Playing Games to Strengthen Communities

We share how a simple board game day for a good cause sparked joy, trust, and belonging, then map easy paths for giving back without making it a heavy lift. From libraries to café shelves, we outline practical ways to turn your hobby into community impact.

• why showing up in their space matters
• quick, social games that work across ages
• easing nerves when gaming with strangers
• partnering with libraries and local hubs
• donation ideas for game backlogs
• scaling complexity over repeat visits
• inviting listener ideas and experiences

Write us a comment or a note on Instagram or comment and tell us how you give back through board gaming

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast, back in better than ever. Today I'm hanging out with my friend Clay. How are you doing, Clay?

SPEAKER_00 0:23

I'm doing good, Travis.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

How are you? I'm doing great. I want to talk to you about giving back to your community.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

What's that like?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

It's I mean, it's it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Pretty good. Pretty good. Uh it's pretty good. Uh so I had the opportunity to uh participate in a board game day with a uh children's home here in my local area. And I say that not to uh toot my own horn or make myself feel good, although it did make me feel good to participate.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

You should feel good.

Hosting A Children’s Home Game Day

SPEAKER_01 0:54

I feel like there's an opportunity that is not really taken advantage of in a lot of areas, in that we as board gamers and board game fans uh have the opportunity to spread the hobby that we love and spread some cheer by doing something that we love in our local communities. Um this isn't gonna be a super long episode. I don't want to like wax poetic about how everyone should be giving back. But if, like, let's say you just have a couple hundred board games sitting around your house and you're like, man, I wish I could get these played more. Man, I wish I could do more community service. Uh, there's an opportunity there. And I'm gonna maybe point out some ways that you could do that. Um, first off, see if there's a children's home and see if you can host a board game day. What we did was we just brought a bunch of games, we brought a bunch of snacks, we bought some pizza for these kids. Um, there's maybe 25, 30 kids living in this home uh here in the local area. And we showed up a group of maybe 10, 15 people, uh, and we just brought board games and pizza and sat down with kids and played games. And the games that they had there, you know, they have their small library of cards and things. Those things looked so well loved, right? Like they have packs of Uno cards or like, you know, just a regular deck of cards that the box is disintegrating, or maybe it doesn't even have a box, like the rules are all tattered, like those things get so much love, and they they really enjoy that chance to play those games. And so when people bring like actual board games to these homes, like the kids jump all over it, they're eager to learn. Um, you know, there's a guy that is also kind of a board game enthusiast that came with us. He brought hot streak. That was a that was a big hit. Like we were playing more recent, more popular games, and the kids just ate it up, and it felt so good to just like hang out with them and they got competitive, we got competitive, like such a cool opportunity to interact with the community and and uh and give back in a way. Um, yes, Clay.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

What were the ages of these kids?

What Worked For Different Ages

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Yeah, so pretty wide range. Um, I think the youngest kid we played with was maybe fifth, sixth grade. Uh, oldest was well into high school. Oh, pretty, pretty big range there, but like we had a couple of games going, uh, a couple of games set up outside. Like we were just letting people circulate and figure out what games they wanted to play. Um, we did kind of like around the around the horn, people introduced themselves and people said, like, hey, I brought this game. If you want to learn how to play this type of game, hey, if you like this game or you've played it in the past, like come find me. And it just gives people like a little touching point um to figure out what they want to participate in. Um, you know, it and the good thing was like we went to them, like we are in the place where they live. We went to the children's home. Um, and if we would have brought them on base or took them to the library or like taken them out of their element, maybe that interaction wouldn't have been quite as you know uh strong. But man, it was like we were in their element, they were comfortable there, and we were able to like get them out of their shell a little bit and play these cool games. So um that's just one way. Uh that's not the way to give back. Uh, I've been kind of thinking about this since, especially because I have all these games that I'm trying to offload, not a whole lot of game stores here. Um, local libraries are always hosting like board game days, board game evenings, teaching events. They have like most of them have a library that you can check out. And I know that a lot of those libraries are looking for donations for board games that can't go out to the local community and and uh be available to check out. Have you ever donated anything to libraries or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

I might have via one of the Petri's math swaps. Yeah, I think they had you know just a big bucket in the corner. It was like, oh hey, you didn't you didn't sell these games you brought here to sell. How about you just drop them in this little donation bin and we'll take them over to the library? So that's pretty much the extent of it for me. But I mean that that's an ambitious thing you did, Travis. I to me that's scary. I mean, kids scare me in general. Um but yeah, to me, board gaming is so intimate, you know, like I'm scared to board game with strangers in general. Sure. Um how did how'd you get over the hump with that? Was it awkward at first, or did you was it just easy and the game started flowing? Tell me more.

Libraries, VFW, And Easy On-Ramps

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah, so I did not uh me personally, I did not set this thing up, right? So I can't take any credit for this. I can't like, but we had already built a relationship with this uh home for the for the kids because we had um kind of drawn secret Santas with them and like sponsored these kids for the holidays, and so we we knew the names. I had not met any of these kids previously. We dropped off a bunch of gifts, um, and we had facilitated this as a much larger group, and then this was set up as kind of a follow-on event to partner with this home to have like you know keep the charity going. And so we were able to, uh I was able to kind of tack on to this event that was already pre-orchestrated and bring games that I appreciate and I like to play. And we were able to sit down and like make a couple of donations here and there and also uh bring games to play with them. So, yes, I would say like if I'm sitting there at home thinking, like, man, how do I get involved in my local community and like try and undertake this by myself? I would also be wholly overwhelmed by the options because there's so many ways to go about it. And it is a big leap to just say, like, me, myself, I'm going to set this thing up with a local home or the VFW or a children's hospital or a library, like doing things yourself that's not for everyone. And most people might feel a bit uncomfortable or like unsure about themselves jumping into something like that. But I feel like there are groups out there that can help facilitate, right? Like if I reach out to a library and I say, Hey, do you do anything with board games? Do you have a teaching night? Do you have donation box? Do you have this? Do you have that? And like they might be able to grease the wheels and make connections for me. That would be like my go-to, is probably like helping out library, right? So it's a place that I already go, it's a place that I'm already like familiar with. And if they have something that exists, I can take advantage of. Um, I know a lot of people like do stuff with the VFW. I don't if they're like, go hang out with veterans at the VFW, right? Like I don't think there's gonna be a whole lot of young people that want to go do that. But if you can say like go play board games with at the VFW, these people have families that come and they'll they'll hang out at the VFW and play games with you, um retirement homes, children's homes, like that type of stuff is much easier.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

It's awesome. I never would have thought about that, you know. And I have too been thinking more about my impact aside from work because your work, your work has a lot of value still, you know. You're I don't know about that, you're serving the U.S. military, you're out there uh protecting. We're in a war right now. So, I mean, you have a lot of intrinsic value in what you do. I separated from the military, I work for a glass company. I am very happy when we sell more glass, but you know, you want your life to have a little more meaning, like you know, and so coaching kind of is the only thing I know how to do that because you know it's something I've spent my whole life wrestling. So when I think about giving back, I think about okay, well, I'm gonna go help kids learn how to wrestle this sport that's given so much to me, I'm gonna help them with that. But then board games also have been a huge passion of mine, and I've never really even thought about the fact that I could in a similar way share that passion and share that with people that may not be exposed to it or have the people you know around to teach them games or just sit and play with them.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Um, no, that's that's really good. I I never would have considered doing something like that.

Overcoming Nerves And Finding Partners

SPEAKER_01 9:14

And I and you say, like, oh, you know, it's great to give back to your community and everything. I I think that you are in a position to, now that you are separated from the military, I think that you are in a position to like give back to a community that you can build ties with versus the military that's constantly moving around. And so, like, you're going to be there for a while where you're at, you're planting some roots, you're got your family nearby, like everyone, everything's good. Now it's time to start giving back in a in a meaningful way, and you might feel more connected to that community as you give back. And I don't want to make it feel like you have to go out and put yourself in front of people to give back through board gaming. You know, there's like the the small libraries that people set up all the time, like take a book, leave a book. Yeah, think about how many card games we have laying around that you could throw in a like library type thing like that to say, take a game, leave a game, and you just put it out at a park, or you put it out in front of your house, or you do something like that to say, like, if you enjoy board games, here's a game that I was gonna get rid of, anyways. Let me give it back to the community for free. Or like, um, another one that I read recently was like people can get with their local coffee shops or their local brew pub or their local what whatever it is, and just set up a shelf that says, like, check these games out for free. Here they are to play while you're sit while you sit here in my community and enjoy this game that I own that like you can put out and just have available to play. Like, you don't have to sit down and put yourself in front of strangers to help out people in the community, right? So I've just been uh kind of thinking about that. I'm sure that people out there that are listening to this episode or watching this episode have much better recommendations or are far more uh philanthropic than I am. And I I want to hear more about it, right? Like, if you are out there and you're listening to this and you're like, oh, I would do this, this, and this, or I have done this in the past, or I have experience with this, like I want to hear about it because I have so many games that I am constantly trying to offload, and it a lot of the times it does not feel good to me to sell them. So, like donations and and giving back to the community through board gaming is something that I'm interested in. And so if you're listening to this, like write us a comment, write us a note on Instagram, like tell us how you give back through board gaming, because I am interested and I want to help do more.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Before we hang up, Travis, I just want to ask a couple quick questions about the actual event itself, because I know the the thrust of this was not you know to talk about actual board games, but more yeah, meta conversation about giving back. But I just want to know what was the most ambitious game that was played at this game day.

Low-Complexity Hits And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I don't know if there were any that were so ambitious, like nobody was teaching like a three-hour board game. Yeah, um, lots of lighter games, lots of card games. Got a couple of games of like Flip 7 played. Yeah, Uno was very popular, had a couple of tables of Uma Uno running. Uh Hot Streak was played a couple of times. So I wouldn't say like so much ambitious games, but like ones that could get people to the table quickly and get people talking and then engaging with one another, that was really important. I think if we went back, I might venture to bring a couple of heavier games. You know, people brought like Batgammon and stuff that like people are familiar with, but if I were to go back and do this repeatedly, um, which I think we are planning on doing, I would definitely start to bring more and more like complex games or games that are kind of in the same vein, right? Just as we would onboard any of our friends or family members into certain games or styles of games, I would start to build up that uh complexity a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Did you get the feeling from any of the kids that they were like oh like that they were like lit up by it more than you know, like I'm sure they had fun, but were there any kids that were just like, oh my god, what is this? I want more route next time.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah, I I don't know if we're ready for that level, but um, there were definitely kids that like were engaged in the rule sets, in the decisions. Um, and people had a blast at like the party games, you know. I Jared would have been having a ball, like he would have been sitting there front and center at hot streak, like cheering and hooping and hollering, and like though like those types of games got people going. And I it would be fun to like play with much larger groups of these kids around a party game like Camel Up, like Can't Stop, like you know, these these games that like are easy to learn but are engaging and and get people going, right? Like, yeah, this is what Jared was designed for. Jared was designed in a lab for an event like this to get people together and get them hyped about board games.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

So, yeah, yeah, that is definitely right up his alley. It's in his DNA. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

So, yeah, it was a cool event. Um can't wait to try and get involved in stuff like this in the future and in any sort of community that I live in in the future. Um, but again, like if you are out there listening, thinking like, man, I've always wanted to do this, man. I if they would just do this, man, if I have this great idea, like let us know because we are always looking to give back to our communities and and we really appreciate any ideas on how to do that better, uh, especially when it involves board gaming, something that we love very much.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

So heck yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yeah, Clay, did we do it?

SPEAKER_00 14:42

I think we did it. Thanks for all you do for the community, Travis. I know that's why you came on here just to virtue signal and yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Everybody look at me. Look how cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah, look how great Travis is. Yeah, Clay doesn't he sell his games, he doesn't even donate them.

Simple Ways To Donate And Share

SPEAKER_01 14:57

No, no, no, no. I yeah, I I need to do a better job of that. And I I always have a pile going that's constantly on the out, outbound, the coal list, the you know, and I think I always think like, oh man, how am I gonna sell these? Do I put these on board game geek? Yeah, just take them to a library, just cut your losses, put them at the library, somebody will get some love out of it, it'll go back to your community and uh make the make the world the better place. So let's get out of here before I talk any more about myself. This has been Operation Game Night. I have been Travis, he has been Clay. We have been trying to give back to our communities, and we're out.