Blue Redefined

Blue Redefined has entered an agreement with Able Gamers!

Quick update to everyone - we just sent along about $850 of video games (provided by Activision, the Entertainment Consumer's Association and Sony of America) to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.



Yeah, groovy.

I'm extremely happy to announce that Blue Redefined has been admitted to Google's extremely generous Google Grants program.

This extremely selective program provides an extremely generous advertising budget within Google's advertising service.

We'll be utilizing this primarily to gather members for BlueVerse, and on the side to spread news of Blue Redefined's work and solicit donations.

Thanks Google, and thanks all of you!

You can read more about Google Grants here!

Got a nod from the New York Post recently, thanks to Will.

Check it out!

"My friends and colleagues at Sony, the Entertainment Consumers Association, XS Games and personal contributors Cat and James Cathey made it possible.


Blue Redefined made a lot of kids smile that day."

Blue Redefined had a grand day at the Special Olympics by Villanova. We thought we'd share the fun with pictures:

As always, our dear friends at Empire Design Studios provided us with the most jaw-droppingly awesome design work. Above is our poster, and below, our banner:

We were handing out bags, which seemed to be appreciated:





Of course, we have to mention what made Dan, Nick and my day: STAR WARS

WEEEE!
Again, thanks to Villanova, Empire Design Studios, and everyone else for all the help. You can expect BlueVerse to go live in about a week!

Sean

Howdy Everyone -


You can learn more about some of the individuals who received games from The Game Plan by checking out our YouTube account. Below is a video of Connor, a current patient whose story is... well, best told by him:

You can read more about our donation to Magee Rehabilitation here:

On October 16th, Blue Redefined,Inc--a public charity dedicated to expanding social and entertainment opportunities for people with disabilities and in long term care facilities--donated over $2,200 worth of video games and systems to Magee Rehabilitation Hospital.


Some of the games will be used by Magee's Recreational Therapists in therapy sesions while the rest will be added to Magee's Concierge’s Library–-a service which brings video games and dvds to patients in their rooms.


“This is very generous,” said Recreational Therapist, Anna Martin. “Using video games in therapy helps our patients with concentration, balance, and fine motor skills, all while doing something fun, something that can help them forget about being in a hospital for a while."


(See more about Magee Rehab here: http://mageerehab.org/)

Hi Everyone -



Here's the short compilation of our donation (filmed and edited by friend Nick Condes), and we thought we'd share:

On Friday, October 16th, 2009, Blue Redefined made its first large donation. This donation marked the culmination of two years of hard work by numerous individuals, both Blue Redefined employees and volunteers. The donation consisted of over 50 video games, a PS3, an XBOX and a PSP.

Sean, Phil, Dan, and Andrew all made the trip into Center City Philadelphia to personally deliver the donation to the patients of Magee. During the day, Blue Redefined was able to meet with patients in the Spinal Cord Injury unit. Nick, Blue Redefined's resident film guru, was on hand to film several interviews with patients reflecting on the importance of video games and social opportunities in their respective rehabilitation plans.

Without the support of Sony, XS Games, the Electronic Consumers Association, Cat Lafuente, and Will Vitka, this donation would not have been possible. The generosity of the gaming community cannot be overlooked and we hope to pursue further large donations in the near future.

Donations or help of any kind are always needed. Please feel free to contact me at phil@blueredefined.org. This was a great way to start off The Game Plan and we’re working tirelessly to make great things happen in the near future.

-Phil

I had the opportunity to sit down with the University paper - the Villanovan - to talk about the work we're doing here at Blue Redefined.

You can read the full article here:
http://media.www.villanovan.com/media/storage/paper581/news/2009/10/01/Features/Redefining.Disability-3788410.shtml


More importantly, Andrew's put up a registration form for future BlueVerse users. Happy to say some people have already signed up, and that we're aiming to have people log in by the end of October.

Thanks for your patience and support, everyone. And wish us luck as we gear up for our first hospital-sized donation on October 16th at Magee Rehabilitation in Philadelphia, where we'll be donating about $2,000 worth of games and systems thanks to Sony, XS Games, the Entertainment Consumers Association, Catherine and James Cathey, and William Vitka.

Best Regards,
Sean

We will be donating to Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia in September. If you would like any of your used games or gaming equipment included, please email donations@blueredefined.org. Thank you to XS Games, Sony Computer Entertainment America, the Electronic Consumers Association, and Catherine and James Cathey for your generous donations. Your donations will find a new home very soon.




Visit our Facebook Page

- Phil

As eager as we are to do work with The Game Plan (working with two centers right now...), the assembly of Blue Redefined's engine is terribly exciting.

BlueVerse.net, our social network for people with disabilities or experiencing prolonged stays in hospitals, is nearly ready for testing. From there, we'll begin working with organizations for the quickest, most accurate distribution possible.

So, to those interested and waiting, all I do is steal Andrew's punny line:
BlueVerse is Blueming Soon.



-Sean

To Everyone That Has Helped Us Get Here:

From the amazing pro bono legal work we've received for the past two years to the physical donation of video games from developers and organizations, Blue Redefined would not be here embarking on this journey without you.

And that's why this next part is important. A huge amount of my personal inspiration for all of this work is from a gentleman - a friend - named Chris Saglimbene, a resident of Matheny Medical and Educational Center in New Jersey. He is 23 and has cerebral palsy. On June 26th, 2009, we took the pivotal step of enacting The Game Plan - we gave NBA 2K9 (From the E.C.A.) to Chris. Small as this may have been, we are no longer just in development.

And while we hate to treat this as a photo opportunity, our work cannot and never will be represented better than by this picture:


So thank you, deeply and sincerely, for making that moment, and the countless ones to follow, possible.