Gemstone Assistant Editor Carrie Wood participated in this year’s Extra Life gaming marathon to help benefit the Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, completing a run at Pokemon Crystal on her Twitch channel starting on November 4, 2017. The run ended up being split between that Saturday and the week after.

“The run itself didn’t work out the way that I wanted it to, and that was kind of disappointing, but sometimes things don’t go your way in video games,” Wood said. “I had wanted to finish the stream with beating the Elite Four, which would’ve been a cool climax for the day, but I went in really under-leveled for the situation and got my butt handed to me instead. It’s something a lot of Pokémon fans are familiar with, at least.”

This year’s Extra Life stream raised $540 for the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, Maryland, beating last year’s total by about $100.

“Even though the gaming itself didn’t play out the way I wanted to, I’m thrilled to have raised that money to support kids in my community,” Wood said. “Extra Life is a really cool community and I’m looking forward to doing this again next year.”