premier Tournament
Organizers. All contributions, no matter how great or small,
whether organized or impromptu, could add up to a significant
difference for these great players and their families.

As a lead in for this effort, we have one PTO in Ontario and
another in Alberta (so far) ready to run fundraising tournaments
the weekend before Provincials. Many players will be excited to
test their tournament decks and the chance to win prizes generously
donated by the organizers and/or league members. The admission to
play will be $5.00 with all proceeds pledged to this cause. We are
hoping this will be a great success and that similar fundraising
tournaments will routinely run on the weekends before all upcoming
premier events such as Regionals and Nationals.

To extend this fundraising goal, other ideas have been tossed
around such as booster drafts just after a new series of cards is
officially released, bake sales, silent auctions, a "Poke Ball"
party with music, dancing and games. the possibilities are endless,
would be great fun for our league members and will help to promote
a national sense of pride for our Canadian team at Worlds.

If your league is interested (or you personally!) in participating in this Canada wide fundraising effort on any scale, great or small, we would love to hear from you! Please contact: Garret Dent (P_A here on the gym)
(garret.dent(at)sympatico.ca), phone: 705-424-6220 (home), or 705-770-
poké(7653) (cell) or Cynthia Robinson (Robinson007(at)shaw.ca),
phone: 780-487-9366 to share your ideas, pledge your support
and/or be counted in on promoting a National Poke-dream.

[P_A]

Yes, as such, we are holding a Pre-provincial event in the Kozlov Center hosted by "The Ice Box" on March 8th. Please see go-pokemon for details. All money raised will go towards this initiative. As far as I know in Alberta, the Engles are doing the same thing at one of their venues. There will be similar events before Regionals and Nationals as well. All such events across Canada will be promoted here. Let's all work together and help support our Canadian Nationals 3rd and 4th place finishers, so we can be well represented at World's.

[P_A]

More news to give out here:

Wow, have I got some news! I was prepared to make sure everyone walked away with something at our pre-provincial in Barrie on Sunday, but The Ice Box has come forward and stated they will underwrite a great offer for everyone. The price will still be $5 per person, but each and every person who shows up will get a random pack from their stock. And they have quite a selection including Stormfront and Platinum. That's on top of what I was expecting to give out to people for door prizes, and the top 4 tournament prizes! Wow, a lot of stuff is going into the effort for the adopt a champ initiative. Bring a friend everyone, and let's make this a tournament that will be long remembered!

[Dual_Draw]

We have a fundraiser even for this kind of thing tomorrow in BC.

[P_A]

Yeah, Mike got in touch with me and mentioned he'd like to help. Good for you guys, and thanks for your support.

[smacktack15]

Garret: Maybe bring in some video games like Wii/PS3/X360 and have a video game competition. It may help. I also might be able to help if there is a bake sale... I am one handy guy in the kitchen.

[MamaLugia]

Alright! The first of our Canada-wide results to raise some $$ for our National champions are in.

First, kudos to our generous TO's for their hard work to make this happen and their donation of prizes. Without their time, dedication and effort to organize these events, the current total would be $0.00. Second, kudos to our Pokemon TCG players for their enthusiasm and coming out to play. Woo-hoo to you! Without you, the current total would be $0.00. And third but not last, a special mention to two amazing young ladies who have dedicated part of their employment incomes to this fundraising effort. What is a word for that? Uber-cool.

Starting with B.C.: Mike from The Connection Games ran a very successful tournament with 23 great players and brought in a total of $115.00. Thank you Mike for donating a box of boosters for prizes, thank you BC players! Especially thank you for taking up the cause and spreading the word...
GOOD NEWS: At least two of Mike's players made the finals including a new Junior Provincial Champion - Mikes SON! WTG

Over to Ontario: Garret from Utopia Gaming brought players in on a Sunday for some pre-provincial action and saw 21 players show up on a day they would not normally play. Kudos to the Ice Box for their generosity in prize support and to you Garret for donating a box of booster packs for prizes! Side note: TWO of the winners of this event went on to a 2nd place finishs at Provincials - excellent. On to 1st at Regionals?? Total $$ added to the fund: $105.00. Garret will be posting a running total of the Canada-wide efforts on his website (as soon as the bad computer fairies are done messing with his system) so stay tuned for that.

Back over to Alberta: The Engel family from Mission Fun and Games hosted a 31 player pre-provincial event netting a lovely $155.00. Somehow or other, in addition to a box of Platinum booster packs divided between 1st, 2nd and 3rd in all divisions, they found prizes for every player in attendance. In addition, the "Retourn-ament" sanctioned events every Saturday after league continue to be a great success at $1.00 per player and combined with the generosity of the afore-mentioned amazing young ladies, the running total from that is now at $105.00. So far there is no end in sight for this weekly event. It's just way too much fun...

THE TOTAL SO FAR IS $480.00

[vegitalian]

Congratulations to everyone involved in this effort - it is a great idea and I think I speak for the players when I say that we really appreciate the lengths you are all going to make this happen.

For Ontario, from that tournament, the Senior winner (Jacob) went on to place 2nd in Seniors at Provincials, and I went on to place 2nd in the Masters. For an event that is raising money, there are a LOT of prizes at these events (thanks to the stores, TOs, and judges that are providing them).

I will definitely keep an eye out for future events and will do my best to show up. There is a lot of good experience to be had from going to these events.

[MamaLugia]

Hey thanks Vegitalian, keep coming, keep playing. It's all good.

Update from St. Albert, Alberta: Generous donations at the Provincials yesterday to the Adopt-A-Champion fund: $40.00. Woo-hoo!


TOTAL TO DATE: $520.00

[Muscovy Level X]

Wow, what an awesome idea!

[MamaLugia]

Glad you think so. Watch for a pre-Regional event and come to play if you can. We are hoping this will grow and we will get a bit of money going to our champions. Maybe it will be you?

[MamaLugia]

British Columbia Pre-Regional Fundraiser has been announced! Polish up your best decks and head over to The Connection Games for a Pre-Regional fundraising event on April 5, 2009. Show your support for your Canadian National Team, hone your skills and have a great time playing the best game ever!

For more information, contact Mike J. at 604-261-4588, check out www.go-Pokemon.com for tournaments or look for information on www.TheConnectionGames.com


Alberta Pre-Regional Fundraiser is set for April 11, 2009 to run after regular league at Mission Fun & Games in St. Albert. Some of our players are heading off to B.C. for the Regionals so come by and give them a really tough training session before they go. Admission is $5.00 with 100% of the money donated to the Adopt-A-Champion cause. There will be prizes of booster packs awarded for the top three in each age division. (And who knows, maybe a few other things to hand out?) We hope to see you there!

For more information: Look under Tournaments at www.go-Pokemon.com or www.boardgames.ca. Or call the store at 780-459-1055 and talk to some very friendly people...


Ontario Pre-Regional Fundraiser and (see below!) BAKE SALE is scheduled for April 11, 2009. The location is Gamer's Lair, Barrie. Come out to register at 10:30 a.m and buy some yummy Poke-cakes and Poke-cookies. Made with Poke-love so they have to be good! Garret plans on giving out something to every competitor, plus a box of cards given to the top 4 if he gets more than 15 players. $5 per person as usual, all money raised to go to the fund.

For more information: Look under Tournaments at www.go-Pokemon.com or call Garret at 705-424-6220

[P_A]

I'll let Mamalugia post the info I sent in regard to the Ontario (Barrie) pre-Regionals. However I will add that we will try to hold a bake sale that day as well to add to the fund. Good luck everyone. You don't wanna eat anything I made .... just kidding.

[MamaLugia]

Vancouver: Mike reports being crazy-busy with a trade show and with the Regionals happening just a few days away, I would say we are very fortunate he even had time to read his email much less answer. He had 18 people out at the April 5 fundraiser and added another tidy $90 to the Adopt-A-Champion fund. That brings the Vancouver total to $205.00! Way to go Vancouver.

Ontario: Garret also had 18 players out for the Pre-Regionals. There sure must have been a good response to your Poke-baking since the total is a very nice $125.00 from that event. That brings the Ontario total to $230.00! Way to go Ontario. (Editing for Garret's note below brings the total to $270.00!)

Alberta: (A) Ah, we have a two part story out here since Corinne R. over that the Capilano Mall Pokemon League put together a fund-raising double header for Easter Monday. Entry fee was $2.00 per tournament with all money going to the Adopt-A-Champion fund. Prizes were purchased with money gathered from the collection of recyclables at league and from small league fees. Both the morning and afternoon tournament were well attended with 19 in the morning ad 24 in the afternoon. Corinne wanted to give special thanks to her volunteers, the mall for allowing the event, and best of all - those awesome Pokemon Players for coming out and supporting our Champions. Total collected, $84.00! UPDATE: Corinne has been quietly accumulating a small amount (I think it's $1/month/player) as a league fee for the last several months and has added another $50.00 (Does that seem small? Well, it pushes the total up and over the $1100 mark and that's a long way from small. So thanks Capilano League!)

(B) John and Tracy hosted their Pre-Regional event and I have to guess a little here. The number may be a little skewed by the raffle of beautiful handpainted Pokemon Easter eggs. The total collected was $135.25. The Re-Tournament money is now up to $94.59 (I think people are dumping their change in there, since it is a dollar to play...). The money gathered from our lovely league ladies and gentleman is now up to $116.50. (You are amazing!) Combining all of this with the Pre-Provincials tournament amount of $155.00 gives us a running total of (drum roll) $501.34!

... Just in case it is not clear that we CAN make a collective difference if we have a good idea and go with it:


THE TOTAL TO DATE IS $1,110.34 AND COUNTING!


Way to go Canada, eh?

[P_A]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet or not, but just to add to this, the TDCanada Trust branch which holds the account for the adopt a champ fund has decided to not charge us for the first three months of the bank account, so the cost of having the account for those 3 months (plus another small amount) has been added to the total. $40 has been added. More events and opportunities to add to the fund are coming up! Please help out if you can.

[MamaLugia]

Thanks, Garret! I have adjusted the totals to reflect this now.

[smacktack15]

These tournaments are really fun.

Garret:

For Pre-Nationals, here are my ideas.

A structured DS tournament (Almost EVERY Pokemon player, and then some, have a DS with Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum). If you charge like 2-5$, you could make a nice amount of profit towards the Adopt-A-Champion.

A video-game competion (with Super Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart, etc.) All you need to ask for is for someone to bring their Wii, and for people to bring controllers.

A Pokemon auction. Get people to donate some stuff (DS games, GBA games, Cards, Video Game Pokemon, or plain money)

Bake Sale. I will enter something this time lol

[P_A]

It's going to be very tough to schedule a Pre-Nationals event with Battle Roads leading all the way up to the weekend before Nats, but I'll see what I can do. And I have a larger amount of BR's this time around to work with. Also, we have to work around the Ugly cup qualifier at Marvin's Oshawa store location on June 6th as well. But definitely if we do one, then we'll have the best value, ... and fun around.

[Chanman]

We should do a little more fun tournaments...with a small entry fee to make league fun and have some playable cards as prizes.

[P_A]

Ummm, not sure that would be appropriate chanman. So let's say I offer some playable cards to the winners. Don't you think they might have already gotten those playable cards already - otherwise what do you think they used to win with?

If anything, the playable cards should go to the beginners, or those who do terrible in the event. However if the good players think there's a possibility of the lowest ranking players getting some good cards - don't you think they may consider throwing their matches? Either way, good cards would go to the already good player, or the one who is willing to do whatever it takes to get them - including cheating or throwing a match. Thanks for the idea, but I don't think it's practical for us.

What would you think of a draft event - like a prerelease (if I can get enough boxes together)? If we ran an early Battle Road event, then had a draft for a side event, or a draft and another event (where you could maybe win 1/2 box for 1st place like all the other fundraising events) do you think we'd have a decent turnout? I'm just thinking upon what my options are for now - No guarantees that any of this will happen.

[Chanman]

Draft events would be cool