Brothers Collecting Used Games to Send to Kenya

There was a time when “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” “Forza Horizon” and “Halo 3” all got regular rotations in the Schneider brothers’ Xbox 360.

But by the time Andrew had turned 13 and Ethan hit 15 they’d moved on to newer games and other activities.

“Back then everybody played CD games,” Ethan said. “Nowadays it’s more of a shift to online downloads of games like ‘Fortnite.’”

Their parents weren’t too keen on the growing pile of rarely-opened cartridges occupying the floor in front of the TV. They served the boys with an ultimatum: clean up or get rid of them.

The residents of Old Summit Road considered taking a load to GameStop, but knew they wouldn’t be offered much money for their haul. They asked if friends wanted preloved games, but they already had enough. Then, a lightbulb went off in Ethan’s head.

“I thought the best option to use them is to donate it,” he said.

“We had the idea, maybe we could make our own nonprofit and give it to the people in Africa,” Andrew said.

The concept was partly inspired by a trip they’d taken to rural areas of the Philippines. They couldn’t help but notice how a lot of the people there hadn’t known the joy of playing “Rayman Legends” or “Skylanders: Giants.” Many didn’t seem to have any electronics whatsoever.

“A lot of people there don’t actually have access to the internet or computers,” Ethan said. “They lived in straw huts. They had houses made of sheet metal.”

But, since their dad co-founded a company that distributes solar panels in Kenya, they knew more and more communities in Africa are gaining access to electricity.

Ethan felt like there could be a way to let disadvantaged youth on the other side of the world have the same moments of gaming bliss they’d enjoyed.

“I thought it could be a pretty big thing if I’m able to get the right people involved,” he said. “I was encouraged a lot by everyone I told the idea to.”

They called their project Games for the Globe and even managed to get 501(c)(3) status for their charity, which allows them to give tax-deductible receipts to people who donate money.

Andrew was psyched about the plan, especially after their dad put them in contact with Belgian tech-focused NGO Close the Gap.

“If you give it to Goodwill you don’t really know where it goes,” Andrew said, explaining what it’s like to be hands-on with the project. “We know where it goes, who we give it to and who it impacts.”

Michael, their dad, says he may have played a part, but he wasn’t driving the effort.

“They did all of the designing of the website, and the logo, and the name,” he said. “There’s just so much unused stuff around, so I think it’s a great idea.”

To figure out how to make it all work, Ethan thought back to a shopping trip to Sports Basement in Campbell. That store had a box out front for accepting shoes to send to Africa.

“I was inspired by that, at first, for the method of collecting donations,” he said. “The first thing I did was buy a donation bin.”

Next, he reached out to the Summit Store to see if they’d let him put the receptacle on their property. They OK’d it.

“We only received, like, five games the first month,” Ethan said. “We almost gave up because of it, because we didn’t want to inconvenience the store owner.”

It was Andrew’s idea to reach out to a community newspaper—the Mountain News Network—which he knew sometimes lets residents write articles.

When they published a story about Games for the Globe, their intercontinental video game adventure gained steam.

“I actually got some friends who recognized me from it at school,” Ethan said, adding when they checked the donation bin the following week it was completely full. “We were really excited at that point.”

He says he understands why people might’ve been skeptical at first.

“I think at first people didn’t want to donate because (they thought) we weren’t a worthy source,” he said. “You don’t want to help out the wrong people.”

But he explains they worked hard to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s.