Tuesday night, Ohio Northern University's Esports program teamed up with the Allen County Board of Developmental Disabilities' FANs. Together they hosted an event where students and participants could play video games together. Our DeWayne Scott has more.
At Ohio Northern University, FANs meaning Friends, Allies, and Neighbors, a part of Allen County Developmental Disabilities, teamed up with the ONU Esports team for a second year in a row for an evening fun.
"And we partner up students with people that we bring, the participating people and the participants love, absolutely love the gaming and they are great, the students are awesome, we just love it," said Tammy DeLong, community connections specialist.
"It feels good to have students that are mindful enough to be in favor of doing something like this, you know, share their perspective and like take in other perspectives. From the members' world, they probably don't know that much about us, and from our world, we don't know that much about them, so it's a good mingling opportunity," explained Troy Chiefari, ONU Esports director.
"I think it's just like seeing the joy on their face like just gaming with them because gaming is a lot of fun for a lot of people, especially casual gaming, so like just seeing them like smile and laugh and just like having a good time and just being able to share good moments with them," commented Ryan Miller, ONU Esports.
Games like Super Smash Bros. and Fortnight were played among the participants and Esports members, and it was clear that everyone was having a great time with not just the games, but each other.
"I saw an opportunity to help out people that have the same passion as me, you know helping out these disabled people and sharing it with something that I love, you know, such as video games, you know, giving the audience the chance to interact with somebody who really loves gaming and does it all the time here," stated Justin Brown, ONU Esports.
"I want people to know that everybody just wants to be involved in their community, everybody has a place, everybody gots things to share and if you know you're interested in something, it doesn't hurt to reach out to somebody because the answer might be yes and you might be doing something that you might not be able to do. So I think if everybody would take few minutes out of their time and share their talent, that this world might be a greater place," added DeLong.
Gaming makes good friendships, working together, and lastly just having fun is all that's required from the people at the Allen County Developmental Board of Disabilities and the members of the Ohio Northern Esports program to help create positive and meaningful lifelong memories with each other.
