24-hour gaming marathon raising funds for sick kids in Alberta

They may be playing games, but it's serious stuff for hundreds of gamers in Alberta who are aiming to raisethousands for children's hospitalswith a 24-hour gaming marathon that began Saturday.

Calgary is represented by about 50 gamers brought together by Extra Life Calgary Guild.

Theorganizer says funds raised go to children's hospitals in the community.

"All proceeds stay locally, 100-percent of the funds raised go to our children's hospital and the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation then picks where the money goes in terms of priority and that sort of thing," said Lexi Wolkowski.

It's not all fun and games though, says one gamer.

"The first 10 hours is really fun, I'm playing lots of games ... then the second 10 hours you're going 'I'm doing this for charity,'" said Jeff Clemens.

"And the last four hours you're going 'this is for the kids, I'm not going to play video games for at least another month,'" he said.

Organizers say they have raised more than $100,000 for sick children in Calgary.

In Edmonton, gamers have raised about $150,000 to double operating rooms in the Stollery Children's Hospital from 5 to ten, organizers say.

For Calgary gamer Clemens though, it's less a competition and more an opportunity to use his skills for a good cause.

"There's a little bit of negative stigma around it sometimes and this is a chance to really say these video games are positive because we're going to raise a lot of money for these kids," Clemens said.

The marathon wraps Sunday morning.