Since posting this article Harry Brewis, HBomberGuy, has completed his stream in 57 hours and 48 minutes and raised over $329,900 dollars.
UK Youtuber Harry Brewis has raised more than $100, 000 for Mermaids, a UK-based charity that provides support and resources for transgender kids and their parents. On his YouTube channel HBomberGuy, Brewis describes himself as a guy who “pretends to know media theory and how to debunk pseudoscience”. His channel has upward of 300 thousand subscribers, and often uses his platform to address LGBTQIA+ perspectives. Brewis stated his intention to hold a fundraiser for Mermaids due to recent attempts to deny the charity funds by anti-trans activists, including TV writer and director Graham Linehan. The method? By streaming himself completing all of Donkey Kong 64, and not stopping until he’s done.
Brewis explained, “As a person living in Britain, I find the media discussion around this issue to be woefully misinformed, and I’d like to do my bit to help support the people who do the hard work of contributing to people’s thinking on an issue.” His decision to support Mermaids came when Graham Linehan encouaged critisism against Big Lottery Fund’s recent decision to award the charity a grant of funds. Brewis critisised Linehan by stating, “You have a massive audience and the power to choose to fight for progress in all the many forms we need in the world right now, and you used it to make sure some children won’t have access to helpful resources.”
Brewis is undertaking a 101% run, which means that he’ll be collecting almost every collectable in the game: a grand total of 201 Golden Bananas, 40 Bana Medals, 40 Blueprints, 20 Banana Fairies, 10 Battle Crowns, 8 Boss Keys, the Nintendo Coin, and the Rareware coin. Those of you who have played DK64 will know that this task is basically akin to torture.
The stream’s initial goal was a mere $500, and was fairly quickly upped to $69,420 (ha ha), and while Brewis was hopeful of meeting it, he had no idea that 27 hours later that goal would already be exceeded. The stream began on the 18th of January and is still going, and features not only HBomberGuy but other notable YouTube creators such as ContraPoints, Jim Sterling, Lindsay Ellis, and more, who all gathered to show their support. CEO of Mermaids, Susie Green, joined the stream for a time to join the discussion and share their gratitude for the kind gesture. She called their work “a reassurance [to trans teenagers] that there is some good in the world.”
As CEO of Mermaids we have had a challenging few weeks, but the truly overwhelming support we have had has made a difficult time much easier. Thank you so much @Hbomberguy this is incredible! https://t.co/2PBJi4cqmX
— Susie Green?♀️ (@green_susie100) January 19, 2019
The stream continues at the time of writing this, with no sign that the donations are slowing down. With $100, 000 already in the bag, the question now is: How high can you get? Ironically, it’s thanks to Graham Linehan for inspiring all the support for Marmaids, which has done amazing work for the trans community and is definitely deserving of all the funds they get. Thanks Graham! The stream is still going, so check it out, and donate if you can!
This isn’t the first time a Twitch stream has raised money for good causes, either. The annual AGDQ stream raised more than $2 Million for various charities last year, and in the same year a US Fortnite streamer helped raise $2.7 Million for St. Jude’s Research Hospital.
About the Author
Edie W-K
she/her
If it isn't video games, Edie doesn't care about it. She's been playing games since the N64 era, and only spent enough time away from her 3DS to earn a Bachelor in Games Design from RMIT.
