Games for the Globe: Nonprofit Created by Teens Needs Your Support

COMMUNITY NEWS Games for the Globe

Nonprofit Created by Teens Needs Your Support

Like many teens, Ethan Schneider stayed home a lot in the past year. He noticed piles of video games in the living room, no longer in use, because they were designed for the Xbox 360, which he has outgrown.

So Ethan, 15, and brother Andrew, 13, decided to donate them to kids who would enjoy them as much as he once did.

“For us, it just made more sense to donate our games and share the fun instead of selling them for next to nothing — most outdated games devalue quickly anyway,” Ethan said.

Ethan, who attends Los Gatos High School, and his brother, who attends CT English Middle School, founded Games for the Globe.

It is a 501c(3) nonprofit located in the Santa Cruz Mountains that collects and ships used video games to non-governmental organizations in Kenya, who then redistribute the games to schools, hospitals and churches.

The goal is to repurpose and redistribute the massive storage of used video game supplies in American households.

They identified Close the Gap as a good partner, delivering pre-owned computers to developing and emerging countries to bridge the digital divide.

The first shipment of 500+ games has already gone out.

Thebrothersplacedtheirfirstdonationbin at the Summit Store, which resulted in many donations from the mountain community.

Then they got permission to put a donation bin at the Scotts Valley Market.

They are accepting donations of consoles, controllers and games of any kind from anyone who has games not in use and would like to make other children happy.

Scotts Valley Market is at 14 Victor Square, Scotts Valley. To learn more about Games for the Globe, see gamesfortheglobe.org. n

Brothers Ethan and Andrew Schneider, founders of Games for the Globe, with their donation bin at Scotts Valley Market.

“COVID Update” from page 8

A study in China referenced by The New York Times found viral loads in Delta cases 1,000 times higher than the alpha or beta variants.

Tracking pro athletes has found players who test positive carry very high amounts of virus for seven to 10 days compared to two or three days of the initial virus.

The Times cited two Delta spread situations.

One was a bachelorette party where a dozen vaccinated but unmasked attendees went to downtown bars in Oklahoma City. Afterward, 17 guests at the July 10 wedding re ported positive tests and mild symptoms.

The other was July 4 in Massachusetts: 256 cases — two-thirds vaccinated and 66 in other states — were tracked back to Provincetown, where a reported 60,000 unmasked people celebrated at bars and house parties.

Since June, the number of recoveries in Santa Cruz County has increased from 15,975 to 16,153 and fully vaccinated numbers from 144,000 to 155,600, with 178,600 fully vaccinated.

This means 56.8% of the population is fully vaccinated and 65% partly vaccinated.

Hospital Impacts

On July 22, Dr. Nanette Mickiewicz, CEO at Dignity Health Dominican Hospital, said there has been an uptick in COVID patients.

“They are unvaccinated,” she said.

By the time they get admitted, it’s too late to give the vaccine to impact their outcome, she explained.

Health officials coined the term “vaccine hesitancy” to describe people choosing not to vaccinate.

Some are concerned about long-term side effects, and since the vaccines were created and tested in a year, those results are not available yet. Some may be mothers caring for young children at home; others may have jobs that don’t allow time off.

Job Rebound

On June 15, the state reopened for business after crimping life for more than a year to knock out the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected 3,830,008 and taken 63,800 lives statewide.

Tourism and ag rebounded in Santa Cruz County, adding 2,200 jobs in ag, and 600 in food service and hotels between mid-May and mid-June, boosting total jobs in the county to 105,400.

June unemployment was 6.9%, down from12.2%ayearago,frustratingshort-staffed employers. Still, 9,200 people are jobless.

Indeed.com reports Scotts Valley has 80 jobs paying $35 an hour, including Warmboard, UC Santa Cruz, and the city of Scotts Valley, offering $6,987 monthly for an entry-level police officer. n