PinballSTAR is proud to announce we will be donating our 2nd Wizard of Oz NIB game to The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Wed 8/13 (the day before PAPA starts).

We are putting out an invite to anyone local in Pittsburgh in the pinball community to come out and join us in the afternoon to help interact with the kids and hospital staff, help explain pinball and the WOZ game with them, play with them, etc... If you are local to Pittsburgh come out, if you are coming to town for PAPA, come out... We don't need a big crowd, but it would be great to get some pinball folks in addition to us to have a nice showing for the pinball community in general.

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
One Children's Hospital Drive
4401 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224

The folks at PAPA have supported our charity effort with allowing us to run a WPPR points tournament at the World Championships in August of 2013. We raised $ 2,000 just at that event and felt that it was appropriate to recognize PAPA's contribution to our effort by making our 2nd game donation to the children's hospital in their community. I would like to thank them for thier kind support for our cause. They do many of their own charitable things themselves so inviting us in to do our thing was very generous of them.

Our first donation of a WOZ game was to St. Christopher's Children's Hospital in Philadelphia in December 2013. You can see info on it here :
http://www.pinballnews.com/news/wozdonation.html
and
http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/1066736/Therapy-in-play

Please contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to attend and I can get you all the info ! I know it's a work day and all - but it will be a fun day to share pinball with the kids.

Donations for this project are also gladly accepted to paypal at [email protected] or funds are raised through game purchases.
We are distributors for :
Jersey Jack Pinball - Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit
Planetary Pinball - Medieval Madness Remake
Spooky Pinball - America's Most Haunted and Pinball Zombies From Beyond The Grave
Virtuapin

Our PinballSTAR and WOZ Tshirts and signed WOZ posters and flyers are for sale on Ebay with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity fund :
ebay.com link: pinballstar

Joe Newhart
PinballSTAR Amusements
570-357-0042
Facebook keyword - PinballSTAR Amusements

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

BACKGROUND INFO :
My son, after his birth in 1994 was at St. Christophers Children's Hospital in Philadelphia for about 2 weeks. He has been back for several surgeries and many many doctor visits and continues to be seen by doctors at St. Christophers. While there at the hospital many times we have taken notice of the play rooms available for the children that are patients (and their siblings as well). It was nice they have access to video games, books, puzzles, board games, and such to pass the time and take their mind of their medical issues. Having a home collection of pinball and arcade machines as a hobby I had always thought it would be great to have those same full size games at the hospital for the kids that we had at our home. When we started our company, PinballSTAR Amusements, and the first game we were selling was The Wizard of Oz Pinball Machine it made perfect sense with that children's themed machine to now get those games into children's hospitals like I had always thought about. We set up a charity fund where with every sale we made of a game we took a portion of our proceeds and donated them to the children's hospital charity fund towards purchasing these machines to donate. We have also made up posters and tshirts and sell them with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity fund. Also we have run pinball tournaments on the Wizard of Oz machine at shows we attend throughout the country, again with all proceeds going to the charity fund. The machines cost $ 8,000 and it took a one year for us to raise the amount needed to donate our first machine to St. Christophers Hospital in Philadelphia in December 2013. PinballSTAR Amusements has already purchased a number of additional machines to continue to donate Wizard of Oz pinball machines to other children's hospitals as we continue to raise funds through our future sales and other activities. Jersey Jack Pinball, manufacturers of the Wizard of Oz pinball machine has graciously sold these to PinballSTAR at a reduced cost to allow us to donate this machine quicker than we otherwise would have been able to. Jack Guarnieri, owner of Jersey Jack Pinball has also several times donated prizes for our charity tournaments.

Bump : )
Anyone interested email me at [email protected]
Still trying to button down date and time for sure with hospital (red tape), but all should be ok. Assuming afternoon wed 8/13.

Randy (beeleboob) - great gesture to come all the way from NJ (early) to assist... thanks !

Tim (indypinhead) - thanks for the tshirt - even buying one tshirt pays for a few WOZ books or a WOZ DVD we bring to give to the kids - so thank you !

Jim - Can't wait to see you there ! TY

We are on for Wed 8/13 at 2:00 for ceremony (please plan to arrive at 1:15/1:30 so we can be ready) - those interested in attending please email me at [email protected] as it's the way I will communicate instructions for that day - where to meet - how to sign into hospital at front etc...

I will be arriving at 12 or so and will be having to unbox and set up the new WOZ, etc... so anyone attending able to come a bit earlier to assist would be greatly appreciated - I'll be alone so an extra hand or two would certainly help !

Thanks again for the kind words - I really try to make this a 'pinball community' project with those playing in tournaments, customers who buy games, those who purchase of tshirts / posters / flyers - the proceeds of all those things going towards the charity, and of course those that can attend the day of the donation to be part of it... Everyone contributes a little and it ends up being a good thing for the pinball community in others eyes.

I just also got the below email from JJP that the game was shipped and delivered AND they aren't going to charge PinballSTAR for the shipping cost which I would never expect them to do. JJP does so much already - they sell these charity games to me at a discount, they donate prizes for the tournaments over and over, and now this nice unexpected gesture...

Thanks Jen / Jack at JJP ! Good people...
: )

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi Joe!

It looks like the Children’s Hospital Game was delivered yesterday.
We will cover the shipping charge this time.

Thanks!
Best Regards,
Jen Guarnieri

Bump for more pinball folks to come participate with us at the donation - Wed 8/13 at 2:00... we will be unboxing the game and setting up at 12 if you'd like to come earlier to help.... We only have a few coming so far so I would love if anyone else can make it and help donate the game on behalf of the pinball community and interact with the kids.

We will also have a WOZ on pay to play at PAPA Thurs - Sun as we did last year to raise money for the charity fund..

AND we will be running a WPPR points tournament also for the charity as we did last year SATURDAY 9-2 - so come play some competitive pinball on WOZ in a fun tournament with prizes and WPPR points !

Thanks everyone... Last call to contact me if you'd like to attend... We do only have a few folks in the pinball community showing up - It's a workday for the local people and most people travelling to PAPA will do it on Wed and those there earlier are most likely doing Pinbrawl on Wed, and the PAPA staff is obviously busy - all which is totally cool and understandable. I was hoping the timing around PAPA would be good, but we'll still get it done and I'm happy to get this done in the Pittsburgh community where PAPA is located as a thank you for their support of PinballSTAR and our cause. We won't have a big contingent there - but the game and the hosptial staff and kids are the key components here. Thanks for the kind emails / comment / purchases of Tshirts etc... I'll be sure to post pictures of the event.

We are also running an IFPA WPPR points tournament at PAPA on Saturday 9-2. We will also have the WOZ on pay to play during the whole weekend compliments of the PAPA staff... All with 100% of proceeds going to the charity fund.

: )

Joe Newhart
PinballSTAR Amusements
[email protected]
570-357-0042

meSz - yes Doug Polka from PAPA has graciously volunteered to do any required maintenance... It's always good to have a backup - if ever needed i will keep you in mind if ok - I would gladly pay for parts / service call, but most have volunteered thier time at least for the cause... I do have to set up folks to do this in each city we donate too... (Bill Disney at Pinball Gallery in Downingtown has been servicing the one at St. Christopher's in Philly)...

TY !

Ok, you made me snort and almost pee myself a little... true, but usually that's the sort of thing we 'think' but don't 'say'... lol... I can't wait to meet you on Wednesday and see how funny your wife thinks it is... lol : )~

Here are some pics from our donation of the WOZ machine yesterday at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh !

We had a great time - the hospital staff and patients that came to the ceremony were thrilled with the WOZ - the kids walked right up to it and were hooked immediately. The staff joked that many of them might get fired for playing the game during work hours. The game will be available for children at the hospital to play during their stays there to help pass the time and give them an activity to take them 'away' from the unfortunate experience of them being in the hospital. We also had WOZ tshirts, WOZ books and DVDs of the movie to give to them.

The local Pittsburgh TV station also came by to record the event for an airing on their newscast - I will post a link if / when one gets posted on their website.

I want to thank Randy and Janice Raab who drove early to PAPA from NJ to be a part of our event and assist me all afternoon. Randy is also a children's author having published several books to date. He was gracious enough to bring a supply of his books and to sign them for the kids he gave them too.

Thanks to JJP - Jen and Jack for their contributions to our efforts, PAPA for assisting us in our fund raising, Doug Polka from Pittsburgh who has offered to maintain the game if needed, and all our PinballSTAR customers as with every game purchase they make - we donate a portion of the proceeds to the charity fund !

If you are PAPA please stop by and play the WOZ which will be on pay to play and also participate in our tournament we are running for WPPR points and prizes Saturday 9-2.

Thanks !
Joe Newhart
PinballSTAR Amusements
[email protected]
57-0-357-0042
Distributors for JJP, Planetary Pinball, Spooky Pinball, and Virtuapin

pitt1.jpg

pitt2.jpg

pitt3.jpg

pitt4.jpg

pitt5.jpg

pitt6.jpg

pitt7.jpg

pitt8.jpg

pitt9.jpg

pitt10.jpg

pitt11.jpg

pitt12.jpg

pitt13.jpg

pitt14.jpg

pitt15.jpg

pitt16.jpg

pitt17.jpg

pitt18.jpg

pitt19.jpg

pitt20.jpg

pitt21.jpg

pitt22.jpg

pitt23.jpg

Jim Hicks (JFH) thank you so much. So generous, just saw the PayPal email. That's as much as we raise in a day at PAPA with a WOZ on pay to play ! TY.

Randy, again ty to you and Janice for your time - it meant a lot to me you guys were there. And if anyone needs it I also have Randy's home address for a small fee : )