M-DAT Takes Wii™ Golf Tournament National

December 2009: Players from three disparate locations — Orlando, FL, Grand Island, NE, and Siloam Springs — stood united November 21 in a common cause, raising money for Siloam Springs-based Mission Data International and its vision to help people take their next step in missions. The impetus was the second annual M-DAT Wii™ Golf Tournament, played on the Nintendo Wii™ video game system. The three sites were connected via live web streaming.

Peggy Chipman from Siloam Springs Parks and Recreation, which oversees the Community Building, said this is the first time she knows of that anyone has done a webcast from the Siloam Springs Community Building.

"I am pleased with how smoothly the webcast went," said Peter Armstrong, M-DAT executive director. "We had a DSL line installed at the Community Building, and it was able to handle the webcast quite nicely." Before the City Administration Building was completed, meetings of the Siloam Springs Board of Directors used to be broadcast on television from the Community Building, but streaming to the web is different than broadcasting on television.

"M-DAT has supporters and friends of the ministry all over the U.S.," said Peter Armstrong, M-DAT executive director. "We wanted to open the event up to them too and help people realize this is a ministry with a national impact. So, we decided to move everything online — registration, scoring, leaderboard, webcast."

Jim Berger, who played this year and last year, said, "When I can play a fun computer game with friends and know I'm contributing to someone finding just the right information for making sincere, prayerful decisions about sharing the love of Christ through missions, it is a unique and wonderful feeling." He played on the DaySpring-sponsored team.

With the Wii™, movements onscreen correspond to players' physical movements, rather than to their button pushing. More than 70 people participated, including seven four-player teams and a mix of people who participated last year and newcomers, first-time Wii™ Golfers and veterans. In Siloam Springs, seven churches were represented, and players spanned ages 9 to 68.

Last year, nine teams played and 60 people participated. Overall participation was up from last year, but the number of players was down.

"We had a harder time recruiting players this year because of scheduling conflicts with potential players," said David Armstrong, M-DAT director of agency services and event organizer. Some people were traveling for Thanksgiving, and several other events were also scheduled for the same time. "We knew the timing might not be perfect, but it was difficult to book a location, and every date has conflicts," he said.

Peter said, "We got the infrastructure in place to have more teams and people playing across the country; this year was a good test of the technology. Everything is in place to have double or triple the number of teams next year, from all over the U.S."

The event brought in $3,780 in cash donations plus several hundred dollars more in non-cash donations. More money may still come in, David said.

The tournament was sponsored by Liberty Bank of Arkansas, Ron Mooney Insurance Agency, John Brown University, Ryan Engineering, and Rent-A-Center.

"John Brown University is pleased to sponsor a local ministry with a world impact," said Lucas Roebuck, director of university communications. "Plus, we are proud to be involved in something started by a JBU alumnus."