Taking a leap of faith for Exergaming

The Exergame Network Fundraiser

A couple of days before Thanksgiving Richard Coshott took a “leap of faith” out of an airplane to raise money for an organization that he is very passionate about, The Exergaming Network (TEN).

Coshott raised nearly $400 using Fundraise.com and that money will go towards paying for research that needs to be done. One of the biggest challenges in growing TEN is trying to convince organizations, schools, educators and anyone involved with making decisions on how exergaming isn’t just video games.

Exergaming is very beneficial to students and it is great way to keep students active. Coshott was nervous about the jump, but knows that it help raise awareness for TEN’s goals.

“When you have a door open to an airplane at 3,000 feet it goes against every natural instinct to jump out,” Coshott said. ”We have raised the profile of the initiative, and the knock on effect is we have some great partnership relationships in construction.”

He is excited about creating more fundraisers with Fundraise.com in the future and loved working with the team on creating a successful fundraiser.


“The great part about using Fundraise is that we can add to our activities, so we’re expecting to add more fundraisers,” Coshott added. 

There is a lot of research to be done in the coming months, and some of the topics that need to be tackled include: Positive Behaviour Effects, Gateway Effect, Comparative Enjoyment of Physical Activity, Health Benefits of Exergaming, Family health benefits of Exergaming, Cognitive benefits of exergaming and Improved social confidence from Exergaming.

Coshott is hoping that exergaming will continue accross the globe in the United States. One of the biggest challenges in the US is that with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, money has been diverted away from physical education and the arts and towards teaching to the test to try to meet the requirements of of NCLB.

But Coshott sees exergaming as a great way to keep kids in shape and educate them at the same time. Some studies show that students who regularly exercise perform better academically.

“Exergaming is brilliant to give all kids a chance to be active and successful in physical activity,” Coshott added. “One goal of TEN is to educate these schools so that they can implement a successful and rewarding experience for the school and the students. The good news is that exergaming can help; so long as we know how to use it and we have the proof that it does say what we say it does.”
And that leads back to the reason why TEN needs financial support.
 “Hence the reason TEN is doing all the work to get the gaps filled in exergaming research and hence the reason I jumped out of a plane last weekend,” Coshott exclaimed.

Here is video of Coshott taking his “literal leap of faith” to help support the TEN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IXZje4axsk&feature=g-all-u
To read the previous entry on this fundraiser, visit: http://blog.fundraise.com/post/35724102079/growing-the-exergaming-network-one-player-at-a-time, to read more more about the Fundraiser, visit: https://www.fundraise.com/the-exergame-network/active-gamer

Originally posted at :
http://blog.fundraise.com/post/36427724320/taking-a-leap-of-faith-for-exergaming