Bringing people together in play to help animals sounds like a winning combination, and so it was for Playing for Pets 2022. The first instance of the charity event at Southern Illinois University raised $605 and included over 50 participants.
Playing for Pets is a two-day event held April 7 and 8 from 8 AM to 8 PM both days. The event livestreamed faculty, students, and staff playing video games together across Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Most of the games were multiplayer focused, allowing multiple people to appear on camera playing together. Games included Gang Beasts, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Pac-Man 256, and others across PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, and PlayStation 5.
The event was sponsored by the School of Communication Studies, the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and Saluki Games. The beneficiary this year was St. Francis CARE, a Murphysboro, IL based no-kill animal shelter. The CMST 486 course, which this semester was titled Video Games: Art, Culture, and History of a Medium, all spent hours anchoring the event along with PRSSA members. SIU News, WSIU radio, and WSIL-TV all covered the event.
Faculty sponsor Justin Young was excited by the success of the event “It’s great to help a cause everyone can get behind,” Young said before adding, “But the memories are of how much fun everyone had being brought together.”
You can watch a complete replay of the event here on the site.
