Business Community
How customers and community helped Lost Star get back in the game
Charlie Youngchild’s soggy side quest began on the morning of Dec. 17, 2025.
Youngchild owns Lost Star Tabletop Gaming Outfitter with her brother, Andrew Youngchild. She arrived at work that day to find her beloved dungeon — located in the basement of the building at 3106 Harborview Dr. — flooded.
A failed sump pump was responsible. The century-old building stands over a natural spring, and the pump had always managed to keep things dry in the dungeon.
Until it didn’t.
“Literally, it was a lake in here,” Youngchild said. “The entire floor was covered and it was climbing up the walls.”
The entrance to Lost Star Tabletop Gaming Outfitter on Harborview Drive. Owner Charlie Youngchild refers to it as “the dungeon.” Photo by Vince Dice
A week before Christmas.
At a business where much of the merchandise — trading cards, board games, books — is made of paper.
Customers and community rally
It easily could have been game over for Lost Star.
But its dedicated corps of customers and fans joined with local businesses, service clubs and others to keep Youngchild’s brainchild afloat.
After a nearly six-month closure, Lost Star partially reopened in May. It’s only now hitting full stride.
“We wouldn’t be here without our community. That’s just point-blank,” Youngchild said.
The help came from all quarters of the community.
Within hours of Youngchild posting about the catastrophe on the store’s Discord channel, customers began showing up with pumps, mops and sponges.
InGear Media offered its space to host a Lost Star pop-up store, which was operational by Dec. 20, allowing the business to continue sales ahead of the holiday. Customers helped move what merchandise could be saved over to InGear.
Gamers and volunteers helped move merchandise that survived the flood to InGear Media, which hosted a 10-day pop-up store for Lost Star. Photo courtesy of Charlie Youngblood
Kids came in and tried to donate their allowances — coins and dollar bills — to help get their favorite store open again.
And in February, volunteers organized a benefit auction at Locust Cider.
Benefit auction
The auction raised some $13,000 to help Lost Star get back on its feet. A packed house at Locust’s pinball arcade bid on dozens of items, including copies of Dungeon Crawler Carl books signed and donated by Gig Harbor author Matt Dinniman.
The response is both a sign of how much the gaming community loves Lost Star and a testament to Youngchild’s place in that community.
The benefit event at Locust Cider raised about $13,000 to help Lost Star re-open. Photo courtesy of Charlie Youngchild
“Charlie is one of those people that the moment you walk into the store is open arms, is loving, is caring, and just gets the kids that aren’t the quote-unquote popular kids who fit in a box,” said Sarah Husby, one of the parents who organized the auction. Husby’s 12-year-old son is a devoted fan of Lost Star.
The store carried multiple insurance policies, but payouts were not immediate. And in the meantime, Youngchild wasn’t earning a salary.
“Bills don’t stop when floods happen. You have to somehow keep your head above water,” Youngchild said (no pun intended, presumably).
“Without them, I wouldn’t have had dinner,” she added, growing emotional. “I wouldn’t have been able to pay my own bills. They saved us. They really, really saved us.”
With Lost Star Gaming closed, the Church of the Nazarene offered its space for use by the gamers who typically gather there. Photo courtesy of Charlie Youngchild
Game on
Lost Star opened its doors again on May 5. It was almost exactly five years since the store launched on May 4, 2021 — a propitious date for Star Wars fans.
Youngchild picked May 5 to re-open in honor of the Star Wars movie “Revenge of the Sith.” Fans of the galaxy far, far away, refer to May 5 as “Revenge of the Fifth.” Lost Star re-dubbed it “Revenge of the Flood.”
Charlie Youngchild inside the revamped, re-opened Lost Star Tabletop Gaming Outfitters store on Harborview Drive. Damage from a flood closed the store for six months, but the store’s customers and the wider community rallied to save it. Photo by Vince Dice
Lost Star operated on limited hours for the opening weeks, but Youngchild expects to return to a nearly full schedule this month. The store will soon begin hosting tournaments for various card, board and role-playing games, a staple of the community.
Mary Watkins and her family will be there to play Pokemon. Watkins has been taking her two children to Lost Star for a couple of years. She, along with Husby and Jen Moore, helped put together the benefit auction.
Watkins said her work on the auction reflects the “immense gratitude that I have for Charlie. It’s unique, but it’s really not that unique because of everything that Charlie has created in the community,” Watkins said. “I hope she understands just how much of an impact she’s had.”
Lost Star Tabletop Gaming Outfitters
Address: 3106 Harborview Dr.
Phone: (253) 858-0171
Website: www.loststargaming.com/