Samuel Steffanina, the Co-Founder of WolvesDAO, has amassed over $66,980 via a 24-hour game-streaming donation drive. The funds will be used to treat kids at Intermountain Children’s Health, a local children’s hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Announcing the same on X, Steffanina exclaimed,
“My first stream ever is a wrap!!! $66,980 and the 4th largest charity event in ExtraLife’s history… Web3 gaming has the best people on earth.”
The initial target of the donation drive was set at $50k, but the amount collected surpassed it by 33.96%.
Several stalwarts from the industry associated with projects like Crescendo, bitgrit, Upptic, Uprising blockchain, Playember, Nyan Heros, Rambe Games, The EmpireX, Shrapnel, and Parallel cheered and donated to this cause.
A particular user claimed,
“It’s [Web3 gaming] inevitable only cos of people like yourself doing absolutely cracked things like this. LFG”
On the donation page, only payment gateways like Amazon Pay, Venmo, and PayPal were available. A particular user said that if crypto donations were opened, the drive could have netted multiple times more the collected amount.
Intermountain Children’s Health is a member of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Regardless of the ability to pay, all critically ill and injured children are treated at hospitals from this chain.
Since its inception in 1983, the hospital network has raised over $9 billion. Costco, Walmart, 7-Eleven, and Panda Express are among the associated partners.
According to Intermountain’s 2023 impact report, around 40% of the funds collected last year were dedicated to patient services that supported the physical, mental, and emotional health of kids and families.
The next major chunk of funds, i.e. 37%, was diverted towards charitable care to provide free or reduced-cost health services.
Meanwhile, 15% was shelled out towards education, 4% towards research and treatment, while the remaining 4% was split equally between equipment and advancement services.
Steffanina united with a clan of gamers to play games and raise funds. The stream kickstarted on 29 August at 10 AM EST and featured special guests, fun segments, and surprises for donors.
Donors started pouring in funds a week before the stream itself. ‘DOUG HYPE’ was the first donor and was followed by ‘Soby.’
Less than a fortnight back, Steffanina was part of a “really scary” car accident that left him flipping 180 degrees. He had the resources to care for himself and recover but underlined that not everyone is privileged enough.
He and his family have faced tough financial times in the past, and it's from these personal hardships — rooted deeply in his own journey — that the idea for the donation drive stemmed.
With an unwavering dedication to advance Web3 gaming and enhance its real-world impact on people’s lives, Steffanina said,
“This industry has a ton of money in it, a ton of talented people. It’s got so many resources. If we can do something good for other people, while also being able to have fun and feature great Web3 games, and great founders, and great content creators, and great people, we should be doing that — more often. I am going to be the change I want to see in this space.”
