Last spring, Wizards of the Coast, a gaming company renowned for creating captivating experiences for gamers across tabletop and digital gaming, released a special Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair drop of collectable cards in support of the American Cancer Society.
The series of cards, called "Sheldon's Spellbook," became wildly popular with gamers around the world, and in just 30 days raised $2,140,640 for ACS.
The series of cards was created in honor of, and in collaboration with, Sheldon Menery, a beloved figure in the Magic community. Unfortunately, Sheldon passed away in September 2023 after a seven-year battle with cancer, prior to the release of “Sheldon’s Spellbook.”
This campaign resulted in a transformational gift for ACS as well as the largest fan-driven philanthropic gift for Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro, Inc. (Wizards of the Coast is a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc.)
In a thank-you post on Reddit, ACS shared the following:
“Words cannot express our gratitude to the entire community for their amazing generosity and desire to honor an incredible person. We wish Sheldon could have seen your amazing achievement himself, but we know he would have been overjoyed with the response.
“Thank you, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, for working with Sheldon to bring this gift to life. This is a celebration of the innovation and passion of their teams and exemplifies their mission to bring people together through play, imagination, and meaningful connections.
“Sheldon believed in the power of connection and shared experiences across the table to bring people together. This transformational gift will help advance the American Cancer Society’s mission, elevating cancer prevention and early detection and helping ensure every individual has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. Which means we’ll be fulfilling Sheldon’s wish for all of us to play more games, meet new people, and stay around the table even longer.”
