Did you know Microsoft has teamed up with the Children’s Miracle Network to install three fully-equipped Xbox 360 gamerooms at three lucky hospitals? These hospitals will be chosen by an online vote that started weeks ago and is set to wrap up just before Midnight tomorrow. Currently there are four hospitals racing for the three spots: University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Hurley Medical Center, and Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
You have to admit that it’s a pretty rad promotion aimed at helping sick kids. These gamerooms are valued at $10,000 apiece and Microsoft is donating three of them. Plus, each time you vote for a hospital (and you can do it up to 10 times a day), you’re entered into a drawing to win an Xbox 360 yourself. Major props on the contest, Microsoft, but how about stepping up and donating just one more gameroom?
I have been participating in the online vote from the very beginning because Hurley Medical Center in Flint, MI is not only where I was born, but more recently, my two kids as well. The non-profit hospital is in the heart of one of the most disparaged cities in America, but has managed to stay one of the very best children’s hospitals in the region without the aid of outside funding. In fact, it’s the most northern-based Level One trauma and burn unit hospital in the state. Needless to say, this hospital sees and treats the sickest of Michigan’s sick kids. It’s had my vote since the start.
But I’m sure the other three hospitals in the running are amazing and well deserving too. All four of the local communities have supported the cause too. The Flint Journal, Iowa City’s Press Citizen, central Arkansas Fox 16, and Mississippi’s Clarion Ledger all have news articles posted in the last 24 hours reminding its readers to go vote.
As of writing the leader, University of Iowa Children’s Hosptial, has 1,902,590 votes followed closely by Hurley with 1,863,900, Arkansas Children’s Hospital with 1,862,000, and Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children with 1,859,200. Anyone that has been voting daily like I have will tell you that the top four spots change often. 24 hours ago, Iowa was in fourth place, but in the usual fashion has leap-frogged to the head of the line.
It’s a shame that kids in all of 152 eligible hospitals will not be able to have kick-ass gamerooms to assist in their recovery. But these four hospitals have been on the top from the very beginning and they each deserve to win. This contest has no doubt brought local awareness to the children’s hospital, which is a win all by itself, but a gameroom is so much more. As it stands right now though, one hospital’s children will lose out.
Losing is a part of life, but please, Microsoft, step up to the plate and do the right thing. Don’t let these kids down. Donate gamerooms to the top four hospitals instead of the top three. They all deserve it.
i agree, this is how i feel too. hurley has had my vote from day one also.
Providing game rooms to all 152 hospitals ($1.52M) would probably — by far — be the most effective form of promotion they’ve ever done yet for their gaming division.
I wonder what some of the hospitals think. They all might not want to become video game hotspots but who knows. Then again gaming can be therapeutic.
Anyway, on Bing alone they’ve had a $100M ad campaign. But we can’t expect MS to be everything to everyone. Guess we’ll see what their ultimate plan is/was…
dont you just hate it when people say “do the right thing” – that’s very subjective.
hey Matt – do the “right thing” and match Microsoft’s giving to the hospitals.
It really gets to me when people think they should be telling others who are already doing good things to “do the right thing”
wow, he is only saying with all the money microsoft has they should just give one more game room because they have been so close for the long run.
In the blink of an eye, Microsoft can make $40,000. To sit there and have 3 hospitals out of 4 win, and 1 be left out is pretty stupid. If they said 3 out of 100, that’s one thing, but they need to step up and give the losing hospital a room too, I mean, it’s for sick kids, I wouldn’t want to be the PR guy who has to tell the one hospital that they lost out.
Agreed. And so what if it is 152 hospitals? It’s Microsoft. How many millionaires were made by MS–10,000? More?
So why not do the right thing and give to all 152 hospitals involved?
Why don’t you, and techcrunch, do the right thing and shoulder the donation for one of the hospitals? Or do you just spend other peoples money?
Arkansas Children’s Hospital has my vote. I went there when I was a child.
WOW! 3 hospitals?……..although I think this is great gestures I think Microsoft and game makers can do better that ONLY 3 hospitals.
Right, because Microsoft only gives to one charity, and this happens to be that one, so they can definitely afford it!
Also Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center… PLEASE VOTE FOR US!!!!!!!!!!
Great! but Microsoft needs to add more and more hospitals.
This is a great cause and the first I heard of it. Living in Mississippi, my vote will definitely go for Blair E Batson – if I can ever get the login page to load.
I think TechCrunch broke the CMN site…
Thanks for covering this – I will be trying to send a little extra traffic as I think it is an excellent cause.
from a responsibility/pr/reputation prespective, outright donating game rooms to all four contenders results in something: less awareness! People are less likely to vote, and thus less likely to pass the info around. Instead, stories are being written, people are voting left and right, and microsoft will get even more attention if they end up donating the fourth room in the long run.
This is funny.
ONLY MICROSOFT when donating $30K worth to hospital would people find someway to put a negative sping.
Well, seems the problem is there is only 4 hospitals in the run. Why not just give it to all 4?
Then the hospital in 4th should work its butt off to get back in the top 3 rather than creating blogs stating how unfair it is that Microsoft wont donate another $10,000. The fact is that Microsoft doesn’t have to donate to any hospitals and I find it amazing that people are feeling mistreated because they are losing a contest. Sure it would be great if Microsoft would donate $10,000 to every hospital but Microsoft offered 3 which is better than none. And secondly the contest was designed from the beginning for the top 3 to get a game room. If a hospital comes in 4th because they were unable to generate as many votes as the other 3 then they should have tried harder and I don’t see how any one was mistreated.
If you give a mouse a cookie…
seems the problem is you don’t read the article.
it’s 154 hospitals.. not 4.
There are just 4 close hospitals.
Apple fans aren’t all that smart.
Should have teamed up with Child’s Play…
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/
I assumed they are doing the “3 out of 4″ to just build anticipation/hype, and then the 4th will be given their gameroom too at the conclusion.
will you be just as positive as you are negative if they give the 4?
plus the way your spinning the article makes it sounds like microsoft is excluding the 4th hospital, but really they are choosing the top 3 of 152. not top 3 of only 4.
You’re article really seems to make you look like a self righteous ass. You slant the article to make it seem to look like something negative while it’s actually a positive thing that Microsoft is doing. And I hate Microsoft.
Your thoughts and intentions are misguided. Sure I would like to see the hospital that I take my son to get one of these game rooms. But I don’t use the slanting a story to get that.
Sure Microsoft could afford to give a game room to each of the 152 (not 4) hospitals on the list. But don’t make it look like their doing something wrong in an article when for once they’re actually doing something good.
Really? Huh. Self righteous ass? Alrighty. Thanks for reading it anyway. Your comment is a great asset to the cause.
I don’t think your story was a great asset to the cause for that matter either.
Self righteous, maybe. Ass, probably not. Fanboy, definately. Lame article on a slant, no question. How about TC put its money where its mouth is. Do your own game room donation. I’ve noticed your own contests don’t give prizes to everyone.
+1
wow you are cool saying stuff like that when we are talking about a childrens network. you just spinned his article the way you wanted to make it sound like your cool. listen everyone what matt did came from his heart. and for everyone that is reading into it wrong read it again then check out the site.
Agreed
Yeah…and stop irraticating polio and sponsoring vaccinations across the world and ’step up’.
MSFT & Gates are great. They may kill companies, but their legacy will be saving millions of lives!
It’s a pretty random thing to do. 30000$ is nothing for companies like microsoft. All the time we spend voting is worth more than the game rooms. The positive attention Microsoft seeks to get is worth more than the game rooms.
You know what sucks? People who aren’t donating anything insisting people who are give me. Kudos to Microsoft for donating anything at all. You are douchebags for finding a way to criticize them while they do it.
+1
+10000
TC do the right thing and donate the gameroom to the 4th hospital.
If this was Apple or Google, Matt would have given every congratulatory possible. Stop hating on MSFT.
Oh boy, yet another one of these stories: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/14/microsoft-has-found-the-cheapest-meals-in-america-or-is-just-cheap/.
Microsoft _will_ do the right thing. It is one of the most charitable companies and their employees donate millions each year which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of other multimillion dollar companies.
I’m sure $10,000 isn’t a lot for you Matt Burns & MG (or TechCrunch for that matter). So how about it Mr. Matt Burns, why don’t you and MG put your money where you mouth is and donate the money for the hospital that you so much love and that way ALL 4 of the hospitals receive the gamerooms?
I’d love to see this as a TechCrunch headline: Matt Burns and MG match Microsoft and donate $10,000 to Hurley Medical Center.
So how about it? Or are you just a hypocrite?
152 hospitals = $1.52 million.
microsoft should spend some one $100 million bing promotion budget on this!!!
anyone else agrees??
Right, because Microsoft only gives to one charity, and this happens to be that one.
They don’t have to fork-over a $10,000 game room to all 152 hospitals. Point is, they’ve called attention to their charitable giving by promoting it via a contest to see who gets the most online votes. But a contest situation like this doesn’t look so good when children’s hospitals are involved.
All they would have to do is give all the hospitals a certain amount XBoxes without having to go through the whole building of a game room or keep the contest and still give the donation of XBoxes to all the hospitals. Everyone comes out a winner.
I am an RN at Hurley Medical center and I work on the pediatric unit. I just want to say that we have been doing anything and everything to spread the word for this contest. We are a hospital with virtually no money, the only pediatric unit in the area, and the only hospital that will not turn anyone away regardless of their insurance status. In today’s economy, especially here in Michigan, with the fall of the automotive industry, there is a rise in uninsured individuals and families. This means that our hospital has to swallow even more costs. This is something that we would never be able to afford and is an awesome opportunity for us and for our kids. Everything that we have has been donated, either by individuals, or by fundraising and Children’s Miracle Network. It is awesome to see our small community banding together and voting for something so great. As we have struggled to stay in the top 3, I think it would be wonderful for all 4 of these hard-working hospitals to win. I would hate for us to fall short at the very end to 3 other much larger hospitals with more money in larger communities. I thank everyone that has voted for us, and I thank Microsoft and Children’s Miracle Network for affording us this opportunity.
Yeah!!!
Matt, was wondering if you could get a blog started for me. We lost our soccer game last night by 2 points. I think that because we were so close to winning we have been mistreated and I think we deserve the win because it was so close.
M$ should pony up another ten large and give all four hospitals a game room. It’s not like they’re short on cash.
Sure is easy to spend other peoples money??
Matt, you are right on, each of these four have demonstrated a great deal of support from their local communities. We have been suppoorting Blair Batson, but the other three have been stong. With state money tight there is no other way for the University Medical Center to provide this opportunity for this unit.
Hey I have an idea…Apple just posted record profits…why don’t they give the 4th hospital one of their game systems? Wait a minute…Apple doesn’t have a game system..right.