Black River Technical College (BRTC) Academic Advisor and ADA Coordinator Dr. Zachary Singleton has been spreading a little happiness to patients at Minnesota Children’s Hospital.
Earlier this year Singleton and his brother sold their late father’s house. After the funds were split and Singleton received his portion he decided to put some of the money towards brightening someone else’s day. He did his research and found an organization called Gamers Outreach.
Gamers Outreach is “a charity that empowers hospitalized children through video games”. The charity realizes that staying in a hospital can feel isolating, especially to children, and can take away key childhood moments. The outreach aims to put video game equipment and software in pediatric hospitals to give children a feeling of normalcy. Gamers Outreach also gathers volunteers to go to those hospitals and play the games with the kids so they do not have to play alone every time.
Once he was connected with Gamers Outreach Singleton was given a list of pediatric hospitals that were able to take donations. He had originally planned to give to Arkansas Children’s Hospital, but they were not able to take donations at the time. However, there was an option that caught his eye, Minnesota Children’s Hospital.
“I donated to the Minnesota Children’s Hospital in memory of my dad,” Singleton said, “Years ago I made a few trips with him to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to get some tests done for him. Those were some of my favorite times with him.”
Minnesota Children's Hospital staff with the gaming cart provided through Singleton's donation.
Singleton said it was an easy decision to donate to the Minnesota Children’s Hospital. With his donation Gamers Outreach was able to send the hospital a fully equipped gaming cart, including a Nintendo Switch, controllers, and games. He was given an update from the hospital after the donation arrived and was told the cart was already very popular.
Another reason Singleton decided to donate through Gamers Outreach was because he had experienced a similar issue as a child. He thought back to when he was younger and had a surgery at St. Bernard’s. The hospital, at the time, had a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) that he could take to his room. Singleton said being able to play with the SNES helped take his mind off of all of the tests doctors had to do and post-surgery pains.
Even though he was not able to donate to any Arkansas children’s facilities, Singleton still found a way to make a donation close to home. Being BRTC’s ADA Coordinator he knows how important it is for all students to be given the same opportunities to participate. Singleton donated a Play Station 5 Access Controller to the BRTC Esports lounge on the Pocahontas campus. The controller allows for multiple configurations and extra devices to be added to it.
“I wanted to make sure everyone who attends BRTC can enjoy playing video games as much as possible, and this controller will allow them to do that,” Singleton said.
