It’s no secret that games make people happy, and when there are families in need, the gift of a game can literally transform someone’s day. Danielle Kaufmann knows a lot about this. Five years ago, she and her husband were were in a tough financial situation when they left the Army. To feed their young son, the two of them would go days without food. In this Reddit thread, Danielle (reddit username: dambedani) talks about her tribulations, and about how “playing beat-up board games by candlelight” was basically the only way for them to maintain their sanity.
Nowadays Danielle’s living situation is much more stable, and she actually manages a game store in Maryland. She’s active in the Reddit Board Games community (which is a great resource to learn about games if you don’t use it already) where she recently invited redditors to send their address, and then she mailed them a board game! No joke. No strings attached. This really happened. She mailed out some brilliant games, too. We’re talking Dominion. We’re talking Machi Koro. Current hits like Sushi Go!, Monikers, Utter Nonsense and more. Reddit users could pick what game they wanted from a list.
For this amazing act, Danielle spent her own money and mailed hundreds of games out to people all over the map. She didn’t ask for anything in return. Danielle just did this because she knows what its like to not be able to afford simple things, let alone luxuries like games. Unsurprisingly, Danielle now calls herself “Board Game Santa.” We think it’s a fitting nickname for the incredibly nice lady.
What games have you used to lighten the mood when times are hard? Please reach out in the comments below.
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IMAGE: Rich Brooks, Courtesy of Creative Commons