Team raising money for children’s hospital

 

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — You don’t have to have a lot of fancy gadgets or be genetically mutated to be a hero. You don’t even have to wear a cape or a mask.

All you have to do is help someone in need.

And that’s exactly what a couple of “nerds” from South Point are doing.

Brice Barnett and Adam Kipp, known on YouTube as the Standard Nerds, are raising money for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in a way that couldn’t be more appropriate for their moniker.

On Oct. 25, the friends will take on a 24-hour gaming marathon called Extra Life.

The premise is simple — Play games. Heal kids.

Barnett and Kipp, along with fellow Columbus-based Nerds Derek Rowe and John Linkous, will join more than 1,000 other teams in the gaming session, which benefits Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals all over the country.

As Ohio natives, Barnett and Kipp chose to game for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

When they first discovered Extra Life, the two admitted the concept was right up their alley.

“We followed a lot of our favorite YouTube channels and they really got into it,” Kipp said. “This is where we discovered the idea, a 24-hour gaming session for charity. We just knew immediately. We had inadvertently been training for this for 14 years.”

And any kind of game is, well, game.

“It doesn’t have to all be video games,” Barnett said. “It can be board games, card games, as long as it’s something you play with people.”

The team set a $1,000 goal and every penny earned will go the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, they said.

“Everything is going to the hospital,” Barnett said. “We get nothing from this. It’s all for a good cause.”

So far the Standard Nerds have raised $350 of their goal, but the team is hoping to garner more support at Saturday’s Tri-State Comic Con at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington.

The team has a booth at the convention and will raffle off an array of prizes, from comic book action figures and trade paperbacks to games, posters and gift certificates.

Two big-ticket items collectors can watch for are a 9.4 CGC grade Amazing Spiderman No. 300 with the first appearance of Venom and a full-sized replica red Mighty Morphin Power Rangers helmet made by Legacy Concepts.

“The big thing we are shooting for is earning money with the raffle,” Barnett said.

Tickets for the raffle are $2 each or 3 for $5.

The Nerds will also have some items for sale and will accept donations at their booth, located just inside the entrance to the convention. Donations are tax deductible.

Donations can also be made through the team’s Extra Life page at www.extra-life.org/team/thestandardnerds.

Admission for the comic con is $10 and is from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday.

“If you ever wanted to be a superhero, what better place to feel like it than at a comic book convention and what better way to do it than by literally saving children’s lives,” Barnett said. “You can’t get any closer than that.”