by Sienna Nicholson
Throughout the YouTube community, many know the popular content creator Jacksepticeye as the funny, loud, Irishman who knows no bounds. He plays video games, creates comedy sketches as well as detailed short films, owns his very own coffee business, spreads a positive mindset through PMA (Positive Mental Attitude), and much more.
But one thing Jack, more personally known as Sean McLoughlin, has grown to be known for throughout the last couple of years is philanthropy.
Starting in 2018, McLoughlin created a charity event called Thankmas. It began as a single-day event in early December, before Christmas but after Thanksgiving, where he would get together with many of his friends and fellow content creators to raise money for the Crisis Text Line. They successfully managed to raise $269K with the first event, and McLoughlin grew more ambitious after that.
The following year, 2019, Thankmas changed its focus to the Child’s Play Charity. With a higher budget for events and even more guests, $355K was raised once again throughout the stream.
However, the annual plan was drastically changed in 2020 when the global Covid pandemic hit. Restricted from his usual tactics of gathering friends together and entertaining with wacky events for a day, McLoughlin realized there was another way to not only continue the Thankmas tradition but perhaps expand it for the better.
Creating a video of his plan to the community, McLoughlin explained how on the specified day in December, anyone could stream for the charity event. Whether they had one follower or one million, it didn’t matter, as long as they spread awareness for the charity that year, Red Nose Day. This way several streams got the word out to the masses, all to raise awareness in a time of darkness and despair.
Raise awareness it did, as nearly five times the prior year’s amount was made. Thankmas was a raving success with $1.5 million gained, and so the change stayed.
Even further progress was made the following year as the world began opening up and a combination of the two styles was made. Anyone and everyone could stream to spread the word all while McLoughlin hosted a live event with friends and challenges, now in an effort for New Story, which led to an even more successful year as $10 million was made.
And so, the ever-growing and changing Jacksepticeye tradition arrived once more, announced in a video titled “I can’t believe this happened again…” on November 7th of this year. In it, McLoughlin recapped the games, events, and success of the prior year before explaining how they not only planned to do it once again but even bigger as the charity of the year, World Central Kitchen, was announced.
With the efforts of the charity, food would be sent out to those currently suffering in Ukraine as an effect of the fight against Russia and the toll it had taken on the Ukrainian citizens. The organization has been dedicated since 2010 to helping feed any community struggling to survive in response to any humanitarian, climate, or community crisis.
“You see, food relief is not just a meal that keeps hunger away,” WCK’s founder José Andrés stated on their website. “It’s a plate of hope. It tells you in your darkest hour that someone, somewhere, cares about you. This is the real meaning of comfort food. It’s why we make the effort to cook in a crisis.”
After spending the year deciding on what charity to support, McLoughlin knew this was the organization to help his goal of assisting those in Ukraine.
The event itself took place on December 10th and was explained to be just as in years past a group effort of the YouTube community to help those in need.
“A ton of creators get together, not just me,” McLoughlin insisted in his announcement video. “It’s not just my stream, it’s not just my event. I don’t ever want it to be seen as that because I want to get the collective streaming/creator/YouTuber community all together to raise money for charity. To go off and do your own goals, your own things, but all raise money for the same goal.”
The stream lasted for over 10 hours as McLoughlin continuously asked for donations in support of WCK. Many content creators such as Arin Hanson from Game Grumps or Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier (both of who donated $6,500 and $999,999 respectively) came on to entertain and equally encourage the audience to participate in the event.
Not only did McLoughlin have the support of his community, but he also had the support of celebritiessuch as Jack Black who was one of the many guests on McLoughlin’s stream. Dwane “The Rock” Johnson’s tequila company Teremana donated half a million, which was then matched to send the charity over from 2 to $3 million in just minutes.
At the end of the day, a total of $10 million was raised for Thankmas, matching the monumental success of the year prior. However, the effort is not done as the charity is still open to donating until this Saturday, December 17th, 2022. Any donation, even just $1 is enough to make a difference and help thousands of people.
As another year comes to a close, McLoughlin once again displays how one can use their voice to help the world become a better and brighter place. If possible, please consider donating, and in the spirit of Thankmas, have a happy holiday.
