Meet the Staff
Left to Right: Erick Blandin, Kristy Monahan, Travis Eriksen, Tabby Sheehan, Kirsten Carlile
Erick Blandin: Program Director
Erick joined Child's Play in 2014 after working for UW Medicine for 10 years as an IT Analyst. This background gives him a good
We did not set out to have 2018 be a record-breaking year for Child’s Play, in fact, if you had asked us at the beginning of the year we expected 2018 to be a year where we settled in from a wild 2017. We started off the year developing a plan to make our grant process more sustainable, both financially but also creating a schedule that our small team
[…]It all started 15 years ago with an Amazon wishlist for Seattle Children's Hospital. Two weeks and a garage full of toys later the Child's Play community donated thousands of dollars worth of toys and started an amazing tradition of giving that has impacted the lives of millions of kids.
When we started our Domestic Violence Shelter program in 2013 we knew the therapeutic value of gaming. The systems provide an invaluable opportunity for staff to build relationships and rapport with the kids in domestic violence programs. Children who have been subject to trauma and abuse are understandably reluctant to build new relationships with people, and the shared experience of playing games together provides common ground. Gaming can be an incredible tool to help break down the barrie
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In the last 15 years, Child’s Play has partnered with over 160 Children's Hospitals and over 100 Domestic Violence Shelters to improve the lives of children through the kindness and generosity of the video game communit