There’s some Charity in this world Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting [games of MESBG] for!

Often in our community we heap praise upon players winning tournaments, the efforts of our top painters and tournament organisers for running great events.

But I find it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, keeping the darkness at bay which deserve celebrating.

In this little article we will recognise some of the outstanding efforts done across the country by GBHL Tournament Organisers (TOs) to raise money for good causes. Hopefully it inspires you to give back through your own organising efforts or at least attend one of these great events and be part of something incredible!

The Hobbits saved Middle Earth through their efforts. Could you save Earth by simple playing games with Hobbits? (Credit Shadow & Flame)

 The Charity Event:

Often the simplest way to raise money for charity is by running an event specifically for the chosen charity. TOs will simply use ticket sales to pay for the venue, prizes etc and then put any left over funds towards the charity.

• Recently veteran TO Charles Sims raised £396.58 doing just this for Mind the mental health charity

• If you want to attend an upcoming GBHL Charity event you can check out Harry Parkhill’s (the famous drummer) event, The Entmoot Invitational, which will be raising money for a very imPawtant cause Guide Dogs

• Over the years GBHL TOs have done some outstanding efforts, including the team at the Drawn Combat blog who - through GBHL events - raised thousands of pounds for various causes such as Cancer Research and The Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Their herculean efforts even resulted in the GBHL recognising the team with a ‘Hero of Middle-earth’ award. It returns in just a few weeks, and some tickets are still available!

• Some GBHL Regulars are also raising money for charity in an upcoming event they're calling 'The Longest Middle Earth Tournament'. They're playing games in one venue, then trekking 45 miles to another venue in aid of charity!

The GBHL will usually forgo league fees for TOs running events that raise funds for charity – for more information on this please contact your GBHL Regional Rep to discuss your event idea and how we can help.

You don’t even have to run the event or attend the event to support as TOs running these would appreciate any prize support you might be able to offer. For example the fantastic Fable Creative supported an event I ran once with a professionally painted Fellowship of the Ring set!

The Charity Raffle:

Sometimes TOs running fantastic GBHL events that are not specifically in aid of charitable causes will go out of their way to add on a way to raise funds anyway. One of these is offering a raffle where players can choose to buy raffle tickets. As mentioned above the prizes for these are often donated by the TOs, event sponsors or players. Allowing every £ raised to go straight to the charity!

The famous Scouring of Stirlingshire, raised £472 last year through it’s raffle in aid of the Strathcarron Hospice

The Charity Tuck Shop:

Another way to add onto a standard GBHL event is by raising funds through bake sales and charity tuck shops.

You too could be as happy as professional cake squaffler Marcus O’Burn (pictured here eating a delicious kanelbullar) whilst helping raise money for charity

The Defence of the North Bristol, one of the UK’s largest Doubles tournaments, does this with signature authentic Swedish Kanelbullar at it’s centre piece.  Over the years the charity tuck shop has helped raise over £300 for Water Aid.

You don’t even have to be the event organiser to do this (though it is best to ask for permission first!) as recently James Braund attended 7 Stones as a player where he sold delicious Lembas Bread he had baked in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Out the box ideas:

You don’t even need to run or attend events to raise money for worthy causes in the GBHL. For example GBHL community member, Henry Brittain, ran a 24 hour stream (where he talked about the game, played some games, had on guests, hosted quizzes, painted and drank a whole bucket of caffeine to keep going!) and through donations from community members, his employer and the GBHL itself (yes we do have heart strings stronger than our purse strings!) raised £1,700 towards the Alzheimer’s Society

So when it comes to using our hobby to give back to the community / the world through raising money and awareness for noble causes there really is no limit to how you can do it other than your imagination!

Thank you to all those in this article for their efforts, as well as those not named also doing great work through our hobby. Hopefully it has inspired you to undertake your own fundraising or at the very least support one of the great events or causes mentioned above.