Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Our 1st Fall Fest!

10-31-06: Last night, we had our first annual Fall Fest, organized and led out by COO Joel and staff. This was a FREE event for members, and a small charge for non-members. The kids and parents had a fun time dressing up, playing games, and doing a pumpkin carving contest. Thanks to all those who helped and participated in our first Fall Fest! Also, thanks to Corey Knowlton and intern John Cuyugan for the pictures.

"Eh mon, don't worry, this is suuuugaaaar freeee candy mon!"



Our fearless staff dressed up for the occassion!













Thursday, October 26, 2006

Challenged CyberAthletes!

10-26-06 We had a booth at the 1st Annual Disability Expo, sponsored by IEHP and Possabilites, and held at the Drayson Center in Loma Linda. Possabilities is a program that helps support and empower challenged athletes. XRtZ is a proud sponsor of Team Possabilities and our logo is on the front upper right corner of the team clothing. (We just learned that if you watch the Ironman telecast later in Nov., look closely at one of the top wheel chair participants and you'll see our logo on NBC!)

This was our first chance to introduce exertainment to the diabled and special needs population, and as you can see from the pictures, we had some enthusiatic players! Take a good look at these faces; who knows, maybe one of these folks will enter our XRGames in Dec. and be our first Challenge CyberAthlete champion!

Most of them played using the Eye Toy, since this was a game that you could do sitting down.

Overall, it was an excellent conference for us. We were able to network with a lot of different people, and the Possabilities and Drayson Center staff were excellent in meeting our needs.



Now that's teamwork! Thanks to Junior Staffer Jake Knowlton for being a huge help at the expo.

Since this Drayson Center staffer could only use one hand to play the Eye Toy Kung Fu game, Jake helped him out.

This is Jared and his mom. I met Jared at one of Possabilities' Kid's Triathlons that I helped organize and run a couple of years ago. He's done every kid's triathlon since we've had them the last 4 or 5 years now. Now he's ready to add Challenged Cyberathlete to his resume and plans to come down and check out the Zone!

Once this guy picked it up, he didn't want to leave! His forehead was covered in sweat by the time he was done. Another future Challenged CyberAthlete!

Challenged CyberAthletes come in all ages. Here is LLU staffer Don Gaede with his mom, playing the game, Window Washi, on the Eye Toy, and doing very well!

This young man has a lot of challenges, and it took him a few tries to get the hang of kung fu, but once he did, he did very well, setting a high score. He kept playing it for over 15 minutes because he kept trying to break his PR!

Check out these Challenged Cyberathletes and more at our Dec. 17 XRGames!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Another Sunday at the Zone!

10-22-06 Just reporting some interesting things that happened today at the Zone, besides the 3 b-day parties today.

Javan tests out our demo Gamecycle, a handbike attached to a Nintendo Gamecube. This is designed for those who can't use their legs but want a fun workout while playing video games.

My dad, Ernie Sr., gives the Gamecycle is all! (He's here for a special PT rehab for stroke patients.)

One of our non-b-day visitors happened to be one of our Beaver Medical Group docs, Dr. Rae, with her kids. Here she is trying out the DDR with her hands full!

As we were closing, one mom plays ATV tag with her 3 daughters, all charter members. They seemed to enjoy beating up on her!

So ends another Sunday at the Zone!

Friday, October 13, 2006

LLA rewards magazine drive winners!

10-12-06: Are these celebs coming to the Zone in these 2 stretch Hummer limos? No! It's students who did the best in their recent magazine drive at Loma Linda Academy. They were coming over for lunch and to play as their reward!

Here the kids coming out of their limo, all excited to come to the Zone!

Working up an appetite on the Eye Toy.

Chowing on the pizza for lunch. Ok, maybe not the healthiest stuff but that's what they ordered or they would've gone to Chuck E Cheese again! LOL!

Congrats to all the winners in this year's magazine campaign!

Fox comes to the Zone!

10-10-06 We had our first TV crew come to the Zone. Here are some of them taking video clips and talking to staff and members. It will air sometime in the next couple of weeks on Ch. 13 and Ch. 11, both Fox affiliates.

Here's Joel speaking with Kevin Brummond, a producer for Fox.

They interviewed one of our charter members who has done very well since joining us. His mom also was interviewed, talking about what they liked about the Zone and how well her son was doing.

It'll be interesting to see how they edit the various video clips into the final news piece!























First staff inservice!

10-8-06: After the fair at Loma Linda Academy, we had our first staff inservice--CPR and AED certification!

This picture of the class was taken by Junior Staffer Summer Medina.

Practicing their ABC's on the dummies!

Comedian Mike gets his dummy to wave at the camera.

Now are staff is ready to provide the life-saving procedures should the need arise. We also were AED certified and will soon be getting one of those in our facility. It is becoming law for all health and fitness clubs to have one starting July 2007.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

At the Loma Linda Fair

10-8-06 The Loma Linda Academy hosted the Loma Linda Fair last Sunday, and we were asked to have a booth there to display our games and help raise funds for Cassie's 3rd class and Cam's 6th grade class.

Here's the front of our booth on a fine sunny day!

Doug Herman, the former principal at LLA, gave the Xavis Jackie Chan a try. Look at him go! They paid a$1 and got 2 tries. Some kids kept coming back to improve their score!

For $.50, you could race on the gamebikes.The girl here, Holly, kept doing the Dash over and over because someone bested her score and she kept trying to regain her top ranking!

Here's one of our student winners in the Xavix Jackie Chan Dash. He won this cool t-shirt and a day pass to the Zone!

Here's our oldest winner, Verne, from the 50+ category in the Dash. You can see his score on the whiteboard to his right.

Friday, October 06, 2006

The Trazer is in the house!!!

10-5-06: Ah, finally, THE game that got me started on this exertainment path back in 1998 when I first saw it demonstrated at the Celebration Center Medical Center near Orlanda, FL. The Cybex Trazer!!! Ironically, it's the last game to be installed in our Zone. I got my first chance to play on it yesterday at lunch and man, it's fun and you work up a sweat! Besides the games, there are a LOT of features and biometrics that it can track, especially if you create a profile with your own details, which we encourage our members to do. Come in and check it out!