Rise and grind, gamers — there’s a new challenge in town, and video game fanatics and fundraising fiends alike are all welcome to participate. 

The Association for Computing Machinery at Colorado State University is once again throwing its annual fundraiser this weekend from Nov. 8-9 in the Nancy Richardson Design Center. The catch? It’s a 24-hour-long marathon.

From 8 p.m. to 8 p.m., participants are encouraged to energize themselves with enough espresso, Red Bull or another choice of caffeine and help fundraise for Extra Life, an organization that raises money for children’s hospitals through gaming marathons.

The fundraising goal for this year is $1000, and participants can register on the Extra Life fundraising page and join the Colorado State Game Day Team, as well as encourage friends and family to spare a donation as well. So far, just over half of the original fundraising goal has been met.

For those who do not wish to participate in the gaming but do want to donate to the cause, you can separately donate on the Extra Life website through the CAM the Ram participant page. According to the Extra Life website, “Donations stay local to fund critical treatments, healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care.” 

Fundraising for the Extra Life charity can be found on their website. 

Extra Life @ CSU will be filled with all kinds of gamer shenanigans, including tournaments, trivia, role-playing games and more, according to the website. Attendees can also make their own fundraising teams with friends or organizations, encouraging competition between who can raise the most money. 

Abigail Rictor, the coordinator of events at ACM, said this is the first year this event will be thrown at CSU. 

“For the last couple of years, I’ve been running game nights through ACM, and they got really popular and they were our most popular meetings,” Rictor said. “A couple of our advisers approached me about this organization, … and they asked if I would be interested in working on (organizing the event).” 

Whether you’re a gamer or just a gamer ally, you don’t need to meet a certain skill level to participate; all are welcome to join in on the fun. 

“Pretty much any community member (is invited),” Rictor said. 

Elena Waldman can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @WaldmanElena.