Giving and Healing

The last six months have been a wild ride. We had a wonderful trip to Japan full of exploration and happy reunions with friends. Rio Giving Games had our first major fundraising event with Boise Brewing and raised enough money for lots of games and consoles. But also, we had terrible news of the recurrence of tumor in Rio’s brain.

After a successful surgery we are entering into the next phase of treatment and Rio remains in great spirits. We’re happy to continue the work of the non profit and get games to kids who are stuck in the hospital. We hope to bring some fun into their daily routines- having fun always helps the healing process!

Rio and Ependymoma

In 2021 my son Rio was diagnosed with a rare type of spinal chord tumor called ependymoma. He underwent surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment in Boise and Seattle. Suffice to say we spent a lot of time in the hospital and its a boring place. I played games with him on my phone to pass the time. He mostly liked Angry Birds- until I downloaded one of my old favorites- Final Fantasy. We quickly devoured Final Fantasy 9 (which I chose because I thought he would like the cute characters) but we moved on to Final Fantasy 7 and he was all in. He was excited to start our adventure every morning and would talk past bed time about where the story might be taking us.

We decided to get him a Nintendo Switch so he could have a real gaming system of his own. The portable system was perfect for him to use during his hospital stay, and he quickly made his way through most of the Mario games, Metroid, Animal Crossing, and of course several Final Fantasies. It made a huge difference in his stay and it made us feel that we could help other kids if they haven’t had the opportunity or exposure to mobile gaming during their hospitalization.

Rio is currently enjoying recovery from his ordeal and continues to be an avid gamer.