Braxton County, WV (WOAY) – May 2 and 3 saw a group of locals and tourists visit Sutton, West Virginia, for one good reason: the Wasteland Jamboree.
Hosted by Fallout for Hope and Buttered Popcorn Productions, Wasteland Jamboree brought post-nuclear fun to the mountain state.
Kenneth Vigue, the Founder of Fallout for Hope and director of sales and marketing for Buttered Popcorn Productions, took a moment to give us some background.
“Fallout for Hope started as a community charity initiative. We started back in December of 2020. You know, we thought we would get maybe a handful of people.We ended up with 235 content creators and streamers streaming Fallout games for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. We raised $109,000 in one week, and since then, we’ve been fundraising the community, mobilizing every year for different causes the American Heart Association, the Mountaineer Food Bank that we’re here with, of course, to the tune of $1.3 million that has been raised by video gamers.”
The Wasteland Jamboree brought celebrity meet and greets, carnival, side quests. excursions, food vendors and more to help support a local cause.
Becky Conrad, Foundations Relations Officer for the Mountaineer Food Bank said, “Once we learned that Fallout for Hope was coming to west Virginia out in Braxton county, we did some research and were able to make contact. They selected us as the beneficiary of the event.”
And while the event just wrapped up, the Mountaineer Food Bank is already seeing a huge impact. Visitors would stop by to make food donations to earn bottle caps. A very important token inside this video game series, and of course, visitors were more than excited to learn about the Mountaineer Food Bank.
Paulina Nottingham, Capitol Campaign Manager/ Major Events Officer for Mountaineer Food Bank, said, “We see the mountaineer food bank is not just a place that can distribute food, but a place that can provide a lot of different resources for the community as well.”
Thanks to this event, many people saw just how wild and wonderful the mountain state truly is.
Brian McLaughlin, Event Director, fell in love with the state. He told me, “One thing about West Virginia, and I can’t say it enough with the kindness and hospitality, no matter where you go from Morgantown to Greenbrier to deep in Appalachia, everybody was so welcoming. It’s a joy to be here and we can’t thank you all enough. I love West Virginia, and I love you. I love you all.”
Reporting full of hope in Braxton County. I am Tygra de Mello, Newswatch.
