News Journal employee hosting Tabletop Day event for charity April 28

For one day each spring, board game enthusiasts all over the world come together to celebrate their favorite hobby with International Tabletop Day.

Individual gamers and/or gaming groups celebrate the event in a variety of different ways, but it has become common over the years to use the occasion as a means to bring awareness to an important cause or charity.

In 2018, Geek & Sundry, a popular news and information source for everything related to “geek culture,” is encouraging people to use ITTD as an opportunity to help raise funds for charity:water, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to bringing safe drinking water to communities in need all over the globe.

News Journal sports editor and advertising representative Trevor Sherman enjoys playing board games in his free time, and has celebrated ITTD in some form or another for the past several years. Normally that would involve simply getting together with friends to play a few games, but this year he is hoping to contribute to the charity:water cause by hosting his own fundraiser event at You & Me Coffee & Tea in downtown Corbin on Saturday, April 28 from 2:00-6:00 p.m.

“The plans that I had initially made for Tabletop Day fell through,” Sherman said. “So I went online to look for other ideas about how I could celebrate. That is when I found out about Geek & Sundry partnering with charity:water, which sounded like a pretty cool thing. I approached Andy Salmons down at You & Me Coffee & Tea about using his shop as the location for a fundraiser, and he was all for it.”

Sherman is inviting gamers of all ages to make their way to You & Me at some point during the four hours that he will be present on April 28. He will have several different games available to play, and is encouraging others to bring games of their own if they would like. All he asks is that anyone who comes by to play a game make at least a $1 donation to charity:water.

“This is not a tournament, or anything like that,” Sherman explained. “It will just be 4-5 hours of folks playing board games, having a good time and supporting a great cause. I am asking that everyone chip in at least $1 if they come down to play, but if anyone wants to donate more, that would be fantastic.”

After the fundraiser is complete, Sherman will take all of the money raised and make an online donation through the charity:water website. The organization’s goal is to raise at least $10K, which will completely fund a single water project for a community or a school. For more information, go online to my.charitywater.org, tabletopday.com or geekandsundry.com.