THE JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE: GAMEHOLE CON – DARK TOWER – SET HAS BEEN DEFEATED!

Hello all!  A brave cadre of crawl heroes played throughout the day on October 19th, 2024 to pit their heroic neophytes against the vastly superior forces of the dark god Set, and emerged victorious through their pluck and donations to the noble cause!  Through their donations in game and in raffles (of awesome arts – plushie and drawn!), we have a current total of $4,040 to give to the American Cancer Society! That is a full $1,000 more than last year’s totals minus our $2,000 angel donation; that is incredible! Additionally, That puts our Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure’s 5 years of charity events over our $20K mark, to a total of $23,452.95! Thank you to all who contributed so generously to the cause!

71 players (and some first-timers through our Golden Ticket trial characters!) ran through the DCC OAR release of Dark Tower with their 0-level crawlers, taking on this high-level adventure with their cleverness and moxy, uncovering Mitra’s Lions avatars to battle for the cause, while using the power of their donations to move the story and skirmishes forward!  The players were able to recover the pieces of the sacred Lion of Mitra statue and defeat the malevolent lich Pnessutt and his Sons of Set minions to cleanse the defiled Dark and White Towers of Set’s overreaching evil!

This force of heroes has enabled the American Cancer Society to perform their vital research and education, helping to prevent the disease and aid those afflicted in their time of need. THANK YOU, heroes, for giving your treasure to make this possible!

We do have a few things to wrap up for the event, so please read over the following:

  • We are wrapping up on items being awarded – thank you sponsors providing your awesome works! Check out the tournament prizes awarded!
  • We do have an issue with the Jennell Jaquays/Thanatar original artwork that we raffled off; the winner never collected it! We want to get this into the winner’s hands, however they did not leave any contact information on the raffle ticket. If you did participate in the Thanatar raffle and still have your tickets, the winner number was: Green Ticket 326202
    If you are the winner and can send us a picture of the ticket, we’d love to get this awarded to you. Please contact us at jerryscrawlforthecure@gmail.com. Thank you!
  • Finally, we need to emphasize our policy on sending physical rewards post-convention. We posted it this year, but it wasn’t as visible as we would have wanted, so we’ll reiterate it here for future events, as well as display it prominently:
    • We cannot send out physical rewards after the convention, shipping is costly these days, and we cannot continue the process.
    • You can pick up your physical rewards: 1) During the event throughout the day, 2) At the end of the event – we wrap up at 8 PM, 3) In the Atrium on Sunday from 12:00 PM until 2:30 PM.
    • For this round, we’re going to send the items to donors; we’ll have them pay us for shipping if they’d like to still receive them, however, we will foot the shipping cost for this year and add the collected total to this year’s donations giving an extra boost for the American Cancer Society.
    • In the future, uncollected physical items will be reserved for the next year’s event.
    • Please note this policy for future events. We want to get you your rewards for your generous donations, but the post-Con mailing is too much of a burden in time and treasure! Thank you for your continued consideration in this matter!

Finally, we wanted to thank the incredible people involved with making Crawl for the Cure Gamehole: Dark Tower possible:

  • Our incredible Sponsors!  The amount of generosity our sponsors give us to award you for your donations is staggering.  Please visit our sponsors list, review their incredible products and consider purchasing their wonderful works for your holiday and birthday shopping!  Thank you, sponsors for providing so much to encourage our donors to give! 
  • Our incredible Judges:
    • Julian Bernick
    • Gary Cunningham
    • Jason Hobbs
    • Brian Martin
    • Jim Meyers
    • Edwin Nagy
    • Keith Nelson
    • Bjorn Nelson
    • Christophor Rick
    • Paul Smith
  • Jim Meyers – “the builder” – Thank you Jim for your incredible works making the Crawl for the Cure even better!  Jim provided the awesome Judge stands to keep us organized, the Lions Statue of Mitra prop for the event, and if you rang the Gong of Doom in celebration of your character’s demise, was also from the hands of Jim Meyers! Thank you for making things awesome, Jim!
  • Peter Garancis – Peter created the beautiful Pillar of Strength, to visually display and celebrate those loved ones lost to cancer and the strength of those who have survived!  Thank you, Peter, for this wonderful reminder of the effect of cancer in our lives!
  • Bill Walters – for contributing awesome stuff from your collection for donor benefit every year AND being the main support gopher at the Crawl!
  • Keith Nelson – for the concept of the Lion Statue of Mitra, which helped cement a lot to of the mechanics together!
  • Bjorn Nelson – for taking an 8-hour day (probably more!) of Judging Dark Tower, ON HIS BIRTHDAY, taking up HIS ENTIRE SATURDAY of Gamehole Con!  Thank you SO much for your dedication, Bjorn!
  • Bridget Traut – for creating awesome plushies to raffle for the Crawl! And, she has pledged for more next year! Thank you, Bridget! 
  • Nate Marcel – Nate put together the awesome artworks of Thanator/Jennell Jaquays and Akaerrian Keenblade with a few weeks notice! THANK YOU for your incredible efforts to get them to us in time for the event – we appreciate it and the beauty contributed, Nate!
  • Thank you, Ray Teresi, for helping us with the Crawl Operations!
  • Finally, the Crawl for the Cure would not exist if it were not for Steve Seminerio and my wonderful wife Hazel Welch, spending many hours under me as task master! THANK YOU – it was a very crazy preparation time for Dark Tower this year, and the Crawl for the Cure would never have made it (nor would it any other year!) without their above and beyond, dedicated help for the event! THANK YOU!

I want to express my love and gratitude to everyone involved: sponsors, players, Judges and support staff! We continue to make this world a better place every year, and I am deeply in your debt!

Don’t forget, the second week of December (Saturday the 14th this year) we take the Crawl into the sea of bits with The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure: Ethermeet 2024! Our dedicated Judges will once again go into the wee hours of the morning to entertain you! (Take advantage, West Coast – the Luau Lou and Brian Shutter “late-night horror” events are confirmed!) It will be another awesome event with the opportunity to spread some Good to the world! We hope to see you there!

YOUR JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE DONATION MATTERS!

The American Cancer Society is a leading cancer-fighting organization with a vision to end ​cancer as we know it, for everyone.

The ACS is improving the lives of people with cancer and their families as the only organization ​combating cancer through advocacy, research, and patient support to ensure that everyone ​has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer.

A donation of ANY AMOUNT helps improve the lives of cancer patients and ​their families. Here are some examples of how impactful your donation can be!

  • $10 – Helps people find hope and support online through the Cancer Survivors Network
  • $25 – Helps people facing breast cancer connect with trained survivors through the Reach ​To Recovery® program
  • $30 – Assists 1 person find free answers and much-needed emotional support through ​the 24/7 helpline
  • $50 – Provides one free ride to treatment through the Road To Recovery® program
  • $65 – Provides 1 free night’s stay at a Hope Lodge® community for people with cancer ​and their caregivers.
  • $500 – Could help provide ten free rides to treatment
  • $1,200 – Affords free lodging for a guest’s entire stay in a Hope Lodge community

Please join us for Ethermeet and donate to support this cause!

THE FUNDS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED BY THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY!

Hello all! Sorry to have been late on an update with this! The check was actually sent last Monday via Certified Mail and arrived on Thursday the 9th of November! Your efforts have given the American Cancer Society $5,000 more capital to use for research, education and aid for those stricken with cancer and their loved ones; THANK YOU for your incredible support in making things better for those in need! Your Mighty Deeds have triumphed!

Most prizes should have been supplied, but there are a few we are still working on with e-mail tag. If you are having any issues with prizes, please let us know. We will be first to admit that with the overwhelming support we were given for the event, our minds were reeling trying to get everybody their due. Please write jerryscrawlforthecure@gmail.com if you think there have been any issues with your raffle rewards.

THANK YOU, to all of our incredible sponsors for their EXTREME generosity in giving our donors really awesome items for their charitable donations! I will be the broken record – this community is amazing with a huge heart and determination to help those in need! Please visit our sponsors for your gaming and gift-giving needs!

Thank you very much to Alex Kammer and Josh Hoyt of Gamehole Con for always being supportive of the wild ride we have preparing for the Crawl for the Cure events! We appreciate their willingness to help our little crew try to do great things for the community! Thanks for giving our efforts and dreams a home!

Don’t forget, The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure: Ethermeet 2023 is just around the corner! We’ll be hosting it on Twitch channel DCC Mayhem on Saturday December 9th, 2023 from 7 AM CST until 3 AM CST Sunday to give our West Coast supporters some more fun time! Stay tuned – we’ll get this launched soon!

Have a great Thanksgiving Holiday, and we hope to see you at ETHERMEET!

Sincerely,
Cory Welch and Staff
The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure

TAKE BACK TEGEL MANOR! HAS PASSED, THE VILLAGERS HAVE RISEN TO PUSH BACK THE TIDE OF EVIL, AND THE MANOR HAS BEEN RUMP FAMILY MENACE HAS BEEN QUELLED…FOR NOW!

On Saturday, October 21st, 2023 at Gamehole Con X in Madison, WI, players came out in force to combat the plague of Rump family which imposed their evil machinations upon them at the Take Back Tegel Manor! event! Our 18 seats were filled most of the day (and sometimes with a line!) with players with a sense of adventure and giving, as we raised an amazing $5,000 in donations for the American Cancer Society! Our total impact from these events over the past 4 years is over $16,000!

A special thanks to everybody who made this possible: Our incredible sponsors (The Holidays are coming, everybody – please consider them!), our incredible Judge and support staff, and ALL the players and their generous donations pushing their Mighty Deeds to this level of Good for those in need! We are staggered by this success, and we will do our best to continue providing top-notch, fun and extraordinary events! Thank you!

The game was played as a full-octane, high-level haunted house with 0-level funnel characters… With a twist! Characters in the twilight, necrotic pocket dimension summoned by the Rumps for their evil plans could contact the souls of formerly defeated enemies, allowing them to come back as avatars of higher levels to fight the terrible family! However, the peons would have to discover these spirits by searching the Manor in their fragile, peasant forms, with much adventure and drama to be had! A wonderful time donating for survival and story led us to an incredible amount that we raised for the ACS!

WITNESS the Treasure Room and the Mighty Monster Donation by a single donor, which is worthy of the giant’s trophy, the Halbard of Broll from the Great Hall of Tegel Manor! The donor contributed $2,000 to the cause to help others! We are honored to accept this for others in need! Thank you!

We have received so many compliments about how much fun our players had, we cannot wait to get back next year with our next adventure! Our sponsors were so generous in their giving to our donating players, I cannot say enough: your donations will get you some pretty sweet loot as you play! Please mark a block to drop in – your deeds do not go unrewarded! Please take look at the INCREDIBLE prize line-up we gave to our players for this event! Thank you, sponsors, for your generosity!

Thank you, all, for your support and enthusiasm for The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure events! We are honored to bring these to you in the memory of Jerry, and other friends and family members of the community who have gone on to their next adventure over the span of the years. A special farewell to Steve Strecker, good friend and gaming buddy of Michael Spredemann of 2 Old Guy Games. We lost Steve this year, and the pictured 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft module, Neither Man Nor Beast was contributed from his collection to the event, to help those in need, in his memory. This community is incredible and we are proud to be able to enable your generosity for the aid of those less fortunate! Thank you, for all of your support!

Please look for us online the second weekend of December (the 9th), for Ethermeet 2023! We’ll have the same level of awesome gameplay you expect and we’ll get our sponsor list out in the near future so you know what to expect for your contributed treasure! It’s just around the corner and we look forward to seeing you there!