2010 is the first year of a classic video game expo being held in Kelso, WA.  The project and personal passion of my good friend, John Hancock.  The event was one day and was a fund raiser with all proceeds going to Childrens Justice and Advocacy Center, which is an affiliation of organizations providing a central place with a single interviewer for kids that have been abused, so they are not further traumatized by being dragged to multiple agencies and having to be interviewed multiple times.  CJAC offers kids a safe kid friendly place for them to go. 

Sue Baur

Sue Baur is Prosecuting Attorney for Cowlitz County and she hired the interviewer who works for CJAC.

John Hancock has the biggest collection of games of anyone I personally know.  John is a counselor at Lower Columbia Mental Health working with adults with high medical and mental health need, and for him to organize his first video game expo as well as have it benefit a non-profit that him and wife Sarah have connections to, well its very touching to me to have seen and been a part of what I know are John's two big life passions.

I am pleased to say that CJAC did exceed their financial goal of raising $1,000.  Specialty Gamer donated $100.  I had a fun time hanging out for the day with friends from different places, many I have not seen since Portland Retro Gaming Expo.  It was a good crowd and everyone else looked to be enjoying themselves as well. 

The show offered swap meet style tables where attendents can come and look thru the tables to find the great deals and collectibles.

Rick Weis and Jon Rose

Toby Wickwire

John Hancock and Chuck Van Pelt

Lacey

Collectibles at Toby's table

Corey Strite

In addition, there was a Mario Cart 64 competition with the winner recieving a very cool custom made N64 trophy!

Mario Cart 64 Tournament

In one of the rooms were TV's and monitors with classic video game consoles set up for attendents to play for free.

Another nice touch for those interested in video game history was the Video Game Museum with computer and video game systems on display arranged by eras.  It was nice they were actually there so people can see what they look like and touch them in person.  Not just pictures.

Various show souvenirs included a show only commemorative Atari 2600 cartridge, a printed copy of John's newsletter The Northwest Gamer, and show T shirts.