2016 Peldor Joi Gratitude Festival

by Charlie Plaine, Chairman

21st November 2016

"Oh, dance with me, Odo!"
"I'm sorry. I don't dance."
"Nonsense! I saw you moving to the music!"
"That wasn't dancing. That was... swaying."
"Oh, then sway with me, Odo! Sway with me." - Lwaxana Troi and Odo, "Fascination"

Run, walk, dance or sway your way to a nearby Trek tournament this holiday season in order to help celebrate the 2016 Peldor Joi Gratitude Festival! This holiday themed celebration of kindness, compassion and charity kicks off today, Monday, November 21st and runs through January 15th, 2017. This is our second year hosting the Peldor Gratitude Festival, and this year we're eager to top our donations from last year and spread even more good will across the world.

Peldor Tournaments
Let's start with my personal favorite event of the season, the "Chase-the-Can" tournaments!

If you and your play group are hosting tournaments during the holiday season, why not make them part of the Peldor Gratitude Festival? Consider making your tournament a "Chase-the-Can" or "Bend-the-Rules" event! In each of these events, players bring donation-eligible food items as an additional "fee," and those items are then collected and turned in to local food banks at the end of the event. The more players, the bigger the donations to the local food banks and thus the more people helped during the holidays. Players that really want to step it up can host a "Bend-the-Rules" style tournament where you can donate to activate special in-game powers!

Sanctioned: Chase the Can
Win a game, win a can!

The traditional Chase the Can version of these Peldor tournaments are normal, sanctioned tournaments. These can be any format, any card pool, for any of the three games. As an additional fee to participate, each player brings one non-perishable food item (for donation) for each round of the event. So for a three (3) round tournament, each player would bring three (3) items. After each game, the winner takes a "can" from his or her opponent and at the end of the tournament, each player that has the most cans claims a charitable victory!

Unsanctioned: Bend the Rules
Make those cans work for you with special rules!

In this variant, we're upping the ante! These tournaments can also be any game, any format, and any card pool, but they will be unsanctioned. Why unsanctioned? Because we're letting you bend the rules in a big way! Players can bring any number of food items with them, and "give" a can to charity to activate special abilities during their games! There's a different set of rules for each game. Check out the Bend the Rules instructions for First Edition, Second Edition, and Tribbles.

Tournament directors, once you schedule your tournaments and get them in the system, please send a PM to Kamala and Worf Son of Mogh with the subject "PELDOR EVENT." Please include the Region of the event, the Format of the event, and the Date and Time. In addition, when setting up "Bend the Rules" tournaments, please make sure to select the "Bend the Rules" option from the Scenario dropdown. We'll have regular articles highlighting successful previous tournaments and promoting those that are upcoming!

#peldorjoi2016
During all of your local events, tournaments and get-togethers, take pictures! We want to see your piles of cans and epic moments of laughter! Post your pictures on Facebook and tag The Continuing Committee! Or post them on Twitter with the hashtag #peldorjoi2016. We'll feature your pictures on our website and in our articles!

Peldor Rewards
While you all collect cans and donations for your local food pantries, celebrating the spirit of giving, we wanted to do the same. We're giving everyone that plays in any Peldor tournament a chance to win a random prize drawing! And the more you play, the more chances you get! We'll be entering each winner and each participant into random drawings for foils, premium memberships, and more! We're even giving away the chance to pick a card to appear in an upcoming promo series! You get one entry for each registered "Chase-the-Can" tournament in which you play/win, and three entries for each such "Bend-the-Rules" tournament. Here's a look at what you can win:

Global Charity Efforts
This year, we are expanding our global charity efforts to do more good in the world. We will be donation a portion of requisitions during the Peldor Gratitude Festival to the international charity water.org. Water.org is a four star rated charity that works to bring clean, sustainable water to areas of the world where it is a luxury.

During the Peldor Gratitude Festival, if you requisition a tournament kit from The Promenade, $5 of that requisition will be donated to water.org. This is at no extra cost to you, as we're not increasing the cost of kits. Instead, we're donating $5 from each requisition to this highly-rated and extremely important charity.

If you'd like to donate further, or if you aren't able to requisition a kit, we're offering the 2016 Peldor Joi tournament badge through the Promenade as well. These 1" square/diamond badges, featuring the Peldor Gratitude Festival logo and the year, are available for a $5 donation. $2 of each of these donations will go directly to the water.org donation fund as well. This way, if your tournament director orders a kit for you or if you donate to enhance your pin collection, you can make a definitive and positive change in the world.

Charity Recommendations
If you're having trouble finding a local food bank to accept your donations, don't worry, we're here to help. This website can help you find food banks or charities all around the world. In addition, we'll be posting suggestions in the comment thread for this article, and we want even more suggestions from you!

We're thankful for all of you in the community, and grateful for the opportunity to host the Peldor Gratitude Festival. The spirit of kindness, giving, and generosity has always been ingrained in the future of Star Trek, and we're proud to represent that spirit as part of this year's holiday. We hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season filled with joy, laughter, and lots and lots of Trek. Live long and prosper, and #peldorjoi!

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