Work Life

Heart Meter provides video game fun for kids in the hospital

By Corey Inscoe

Next time someone tells you that video games are a waste of time, show them Heart Meter.

The Charlotte nonprofit donates video games and game systems to local hospitals to give children and teens some entertainment during long hospital stays.

Andrew Jenkins, 30, director of online marketing at a vitamin company, started Heart Meter last July. Since then, he’s given away 134 games and nine systems, plus extras like a TV, controllers and some video game-themed Lego sets.

How it started

Jenkins saw a Charlotte Observer story from last February about Chris West, who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma. West noticed that the video games in the Novant Health Blume Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Clinic were outdated and found a way to have 200 new games donated.

“I read the article and I was like, ‘I can do do this,'” Jenkins said. “Somebody should be doing this already.”

He started building the website early last year and officially launched it July 14. He got 501(c)(3) status two weeks later and made his first delivery to the Levine Children’s Hospital the third week of July.

How it works

Jenkins accepts donations of money, games and systems. He wants the games — especially sports games — to be no more than a year old, and won’t donate games rated over “Teen.”

“The kids, especially with sports games, they want to play (NBA star) LeBron (James) in Cleveland, they don’t want LeBron in Miami anymore,” he said.

He takes older games to Save Point in University City, which gives him store credit to buy new ones.

Jenkins personally drops off the games and asks staff at area hospitals to send him pictures that he can post on the website to show where the donations are going.

“I don’t want people to think that when they’re donating to me they’re donating to a black hole,” he said. “I want them to directly see what I see and directly hear the stories that I hear.”

It’s a passion project

Jenkins is solely responsible for the organization, working on it nights and weekends. His friends also help him when he needs it.

And he really loves video games. He and some friends gather together every Thursday to play, mostly real-time strategy games like StarCraft and Age of Empires.

The organization’s name comes from The Legend of Zelda video game, referring to the hearts that display how much health a player has left.

The Heart Meter logo is from the same video game and the blue on the website is the exact shade from the original Super Mario Bros. video game.

“I’m donating fun.” 

It’s not just about donating video games. Jenkins worked with the family of Braylon Beam, a 6-year-old cancer patient recently signed as Panthers coach for a day, to donate several Lego sets (and Lego videogames) to Hemby Children’s Hospital.

He hopes the games and toys provide a distraction for the kids in the hospital.

“They have to really grow up really fast and what I’m trying to do is provide fun and give them the opportunity to kind of forget what they’re going through for a bit,” he said.

He also participates in “game days” with Holy Angels in Belmont, going to the facility to play video games with the children and adults there.

Charlotte has a supportive nonprofit community

Jenkins has a marketing background and had no experience with nonprofits before Heart Meter. But he’s learned that there many organizations and people in Charlotte that he can go to for guidance.

“The nonprofit community here in Charlotte is awesome and it’s a really big community that I think a lot of people don’t know about,” he said. “I’ve had so many people kind of take me under their wing.”

Photos: Courtesy of Andrew Jenkins.

Corey Inscoe is editor of CharlotteFive and still has his original Nintendo gaming system. Follow him on Twitter @CoreyInscoe.

This story was originally published June 10, 2015 at 12:19 AM.

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