Play Games, Raise Money, Win Prizes, Change Kids Health 

Since the start of Extra Life in 2008, local gamers have raised over $100,000 to change kids’ health in our community! Extra Life is a community of gamers who want to change kids health through fundraising. Today, Children’s Miracle Network at Gundersen Health System is excited to start rewarding our Extra Lifers with an incentive program.  

All gamers registered for Extra Life in 2023 in the La Crosse – Eau Claire territory are being tracked in the incentive program! Every dollar raised is worth one point, and you can also earn points through recruiting gamers, sharing on social media, and more. See all the ways YOU can earn points here! 

Updates on points will be provided via email in September and the beginning of December! Prizes will be distributed via mail, from the Gundersen Medical Foundation, or at the Hero Kickoff Sponsorship Recognition event for qualifying gamers. Every penny raised by Extra Lifers helps kids like Charlie.  

Charlie knows more about dinosaurs than most 10-year-olds. He even wants to write and illustrate a book on them when he grows up. Charlie’s health journey started when he was around 10 months old, and his parents noticed he had low muscle tone and wasn’t as active as other kids. He was eventually diagnosed with Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy. Charlie works with a team at Gundersen and through his school on stretches and exercises to maintain his range of motion, and he goes to pool therapy in Viroqua each week.  

“It is important that families can get the support that they need so they can focus on their child and healing,” Cheryl, Charlie’s mom, says on the importance of CMN Hospitals.  “Often these diagnoses come out of nowhere with no time to plan or think about anything but the health of your child. Other family members and children are also affected, and these programs help relieve some of that burden.”