WOODBURY – Nonnewaug’s E-Sports and club supervisor Katie Blake is preparing and hosting the Mario Kart Fundraiser for Jonathan Cheung, an NHS senior who is fighting a battle against Leukemia. Throughout the school year many clubs and organizations have been working hard to raise money to help support Jonathan and the Cheung family. With this in mind, Blake along with other members of the E-Sports team, have started a Mario Kart fundraiser where all of the proceeds will be sent to the Cheung family.
Many members of the Nonnewaug community, staff and students, have all agreed that this fundraiser will be a creative way to raise money. Dr. Mykal Kuslis, the NHS Principal, was one of the administrative faculty members who signed off on the project.
“This is a great way to get students, teachers, and the community to support Jonathan Cheung while using a different approach to fundraising,” Kuslis stated.
The fundraiser will be hosted in the LMC on May 20th from 1-3 pm. It will consist of the gaming tournament as well as a pizza party. Any student interested in competing or just going for the food can either see Ms. Blake in room B01 for more information or find the QR code on some of the flyers around the school to reserve a spot. The cost of admission will be $20 to compete in the Mario Kart tournament and $10 to spectate.
“Sign up as early as possible,” Flynn Amodio, an event coordinator, explained. “There are limited spots of up to 40 competitors available.”
Delia Coelho is another member of the E-Sports team who will be assisting in the fundraiser.
“We are aiming for the sign up deadline to be during the week of May 4th,” Coelho said. “The deadline after spring break ensures competitors will be in the bracket.”
As for details of how the event will work, there are no set plans as of right now. However, Blake and the volunteering E-Sports members do have an idea of what the fundraiser will look like.
“We’re hoping to have two main brackets,” Blake explains. “The main bracket with prizes and a late bracket for anyone who signs up past the deadline without prizes.”
“Additionally, there will be a late registration (lag) bracket, for extra competitors,” Delia Coelho explained. “For this bracket, we won’t be having any prizes for anyone that does sign up past the deadline.”
The location will be the NHS library, a space that allows for a large viewing area and plenty of room for fans to watch the competition.
“We chose the LMC because it has more space, and can provide multiple switches for continuous gaming,” Amodio explained.
While the event will be nothing short of a memorable event for students and the Cheung family, Blake and her students know that this will still be a competitive event.
“We chose Mario Kart because it’s familiar to many and didn’t need much experience in the game in order to play,” said Blake. “We will also be pairing players with higher skill level with other players and less experienced players with less experienced players to have balanced and fair matches for everyone that competes.”
