Welp, let's nip this in the bud.
I have your cards on my desk at work. I'm sorry that I've taken so long to get out the rewards. Very few people have their rewards, and that's completely my fault. We're not doing rewards this year for this very reason—it's too much of my own personal money and time to get everyone's rewards out on time, which has failed miserably. Each deck of cards was supposed to be hand-printed and cut by me, myself and I. That's completely my fault and I have not forgotten anyone's rewards. I've got the spreadsheet. We neglected to take into account how much time and money it would cost to ship everything, and never took that money out of the donated money. That's because it's literally just three of us doing everything.
Everyone who was expecting rewards will get them, I promise you. I take full responsibility and we've taken steps to ensure that doesn't happen again.
1) This year, donations are going right to CHOP, through this page here:
http://giving.chop.edu/goto/24HourGSM We've been working closely with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to make sure that this year, all your donations are legally tax-deductible.
2) We're tightening up our promotions and making sure we don't make promises we can't keep in a timely fashion. We're inviting everyone to come and watch us live in Philadelphia and join us online in our new Social Media station. There will be no rewards for donations other than knowing you're donating directly to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
3) We're making sure that the presentation this year is going above and beyond anything anyone has attempted to do. We have a wonderful studio in Philadelphia where we'll be broadcasting in crisp HD. We have fancy cameras and lights and we've streamlined all our processes so our technical limitations become advantages. And, we won't have Get Lucky playing every 10 minutes like last year.
I personally apologize to you, Matthew. Between juggling life, a fiancé, a full time job, and making sure donations get to where they need to go, it's a lot for three people. The first year we did this, I ended up in the hospital due to exhaustion. Needless to say, I do this because I care about game shows, I care about game show fans and I care about sick kids at a hospital that has touched the life of my family and families around the world. It's completely my fault you don't have your giant novelty cards yet. Not a single dime of that $65 you donated went to me, went to making those cards, or went to anyone but the American Cancer Society, the Kennedy Krieger Institute and GoFundMe to process your credit card. I promise you that your donation went to where it was intended and every single perk, t-shirt, printable and magnet that everyone has coming their way was paid for straight out of our pockets.
I hope that the steps that have already put in place before your post do some small part to renew your trust in our goofy charity drive. All we want to do is play game shows and help sick kids. We don't want to put anyone out, and I'm sorry that we did, in your eyes. I have your address and I will send you your deck of cards and a t-shirt (Are you an XL? I have XL shirts.) as soon as I can.
(PS: Between saving for a house and saving for a wedding and Sallie Mae, that $60,000 is donezo.)
Cory Anotado, PITA, Game Show Fan