Teen race car driver creates video game, donates it to kids at Riley Hospital for Children
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A video racing game is taking kids at Riley Hospital for Children on a new ride.
Jack Dorsey, a 16-year-old student and race car driver, designed and built the game himself.
“I just think this is kind of different from usual games because it’s not like it’s on a controller it feels more realistic and we put side pods on it to make it feel more like a race car,” Jack said.
“[It’s] basically a cockpit for drivers to sit in and you can feel the rumble when you get off the course or you can feel how fast you’re going essentially,” added Melissa Sexton, Riley Hospital for Children’s child life events supervisor.
Sexton spoke about how much something like Dorsey’s game matters to children at Riley who sometimes just need an escape from life in the hospital.
“Just because they have a patient band doesn’t’ mean that they still don’t want to do things that your child at home would want to do,” Sexton said.
“I know it’s pretty fun and I’m just excited to see someone else enjoy it other than me,” Dorsey said.
However, the reason Dorsey decided to give to the children’s hospital goes a lot deeper. Like some of the kids at Riley, life has also Dorsey a devastating blow.
“Sadly my mom passed away when I was 11 to cancer and that kind of started for something for me and my dad to try to give back because we know how hard it is for people going through it or for people that have family members going through it,” Dorsey said.
His dad, Jon Dorsey, says the pain of his wife Susan’s loss hurt, but it also inspired Jack to pursue racing and to help people along the way.
“His passion is racing [and] that’s what he loves, but what got us into racing after he lost his mom was this charity,” Jon said. “It started out as Karting for Cancer which was his idea.”
Now, with the support of his father, Jack has been on a mission to help others.
“That’s what I’m so proud of him for,” Jon said. “He’s really taken his grief and really turned it into something positive to give back to other people.”
At the age of 16, Jack is on his way to being a professional racer and he’s building video games from scratch.
So what’s next for Dorsey?
“We really haven’t decided yet. We kind of just decide on the moment every year, so next year we’re going to try to do something hopefully bigger and better,” Jack said.
For more on Jack’s journey into racing and more on Jack Dorsey Racing click here.