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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

Cleanse those toxins out!

10-5-06 Last night, we hosted the first Isagenix meeting in our room. They have a unique product that focuses on cleansing the toxins from our cellular material (this isn't colon cleansing). We had a packed house and a very informative meeting last night. We also sold the Isalean meal replacement shake at our smoothie bar for those who wanted to try it out (the chocolate is my favorite).

It was a full room last night! Kris and Craig Horton, along with Loren Middag, led out in the meeting. Thanks to the Sabangans for lending us their chairs while we wait for our ordered chairs.

Loren Middag, a PT, personal trainer, and top ranked body builder, gave a very informative talk on the need for cleansing in this day and age of toxins in just about everything we eat, drink, or breathe in. It has inspired me to get back on track and re-start my own cleansing program! I've also had patients who have had dramatic improvements once they've cleansed.

Meetings are being held weekly this month (Oct) on Thursdays 7:15 PM and starting in Nov., will switch to Wed. 7:15 PM. Everyone is welcome--just let them know Dr. Medina recommended you to attend. It's free!

Games for Health conference

10-3-06 Last week, I flew out early Wed. AM across the country to Baltimore to speak at the Games for Health Conference, held at the Univ. of Maryland's School of Medicine. I was speaking on Thurs. AM on exertainment/exergaming, and then returning to CA that afternoon for a camping trip I was helping to lead out in that weekend. After my talk, I was able to meet with a lot of interested people, and to also hang out in the exergaming room where some of the vendors were. It was a great place to network with other researchers and game designers for possible future collaboration.

Here is Andy Glass, CEO of Trazer, explaining the Trazer to Patty Mabry, from the National Institute of Health. He gave me some tips on our soon-to-arrive Trazer unit.

Powergrid's founder, Greg Merril (standing) explains the home version of the Exer-station to David Crosthwaite, of QMotions. They were also so kind to give us a copy of the Xbox's Fusion Frenzy game to use at the Zone. Thanks Greg!

Finally, here's David again from Qmotions, demonstrating their newest hardware. Hopefully, we'll be getting one to demo soon.

Overall, a short but good networking opp. to meet with others in this growing field. Next month--Denver to speak at the American Acad. of Famly Physician's meeting.

Gearing up for research!

10-2-06 Just before I left for my overnight trip to Baltimore to speak at the Games for Health conference, a colleague, Dr. Bryan Haddock, and one of his students, Andrea, came over to the Zone to field test the equipment we'll be using for upcoming research with Cal State San Bernardino, the same group we did our first Xavix studies with. Stay tuned for more research!

Final Day of Grand Opening!

9-17-06 Sunday was the final day of our Grand Opening that started back on Thursday. And what a day it was! We counted 186 registration cards filled out--which represented mostly *families* and some individuals who filled that out. That puts an estimated number of visitors today at around 300+ people!!! In our health fair alone, which ran from 2-5 PM, we had about 130 people go through. So all in all, it was a very busy day for the staff of XRtainment Zone (as you will see!).

Greeting people outside was KOLA 99.1, doing a live on-site broadcast. Not only did they run several different spots throughout the preceding week about our Grand Opening, they also passed out flyers for us at Route 66 yesterday! Thanks KOLA!

Judy "SJ" Peterson (wife of COO Joel) manned the welcome/check-in table, and as those who met and know her, she has the energy for that job! She greeted, passed things out, and got them to fill out the check-in card for free drawings and prizes.

With this many people coming through today, all the games were in full use.

Today was the last day to sign up as a charter member. Based on some prelim. figures, we had 14 more members sign up today! Here is COO Joel answering questions of a potential member.

We had a lot of special visitors and friends check us out. Coach Jamie (RST) tries out the reaction game on Xavix and agreed that this would be good to help swimmers on their starts. Here he is getting ready to jump... And there he goes!

One of our equipment vendors reps, Cindy, from Sportwall, drove all the way out from Santa Barbara last night to make it to today's Grand Opening. Here we get a picture with Cindy and another associate from Sportwall, who spotted a cracked target and said they would send one to us first thing this week. What great customer service!

We also held a Pilates demo, led by Dulce.

All our Junior Staff were on hand to help others with the games. Here Cassie and Chloe help to put up a hula hoop back on the bouldering wall.

The health fair saw a steady stream of people going through the following stations. Charter Member Crystal invited and greeted visitors to step in and come through the health fair.The first stop was the BP station, manned by Charter Member Maria. Some almost fainted at this, including this Canadian Olympic team archer! That was followed by the Sit-n-Reach station, manned by Mike, a physical therapist. Next was the Grip Strength station, manned by PE teacher and Charter Member Marcus. He took turns with his fellow Canadian bud, Rob, who by weekday does root canals.Next was the Body Comp station, where Sandy ran the body fat machine


























and Charter Member Linda did waist/hip measurements.After body comp, visitors visited the Blood Sugar testing center, manned by two highly qualififed nurses, Dr. Keri Medina, DNSc (assoc. prof. at Loma Linda Univ. School of Nursing and wife of CEO Ernie) and Charter Member Conchita, a nurse practitioner at Arrowhead Regional. (Thanks to Charter Member David Clark, of Roche, for donating most of the supplies, including the meters.) As you can see, they did a fine job putting people at ease and controlling the wild onesThis visitor, Margaret, screams in agony because she's worried that her right hand will be injured. She uses it to pull back a bow string on her bow--she's training to be on the Canadian Olympic Archery team for 2008!Young kids, as well as "more seasoned" kids,
had their blood tested. To relieve them of the stress of getting stuck, the next stop was a free massage, compliments of International Skin and Body Care (located on Cajon, right across from Beaver Medical Group).The final stop was a Consult station, where results were interpreted and recommendations were made. Here is Dr. Olivia Moses counseling someonealong with MS Nutrition intern, John.All in all, a great job done by our volunteers to handle 130 people in 3 hours!!!

After 10+ hours of running the Open House, you can see the effect on the staff at the close of our Grand Opening weekend. I couldn't decide which picture best portrayed how we all felt, so I've included them both. (Not pictured is staff member Austin).

Great job to our staff and families for surviving this Grand Opening blitz! And welcome to all of our Charter Membership, which should number around 125 or so. Now as our kitchen gets finished, we'll soon shift into our next phase of starting up and running the various classes we said we would do. Let's get going!