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Project Pinball

Pintastic New England·video·1h 0m·analyzed·Jul 21, 2018
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Project Pinball founder details charity's origin, mission, and therapeutic impact in hospitals.

Summary

Project Pinball founder shares the organization's origin story, therapeutic impact, and operational model. The charity began in 2011 when discovering an abandoned Spider-Man machine in a hospital, leading to a 501(c)(3) charity that places and maintains pinball machines in children's hospitals, Ronald McDonald Houses, and other facilities across the U.S. The presentation includes testimonials from tournament players, medical professionals, parents, and children describing pinball's therapeutic benefits and emotional impact in clinical settings.

Key Claims

  • Project Pinball was incorporated and filed 501(c)(3) paperwork in 2013

    high confidence · Founder speaking about charity formation timeline

  • There are at least 334 children's hospitals across the United States that Project Pinball targets

    high confidence · Founder providing scope of potential placements

  • A Spider-Man machine at a Florida hospital had 21,332 plays in 2.5 years without maintenance

    high confidence · Founder describing the original machine that inspired the charity

  • The Spider-Man machine donated to Mass General Children's Hospital is averaging 25,000 plays per year

    high confidence · Founder and Dave discussing machine usage at Mass General

  • Project Pinball's 'Love Across America' tour involves 46 days on the road, 9,000+ miles, 21 states, and 25 major cities with 9 machine dedications

    high confidence · Founder describing annual tour initiative

  • Eric Stone ranks 10th in the world in competitive pinball

    medium confidence · Founder introducing Eric Stone as panelist

  • John Borg has been in the pinball industry for almost 30 years

    high confidence · Founder introducing John Borg as panelist

  • Hospitals must conduct compliance testing on all equipment including pinball machines to ensure safety standards

    high confidence · Founder explaining hospital engineering protocols and insurance requirements

Notable Quotes

  • “The rubber from the flippers were actually in the trough keeping the balls from advancing, and that's why it shut down. But they were still playing it with the rubbers off, the bats were cracked from balls hitting, and they just played it until it couldn't be played anymore.”

    Project Pinball founder@ 1:48 — Describes the neglected condition of the Spider-Man machine that sparked the charity's founding

  • “As soon as I would open the coin door, the kids would rush in to see what was underneath the hood of this pinball machine. So much that I had to learn to keep my elbows tight against my body.”

    Project Pinball founder@ 2:47 — Illustrates children's fascination with and engagement with the machines

  • “I'm going to tell Steve. Because he was so glad to be Steve Ritchie, whoever this guy was.”

    Project Pinball founder@ 22:14 — Humorous moment showing a child's achievement playing Ritchie-designed game post-brain surgery

  • “She just discarded that thing without even looking...It's because she was playing pinball.”

    Project Pinball founder@ 30:02 — Powerful anecdote about a child forgetting her security toy while engaged with pinball machine

  • “When you're actually at a children's hospital and you see these kids that have cancer or have diseases and they're hooked up to the IV and all of a sudden they walk in the room and their face lights up and they smile and they just go right for that machine and they don't have a care in the world.”

    Eric Stone@ 34:24 — Describes the immediate emotional and psychological lift pinball provides to hospitalized children

Entities

Project PinballorganizationJohn BorgpersonEric StonepersonDavepersonAndre MassinkoffpersonAmodo HarneypersonJackperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Operational and regulatory burden of hospital placements requiring engineering compliance testing, insurance, agreements, and ongoing maintenance creating resource constraints for expansion to 334 potential hospitals

    high · Founder extensively details compliance requirements: 'It's going through all the paperwork. We have agreements. We have insurance. We have engineering protocol.' Notes preference for donated older machines to reduce costs but hampered by compliance requirements.

  • ?

    community_signal: Project Pinball organizing documented dedications and inviting community members to witness therapeutic impact; founder conducting 46-day 'Love Across America' tour across 21 states with 9 machine dedications

    high · Founder states 'If I could have every one of you join us for a dedication, I would like to' and describes annual tour putting '46 days straight' on the road covering '9,000 miles' and '21 states' with '25 different major cities' and '9 pinball machine dedications'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive emotional response from cancer survivors, families, medical professionals, and competitive players describing pinball as therapeutic distraction and coping mechanism during medical trauma

    high · Multiple testimonials: 'There's a healing element to pinball'; survivor describes arcade visits post-surgery as life-changing; nurses describe stress relief; children show immediate emotional lift upon seeing machines

  • ?

    community_signal: Strong endorsement from competitive pinball community including top-ranked players (Eric Stone), legendary designers (John Borg), and industry figures (Jack from Jersey Jack) actively participating in and supporting charity initiatives

    high · Eric Stone (ranked 10th globally) attended dedication and panel, John Borg expressed impact of work, Jack attended Mass General rededication. Multiple testimonials from tournament players on video discussing therapeutic benefits.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.183

0:00
...into a hospital setting, something that the kids could maybe use as a distractor or a therapeutic device.
0:14
Do you guys know the story of how Project Pinball became a charity? Is there anybody I can do the quick story? I'd like to hear it. Back in 2011, it became very humbling. people said, did you think of this idea in the middle of the night, like the light bulb going off? No, it didn't happen that way. We found a broken pinball machine in 2011. It had a plaque on the side of the machine that you could feel the parents' sorrow for the loss of their child. He was 11 years old when they passed away from cancer.
0:52
So about six years after his passing, the Spider-Man pinball machine was produced by Stern. so they knew that he loved Spider-Man so they wanted to give back to the hospital where he received all the care for other kids that were maybe going through trouble times to use so without maintenance for two and a half years it had 21,332 plays on it in two and a half years without any maintenance done so it pretty much tore itself up it would be like owning a car never changing the oil, plus never rotating the tires or getting new tires. It just tore itself apart. So I went in there. I heard of the machine, and I was happy that it was a newer machine. I figured it would be an easy fix. I take notice, and just a bunch of claws, I get there and look at this thing. The rubber from the flippers were actually in the trough keeping the balls from advancing, and that's why it shut down. But they were still playing it with the rubbers off, the bats were cracked from balls hitting, and they just played it until it couldn't be played anymore. So we took it on as a responsibility to get this up. So we approached different people out there, and they become lifelong friends and friends of the charity to get this one machine up. And again, the charity idea wasn't formed even at that time. What we wanted to make sure is that machine would never be in that state again. So I put it on a five-week maintenance program that I personally take care of, even to this day, that one particular machine. And from that, we were introduced to all these stories, all these testimonies of how this worked in that setting. As soon as I would open the coin door, the kids would rush in to see what was underneath the hood of this pinball machine. so much that I had to learn to keep my elbows tight against my body. If not, I didn't want to hit them and knock them over. Me beating up kids in the hospital.

“It just takes your mind off everything that's going on.”

Cancer survivor quoted in documentary trailer@ 10:12 — Direct testimony from someone who used arcade games therapeutically during childhood cancer treatment

  • “Any money that's donated near a project that we have going on, it stays there...It's a Florida-based charity, but it's actually a local-based charity.”

    Project Pinball founder@ 36:33 — Explains community-centered fundraising model and local impact philosophy

  • “It's not just dropping off a machine. It's going through all the paperwork. We have agreements. We have insurance. We have engineering protocol.”

    Project Pinball founder@ 18:41 — Highlights the complexity and regulatory burden of hospital placements

    • Jim Swan
    person
    Camp Sunshineorganization
    Mass General Children's Hospitalorganization
    Spider-Man (Stern)game
    Stargategame
    Iron Mangame
    Avengersgame
    X-Mengame
    Ronald McDonald Houseorganization
    PAPAevent
    Pintastic New Englandevent
  • ?

    event_signal: Major documentary project expanding from 7-minute to 22-minute feature capturing therapeutic impact; produced by Amodo Harney with 8 hours of usable footage documenting patient outcomes and family testimonials

    high · Founder describes documentary 'supposed to be seven minutes then 12 minutes. Now it's up to like 22 minutes...eight hours of usable footage'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Multiple commercial game licenses (Spider-Man, Avengers, Iron Man, X-Men, Stargate) successfully deployed in therapeutic healthcare settings without apparent licensing restrictions or conflicts

    medium · Multiple licensed Stern and other manufacturer games mentioned in hospital placements with no indication of licensing conflicts or removal pressures

  • $

    market_signal: High utilization rates and therapeutic demand for pinball in institutional settings (hospitals, Ronald McDonald Houses, specialized camps) suggesting potential growth market beyond traditional arcade/home collector segments

    medium · Founder notes expansion beyond children's hospitals to include Ronald McDonald Houses and Camp Sunshine; at least half of 334 children's hospitals have attached Ronald McDonald Houses

  • ?

    product_strategy: Evidence of high machine utilization and reliability in clinical settings; Spider-Man at Mass General averaging 25,000 plays/year after initial neglect, demonstrating successful maintenance protocols and therapeutic engagement

    high · Founder and Dave discuss 25,000 average plays per year at Mass General, requiring maintenance team to pull machine for flipper rebuilds due to heavy use

    • 3:07
    But they were just happy to watch me clean the machine and hold the pinballs. I would always eject the balls and have them hold it. They would treat them like they were bird eggs or something, that they were going to break. And they just loved being a part of it. So I had a chance to see the joy that it brought the kids, not only the patients but their siblings that are in that environment as well. The parents would always share how much their child needed. I would always hear the story of how much they needed because after they dealt with their stressful day and they put their kids in bed, they would actually play to relieve their stress as well.
    3:48
    So at that point, we started to get a really good idea that this was therapeutic pinball. And we started talking to the child life specialists and the nurses and the doctors, administrators, parents, all these people influenced what Project Pinball started as. So that was the humble beginnings that we had. So from there, we wanted to do just the state of Florida. And me not being familiar with what I was jumping into, I figured Florida has like five major cities, so we would probably have to raise money for five machines in those hospital settings. Boy, it was our own.
    4:30
    It was 11 just in our home state. So at that point, instead of giving up and saying, no, this ain't going to happen, we incorporated and got the 501c paperwork in 2013.
    4:42
    And then all of a sudden I started playing competitive pinball. And I talked to people across the United States, and they would come up and say, hey, you guys are doing a great job. Can we do it here? And can we do it there? And you're talking San Francisco and Chicago. And I'm like, sure, we need to find a way to do this. So we enlist the local volunteers to do the maintenance, just like I do for my community. So that's how the charity is able to work across the United States.
    5:21
    I have the panel there, like I said, because John Borg, he's famous for designing the machines. He's been in the pinball industry for how long? Almost 30 years. And he expressed several times the impact that he felt with what we do. And it's really humbling coming from a person that I respect for giving me the joy of pinball. And Eric Stone, a great tournament player, ranks, what, 10th in the world right now?
    5:57
    You know, he sees the passion that, you know, I put into this, and he sees the benefit as well. He's been to a dedication.
    6:05
    And I'm going to allow these guys to talk about it as well. Dave approached me with a personal story. And you could go into that a little bit as well. But we're blessed with people that see what we do, the impact that we have through pinball. So what I'm going to do is let me show you a quick video that we did at Papa. It's some tournament players and people that you might recognize. And we just asked them why they like pinball and why they think that it would be good in a hostile setting. The sound quality is terrible because it was in PAPA headquarters. If anybody's been out on the floor trying to carry a conversation on, it's hard. You're yelling and screaming. Well, these guys were doing the best, and we didn't realize it at the time, but their words are precious. So let me find that for you guys.
    7:06
    Thank you. pinball machine is great for children in a children's hospital. That's getting them up off their feet. That's taking away a little bit of the discomfort that you can imagine they're going through. Kids that need this extra boost of fun when they're sitting around the hospital for a long time when there's something fun to do. Pinball is fun. I think there's a healing element to pinball and it just tends to bring people together and I think it's something that people can buy. I just think there's no better place than hospitals for kids to be able to have some fun during difficult times. And then the staff can enjoy the pinball machines as well. I mean, they have really chaotic and stressful jobs, and to be able to play pinball even for just five minutes is a breather. And it's also a social thing, so if there are more kids around, maybe they can play together and do bonding over it too. It's a really fun toy to be playing with. People just falling in love with pinball all over again. There's four or five different manufacturers out there. It's becoming more of a family-friendly activity, and people are just really enjoying it. There's just so many pinball machines that are appropriate for kids of all ages that it would be a wonderful getaway for kids who are in the hospital to play pinball and compete against each other. Having a game, having some fun to be there and play on is certainly a good experience. They're good, awesome fun, and they help kids build a sense of community and just put a smile on people's faces. I love Project Pinball. I think it's great for kids to have something to do that's cathartic and allows them to take a step away and become all absorbed in something else and completely changes their focus. When I was 15, I had cancer therapy. I had surgery at a hospital where my parents took me to the local arcade just because I loved football so much. And three days out of surgery, I was in a wheelchair sitting up to a couple of football machines and that's really helped me. Helping him through the surgery. For the next year and a half, every time I went to the hospital and had chemo, we'd cut out this arcade and I would play for several hours. It just really helped keep my mind off of things. It was just great. I always did love football, but this puts you in another world. It just takes your mind off everything that's going on. I really enjoyed it. I think the biggest positive with pinball is the chance it gives everyone that plays it a way of escaping sort of the queer world and bringing you into this new world that can really, you know, if you're having a down moment about anything, it can brighten up your day. And that goes for anyone that ever plays a game. So anyway, what these people are saying is how much they enjoy pinball. And again, this wasn't a script that we did. It wasn't anything. And they all had a story to tell. And then all of a sudden they were asked why they think it would be something that could be used in a hospital setting. And they said it better than I could. Because they feel it. You know, you can have a stressful day, and then all of a sudden you play one game of pinball, and you're not thinking about the world's problems. You're not thinking about what happened to you. You feel different. And in a setting like this, these parents are struggling with what they're going through. My son was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 14, 15 years old. My whole world came crashing in in a moment's notice as soon as I found out. I knew nothing about the disease. I heard that it existed and other families were dealing with it. But all of a sudden, I had to educate myself overnight on the questions I had to ask to get the answers that would do good for my family. I was super stressed out. And all I could think about is, now with the charity that this has become, I wish I had an outlet like that. Because sometimes if you disconnect with what you're dealing with, even for maybe one minute game on Iron Man.
    12:14
    Sorry, John, that's a rip. That's a rip. But if you play that game, you're not thinking about anything else. And sometimes that could be enough to help you make a better decision or help comfort you in that regards. so that's what these people were saying what it meant to them and how it could relate to kids in the hospital so I wish we could have heard it maybe it's something simple like a miracle I don't wear 100% up ok let's try another one here we got a whole arsenal you got 3 hours guys I am so glad to be here to see all of you guys.
    13:07
    We've been waiting to come up here after we found out. So I hope you guys enjoy. Thank you very much.
    13:30
    Thank you. Just look at the excitement of those kids. You know, dancing and everything like that. They never played pinball before. This was Camp Sunshine up in Maine. And what it is, how about if you take this?
    14:24
    Camp Sunshine is a camp that was opened up in Starwood, Maine, right off the shores of Spade Lake. And the idea behind the camp is it's mostly, not all entirely now, but mostly kids who are diagnosed with a terminal illness.
    14:40
    Now it's also inclusive of kids who have severe illnesses where a normal family vacation is probably not affordable to the family and be pretty much possible for them to do on their own. So Camp Sunshine allows them to come to a resort. They're staying in a way you have all the amenities that you have at a really, really nice resort. But you have a full medical staff too. You have families that are all dealing with the exact same illnesses. So when they bring in kids with leukemia they have like 30 or 40 families Every kid there that every family is there is at the same time Every kid there there at least one kid in every family that's suffering from leukemia. They're all there together. They support each other. They work together. They have a full medical team.
    15:25
    We were able to put a, we put a Stargate in there. Yes. That was donated to us. Someone right here in Connecticut just donated to the charity. Jim from the Sanctum did an excellent job storing it for us and keeping it beautifully clean. I didn't have much work to do to make it really pretty before we put it in the dedication.
    15:44
    But Dave, who's being humble, he's our maintenance. He's our volunteer. So he does returns to the maintenance about every five weeks or so. They keep it up and running. And as he was saying, these families are getting together. And I thought it was quite neat because they might, the families are dealing with the same ailments. So they could sit down and they could relate to one another or maybe share what's working and not working. And it becomes a really powerful setting. Once we heard about Camp Sunshine, my assistant actually was introduced down in Florida. I'm not sure how that happened.
    16:27
    But they reached down in Florida and we found out about it. And it just so happens they started talking about it as well and it came together really quick. We had a machine fall into our lap. It was a private owner. He said, here, I want to donate this machine. So we picked it up, restored it with Jim's help. Jim Swan. He did an excellent job. And here it is. These kids can enjoy something that's many years old. And it's new to them. They were super happy. They couldn't wait to knock me out of the way with a microphone and play this. and they had a lot of fun. So that's one of the stories that we have. It's not a children's hospital. In the beginning, we were focused just on children's. And to give you the numbers with that, when there was 11 in my home state, we found out there's at least one children's hospital in every state of the union.
    17:26
    So right there is a large number. But we found out at the time it's 334. So it went from, you know, 5 to 11 to 334. So we were focused on children's hospital, but now we participate maybe with a hospital that has pediatrics. We now work with Ronald McDonald Houses. So think about that, how it impacts, you know, our goal as well. At least half of the children's hospital have Ronald McDonald Homes attached. So we're now doing that, and we do Camp Sunshine, and we're looking at retirement homes, but that's another story.
    18:12
    You know, we get older machines, and we're like, what do we do with this? Well, we could put them in a retirement home. They don't have the engineering protocol like these hospitals do.
    18:24
    You know, that's, I see your look on that. Everybody, they come up and say, hey, how can we donate this machine? I just want to drive it up there. I'm like, that's fantastic if it's going to work like that. But we have to go through. It's not just dropping off a machine. It's going through all the paperwork. We have agreements. We have insurance. We have engineering protocol. I have the books turned all the time on, okay, how many amps is this drawing on power up? How many amps at running? What's the dimension? oh the glass yes it's tempered glass glad you asked i can whip a hammer at it you don't have to worry about it you know stuff like that we have to walk them through just to get them to even listen to us i mean they put it on here and everything like that to make sure in every uh it depends on the hospital but uh if you look on the mustang out there you'll see an acceptance sticker on there because they have to go through every piece of equipment it could be a microwave if it could be a pinball machine or the machine that goes to being, if anybody knows, Monty Python. But with that, it has to be tested to make sure that it's within their compliance. So it's a full-time job what we do here. But back to the point, the older EM, I love them. I wouldn't mind putting a couple in. It would save some money. Instead of maybe buying a brand new $5,000 machine, you know, have the machine donated to us. Okay? I would do that all day long. I could serve those 334 hospitals a lot easier.
    20:07
    But, you know, that's what we have to do. We have to always be in a state of fundraising to keep moving forward.
    20:17
    So let me move on here. I want to get these guys talking. Okay. So you can see that these kids are actually using this little girl.
    20:36
    She was fantastic. But she's receiving chemotherapy right there. So she can jump on the pinball machine, not worry about what's going into her body, not worry about anything else. I mean, that's a powerful story. That's a statement right there. And what was really neat is you see it's the Avengers pinball machine. And this is in Las Vegas.
    21:02
    And I wish the photograph would show the front of her shirt. She happened to have the Avengers t-shirt on.
    21:10
    There was no knowledge of the hospital of which title they had going in there. It just happened that way. She showed up that very day with her favorite t-shirt because she loved the Avengers. to play the Avengers. I mean, how cool is that? It just blew me away as soon as I've seen her on that machine. And that's how we have that impact through what we do.
    21:40
    This one's in Orange County. This boy, Mendelot, he just went through brain surgery. And Andre Massinkoff, if you know, he's a world player. He taught him how to play pinball. Probably after about seven minutes, Andre did such a great job that he actually took off the factory high score. And he was asking, who is the Steve Ritchie guy? And we thought that was pretty funny. And he wanted me to tell Steve. I got to tell Steve. Because he was so glad to be Steve Ritchie, whoever this guy was. But he shared with me, if you look at his cart, that's his IV cart on the side there. He loved sea animals, and he made sure that I knew about it. He pulled out his iPad, and he shared with me his passion of sea animals. We watched video together.
    22:40
    And, you know, he was just glad that we were there. He was glad to have a pinball machine there. This one's up in Kalamazoo. And we just placed it and all of a sudden the patients started lining up to enjoy this. They never touched a pinball machine before.
    23:01
    Another great machine. We get great response with the StarTruck. And, you know, I don't think he's worried about, you know, the next test that he's going to have or how much more blood they're going to draw.
    23:18
    Okay, this one's personal. This is my granddaughter. At that time she was 13 months old and she didn't know how to play football, nor did she care about the flippers. She just wanted to grab that ball through the glass. And you know, it's an X-Men that was being enjoyed. I mean it's amazing how much these kids find humor and joy in the situations that they're going through. We had an Ironman. I used to Ironman in Oakland.
    23:56
    The boy would just plunge the ball, watch it go into the bumpers, and just start laughing like someone was tickling his sides. And it caused us to laugh. We were just amazed by his laughter. And he wouldn't let the ball drink. And his parents tried showing him flippers. He didn't care. He just wanted to plunge the ball, have it bounce around, make all kinds of noises. And that's what he wanted. That's what he needed from that pinball machine. And I'm sure that, I hope that he found the flippers eventually, because he didn't maybe get it up here more so than just plunging it. But this is whatever they want. And my grandson played when he was four years old. Because I'm a gamer. I played Xbox and PlayStation. That was old school. When he came over to Grandpa's house, we would play pinball. And no one else had that. He would say, hey, Pop, I'm going into the basement. And he would be down there playing the Iron Man. And here's a great story. I walk in the house, and I knew that he was there.
    25:06
    I got a text. So I rush home. And all of a sudden, I hear him down in the basement. He's playing the Iron Man. And all of a sudden, I hear a tilt, you know, where it goes. I'm like, what's going on? I thought someone was down there with him. I go down there. He's standing on his little stool. He's like four years old at this time. Weighs probably about 60 pounds. And I'm asking him, why is he making that sound?
    25:35
    And he's like, I see you do it. I'm like, so what he was actually, what he was trying to do was race till.
    25:46
    Because that game is so frustrating. You're like, you want to shove it through the wall one time. And he's saying me to it. And he's like, hey, that's playing pinball.
    25:57
    I'm like, no, no. Grandpa won't do that anymore. You don't do that. That's not something. So I have to watch what I do. See, that game is frustrating.
    26:11
    It's to me too. Okay, here's a sweet dedication. Ronald McDonald House. We just did this dedication in Atlanta. And we were able to have a film crew in there. Amodo Harney. She's great. She does Amodo's Arcade. So she was able to come into Atlanta. Pretty much spent three days with us solid. And then she came down to the rededication of the Spider-Man. And that's what the trailer's going to be that I'm going to show here. But she never played pinball before. And they were just happy to move us out of the way, jump on the machine and have at it. In the trailer, I want to introduce, watch the two girls, the one girl with the doll.
    27:05
    Let me jump into that. Project Pinball helps rehabilitation. For a kid that's in a hospital, you're playing a pinball machine, and for the time being, you don't have to really think about where you are or what you're doing. You're focused solely on playing pinball. You know, pinball can be fun, but it can also be therapeutic because slamming that ball around when you're angry sure does make you feel a little bit better. You know, one thing I like about it, it makes a move. laps around the wards is replaced to a lap down to the pinball machine and standing for an hour. They have to use both hands. You kind of find yourself when you're playing pinball moving into it to play. So the kids can come in here and one stand, the ones are having that issue, but they can still hold on so they get that strengthening and then they're using both hands and eye and watching. So it's going to be a great non-therapy therapy. I'm having a good time. Pinball's great because it's lights, it's sounds, and you're so focused on getting that ball and hitting that target and getting those points that you're really not thinking about why you're in the hospital. You're able to distract your time away a little bit. Pinball is a way to get your mind for the moment off of whatever is happening in your personal life. Even if it is a bad situation, having to be in a hospital, seeing a pinball machine can make it all better. I just want to give back any way that I can. And my passion for pinball, I think, was a great partner for this giving.
    28:57
    That was the trailer that we did. And my goodness, I had to watch this thing probably about 400 times now. just when I have a hard day I look at this and it reminds me because going out there I go to every single dedication because I work as a volunteer even to this day for the charity and this is what I get back I get to see the impact that I have through pinball, something that I enjoy giving back to these kids and parents and everybody involved even the people that work there playing the machine. So I wanted to share with you guys, you know, instead of through my eyes, how about if we do it through the camera's eyes and capture? Did everybody see the little girl?
    29:48
    That toy or doll that she had was her special, you know, what is it, security wagon. She was able to have one toy with her while she was doing her treatments and everything. And all of a sudden, And she just discarded that thing without even looking. Because she found out. Yeah, she didn't even look. I mean, she said, here, just hold this. It's because she wasn't playing pinball. And I've seen that. And I'm like, oh my goodness. I hope everybody could see this. And she captured it on film The documentary was supposed to be seven minutes then 12 minutes Now it up to like 22 minutes
    30:31
    She came in and filmed so much footage, it was like eight hours of usable footage. We're having a hard time just cutting it down, so we're going to make a whole story. We're going to tell stories of how it affects the parents and their children in this setting. And that's why I have Dave sitting on the panel. Would you like to share with how you found Project Pinball and why you reached out to us? I'll say, well, I found you on the internet, probably through Facebook. and those who don't know, I had a son. His name was Cameron.
    31:14
    Cameron, there to be about five and a half years old. Shortly before his sixth birthday, 2013, he passed away. He had a huge amount of illnesses based, right from birth, I mean he had several policies, but he had, you name it, problems. So we pretty much spent huge amounts of time, weeks a year, weeks there at the hospital.
    31:37
    You know, a person gets the average cold, you get over it. He gets cold, gets pneumonia, in the hospital for a week.
    31:44
    That was the consequence for going outside and playing in the snow once. So after he passed, I started buying pinball machines. I had a couple in my basement, it seemed to help me keep things going. And then I discovered Project Pinball, and I was kind of like, well, it would be really cool if we could give back to a hospital that gave to my son that helped us with all the treatments and things.
    32:11
    And we were able to donate one in his memory, put a plaque on it and everything to the Mass General Children's Hospital in Wizard Paws.
    32:22
    We were there for the dedication of that. That was really the first time we really met Dan and hers. We talked several times prior to that. We talked a lot about, after you hear a story like that, you're all in. Whatever you could do. We put a plaque on the side of the machine to act as a memorial to his son's memory.
    32:41
    And you could feel the relief, you know, from Dave and his, and Joe and his wife. I mean, you could really feel how much it meant to them. And they know that machine's still down there, you know, helping kids. and parents and everybody in that setting.
    33:02
    I mean, it's doing its job. It's entertaining. And what better way to, you know, help people is to entertain them in that type of setting.
    33:12
    So, yeah, we have, Dave, we did, where was it, Mass General? Three years ago now. I think it's an average of about 25,000 places a year. Wow. Yeah, we're having trouble. We're going to have to pull it off a site so we can get to the five flippers.
    33:37
    Pretty much rebuild it and everything like that because the kids use it. It's just not sitting there.
    33:45
    I don't think it stopped. The doctors played it. The kids played it. The parents played it. The families played it. and I don't think it stopped the whole time we were there. We were eating cake and then she just kind of took us to go. Well, what's kind of funny is Eric Stone here, he's a world-class player.
    34:06
    He was actually there when we did the revisit. Jack from Jersey, Jack, who's down there as well, he wanted to see this machine that they earned it on. So what do you think, Eric? Why do you think this works? I can see firsthand why it works. There's one thing talking about it to see the pictures, but when you're actually at a children's hospital and you see these kids that have cancer or have diseases and they're hooked up to the IV and all of a sudden they walk in the room and their face lights up and they smile and they just go right for that machine and they don't have a care in the world about what's going on in their lives. They're like, I've got to play this pinball. Let's go. Kind of like I was when I was a I see a pinball. I've got to go play it. But these kids are going through so much. And just to see the joy, even as they're going through what they are in these hospitals, it's just amazing. And, you know, I wanted to be a part of it right away. I happen to live probably 10 minutes away from Dan, down in Fort Myers, Florida. And I started playing the pinball side of it, which he was a part of. And, you know, that's how I heard about the charity. and we went downstairs into his office and we talked for hours and I said, man, this is really cool. Someday I want to go to that dedication. I want to go and see exactly because just hearing it, it's cool to hear but man, when you experience it and you're in there, it brings tears to your eyes because these kids are just enjoying life like nothing's wrong. It just makes them forget about what's going on.
    35:46
    What Dan does, I just really love it. It's just great. Thank you, Eric. Eric was actually at the taping of Spider-Man when we did the rededication. Eric was actually present down there, and I appreciate his friendship and support there.
    36:08
    It's always good for everybody to see it. If I could have every one of you join us for a dedication, I would like to. So if you see a dedication near you, give us a holler. We'll put you on the gas line because we want you to experience this because it needs to be.
    36:28
    You know, our charity works in a special way also. Any money that's donated near a project that we have going on, it stays there. So the money that we're generating out in the vendor booth or selling T-shirts stays here. We're looking at New Haven Ronald McDonald House. And that's part of the reason I do this trek across the United States. I'm not sure if you've heard about it. It's Love Across America.
    37:00
    It puts me on the road every July. This year it will put me on the road for 46 days straight. I'll travel over 9,000 miles, 21 states I'll visit, 25 different major cities. But the most important thing, we're going to be dedicating nine pinball machines during this time. So I do this to help promote. I stop in arcades, do meet and greets, fundraising, dedications, shows, just to put this out there. and I get a chance to talk to guys and gals like yourself to introduce what we do. That way you could maybe help us help you guys. Because any time that you donate, it goes back into your community. It's a Florida-based charity, but it's actually a local-based charity because you make it so. We have Howard Levine in the back. Don't fall asleep.
    38:03
    Howard is a great supporter. We have the machine, the Mustang. Has everybody seen it in the booth? That's going to be dedicated on Monday in Middletown, New York. Howard made that possible. So can we give him a big hand?
    38:24
    I've known Howard for many years as a tournament player. Once he found out about the charity, he made it local for his community. So the money that he was raising in other tournaments that are around went to help us get a machine in that location. That's how we're able to go from Chicago all the way to Boston, from Maine all the way down to Florida. We have people like yourselves make it local. So it wouldn't be fair if, I guess, you guys were working hard and all of a sudden were like, oh, that's great, let's put a machine in Albuquerque. the impact wouldn't be felt. We would be like maybe a lot of,
    39:07
    maybe similar to a lot of these other charities where you donate and you don't know if anybody had a positive effect from it. So if you go on Facebook, we try to show where everything's going. I mean, you can see the impact. And we try to be the charity that gets stuff done. So we rely on people and volunteers and everything. So like I said, we're working on New Haven right now. I talked to him on, what's today?
    39:39
    Saturday. I talked to him on Thursday. We stopped there for, what's that? Hey, Joe. How you doing? But we stopped there with the point while we're being on the road to contact these hospitals firsthand and introduce why we do this. So if you've seen in the trailer also, we have John's machine there. It's New Gardens of the Galaxy. And the first thing John asked me was, do they love Groove? Yes, they do.
    40:16
    He designed a great machine there, and the kids love it. So I want to introduce John. I think everybody knows John. So let me ask you, why do you like Pinball personally?
    40:31
    Pinball, like you said, it's a release. It's fun. It's harrying. I love music and sound and lights and the artwork.
    40:43
    And the artwork is just beautiful most of the time. Yeah, look, what you're doing here is just the most noble cause I can think of in the 30 years I've been in this business. Thank you, John. John's a good friend, so that's humbling, coming from a person I respect. So thank you, John.
    41:08
    John actually went to the dedication. It was Advocate Hope up in Oak Lawn. We dedicated an Ironman ball division, and it's doing fantastic. The kids love it. But John had a chance to see firsthand the impact from the kids. Plus, John knows a family that he introduced to us that was impacted by health issues. Would you like to? Yeah, sure. Joe Casey is a fan of his wife, and they're also collectors.
    41:43
    Their son, Zach, was diagnosed with leukemia when he was three, and he was treated up until he was about six when he went into remission. Is that a neighbor of that? and they come from way out west probably about 60-70 miles west of Chicago and they come periodically to the hospital and every time they come in for a treatment or a checkup they stop at Stern and I take the boys, Zach and his brother Colin I take them back into engineering where nobody goes other than the parents we open up the door and then Joe, the father, tries to slip in and push him out.
    42:26
    Those kids did sign their NDAs. No, we do a pinky swear that they can't tell none of that anything they see.
    42:34
    They don't. They are smart. Because we try. They've seen the kids getting whisked off to the secret room, and we're standing there, and we're like, ah. So I take them back into engineering, and I show them what I'm working on, and I let them play a prototype. I show them around, I show them SolidWorks drawings being done, I show them the artists doing their work, and they just have a blast back there. And one time when I was working on Walking Dead, I brought Cohen and his brother and I set a microphone up for them and I had them recording zombie sounds for Walking Dead. I'll tell you, the little boy that had cancer, Zach, he practiced and he was good. And A&C wouldn't let me put him in the unit. But it was a lot of fun and they're great people. And I just, you know, these kids that are in these hospitals, they, they, you know, when we went to advocate, we set the iron man, came up and we watched these kids come out. and I see this kid, he comes out and he's kind of got just kind of a mild tone look and he starts playing the game and the monitor comes up out of the middle of the place and this kid's eyes light up and he's like, oh. And he starts shooting the baby magnets around the ball and he's got a smile from ear to ear. And I was like, I couldn't believe it. It was like the most heartwarming thing I've seen probably in pinball. So when you go to Milwaukee, I'm a couple hours from Milwaukee. I love you, Bill. Thank you, sir. We're going to be doing a dedication up on the 10th. It's one of the nine machines that we're dedicating. It's like an hour and 40 minutes out of Chicago. So John said he would like to go up there. That's going to be special. I mean, that's pretty cool. Did you know George? George Gomez. He donated a machine to us, which was quite special. I did a talk at Chicago Expo and I had the chance to get up on stage and follow Paul Harris and the induction into the Pinball Hall of Fame. So I was quite nervous being up there but I just had my raspy throat from talking so much during the show. And everybody was so impressed by the photographs that they gave us a standing ovation. I can't even talk today.
    45:04
    Which was impactful because at that time I wasn't sure if the charity was viable. And all of a sudden these people that I respected for the passion that they put in really understood what we were doing with their passion, and giving it back to these communities through the hospitals.
    45:23
    So after that I was walking across the floor and George comes up and says I got a game for you It Batman And I was so excited I forgot to ask which Batman it was But it happened to be Dark Knight and it was George personal machine that he had there
    45:43
    And that was quite special. It was the classic one, which was even better. It plays a lot faster than the regular version. That was a surprise. But anyway, with that, we sent George all the photographs, and he was just glad to help in that way. That was really touching. It helped us take another one of the hospitals that we have ready off the list. So now his Batman is out there serving the community. And that has a plaque on the side of it as well. There was another family that was battling cancer, and she survived. So we had her come up with words of inspiration that she could share with other people coming through illness. so it's pretty neat how the community comes together to give us tools that we need and they have that impact I think that's important you know it keeps the pinball passion growing I love playing pinball why not share it with everybody else so yeah so I hope they have children up there as well unfortunately we're doing Star Wars instead of a garden. Sorry, John. They requested it, sorry.
    47:04
    But Star Wars is doing good. The kids love it, but so is the garden. So we're blessed with that. Should we open up for questions? Anybody have questions?
    47:18
    Anybody? Come on, I've got stories to tell. Okay, I'll tell you about some patients that we ran across. We did a nationwide dedication, and it was a huge gathering. And we had families come up with their kids, and they were able to play the machine. But we seen this one family in the back.
    47:41
    And the father was standing in between his two sons, and he was holding the son's arm. because his son had a cast from his fingertips all the way up to his elbows. And he had tubes going into his cast with some sort of machine that he would carry around. I wasn't sure what it was, nor could I ask because they had to have laws. So after the dedication, they were still in the back. They didn't walk up, play the machine, but you could tell that they were excited. So I go up and I approach the family, and I said, hey, how you doing? do you want to play pinball? Well, the boy that had the cast on, he gave me a look like, duh. I have this cast. Can't you see this? I'm like, no, no, it's fine. And I asked for his brother to stand on the one side of the machine and he could hold the other flipper. And they played split flipper while the father held the son's arm in between the two boys.
    48:44
    And all of a sudden, they just started playing. And I look at the father, and you could tell that he was stressed out. He didn't sleep for days. You could see it on his face. He was wearing a print there.
    48:57
    All of a sudden, you see tears just rolling down his cheeks. And, you know, again, I can't ask because of the laws that they have in the hospital, but I could tell the pain that he was dealing with. And all of a sudden, he could see his sons just being boys. and playing together just like they probably played all the time. So it was just amazing. We went to, Dennis Norman was with us. We were having a discussion about what we'd seen in the hospital, because Dennis seen it too.
    49:33
    And we were having a discussion, and all of a sudden the waitress over her, as she was walking past, doubled back and said, I wonder if it was the boy that fell off the tractor and had the flesh in his arm, you know, pretty much, you know, they had a reset bone and everything.
    49:53
    And, you know, from what the time scale was, when it happened, and, you know, the description she gave of the family, it was him.
    50:02
    So at that point, the father had to deal with this whole world crashing in for about four days. so again this is one of the few stories that I have if you grab my distance card the boy that's on the back of that card he walks in to play with the police force older gang he walks in, never seen a pinball before and he looked awful he looked terrible my heart went up because Because you just don't want to see anybody in that state. He was just white, yellow with jaundice. He had bags underneath his eyes, red bags. And I'm like, man, he feels awful.
    50:53
    So he walks up to the machine. He's kind of nervous. There's people gathered around. He has to be playing pinball for the first time in front of an audience. and he holds up his arm and he has a port,
    51:08
    you know, IV port in the back of his hand so he can't play. So I'm like, that's fine. You get on the right, I'll get on the left, we'll play pinball.
    51:17
    So he starts playing and I'm trying to introduce him the small rules. You know, we're on ball one, you can see him on the back left. And here's how we're scoring and, you know, do this. And all of a sudden, I plunge the ball and it goes straight down the middle. and I'm like, oh man, that's too bad. He's like, don't worry about it, it's fall too.
    51:39
    I'm like, wow, this kid's picking up playing pinball. Everything that I just introduced to him, he just gave it right back to me. He's showing the interest.
    51:49
    So we're playing and all of a sudden his child life specialist comes in. She's from the Jersey Shore. She played pinball, she told me several times. She knocks me out of the way and said, I'm taking over. I know what to do. All of a sudden, they start playing. She plays with the little boy.
    52:08
    And all of a sudden, this smile just shows up on this boy's face, and it's priceless. This child that is feeling rough and been through rough times is playing pinball and smiling. So I'm fumbling with my camera. I actually pull it out. And it was easy because he was smiling the whole time. so all of a sudden we say the thank you as we do our dedications thank you for joining us all of a sudden a parent comes up to me and she's crying I mean she is so overwhelmed with emotion she can't even talk so I grab her arm she's holding mine and I'm patting her arm I'm like it's okay the words will come and what she said was just truly amazing her son was in the hospital for four weeks and she was crying because she didn't see her son smile in those four weeks he had nothing to smile about how could you not cry I mean she's crying I'm crying we're holding each other and I'm like wow this is why I do this you know this point I mean look at my business card. Everyone grab my business card, please, where you can see this. And this boy had no reason to stop other than us introducing pinball into his life. I mean, that's impactful right there.
    53:41
    The doctors use it for motivational tools. The boy out in L.A., he was in a wheelchair. He rolls up, played Spider-Man for the first time. And he loves superheroes. So he was able to play after the dedication. He had to get back to rehabilitative work and get back to the hard work. So his child life specialist said, okay, let's get the hard work done, and then we'll return you to the machine. So he had to go out in the hallway and wheel his chair around to build up strength in his upper body. So he was doing laps, and every time he would pass by the window, So he would get up out of his chair to make sure that the pinball machine was still there. And then you see him disappear, and he would do another lap, and all of a sudden he would raise in his chair to make sure the machine was there. As soon as it was done, he couldn't get in back to that machine quick enough. And I'm like, man, this is such a powerful tool in that setting. I mean, these kids have a reason to get dressed and get out of bed and just have fun like we do. So any questions before we wrap up? You guys, any questions? For the most part, these kids are sitting in bed and they're playing video games on an iPad or they're watching TV and thinking about what's going on in their life. They get up, they walk, they come out, they want to see this thing.
    55:16
    And I played football the first time I was eight years old, and I have memories of that. and these kids are sick and they're playing Pimbalon. Some of those bring joy and they're going to remember that for the rest of their life. Yeah, that brings up a great point. I was telling John earlier when I was in the hospital for six weeks, I had these things, maybe you guys recall, color forms. The vinyl cutout with superheroes you throw on the city backdrop. Like Spider-Man, you could put a web coming out. And it was cool. But that was the only thing I remember other than the poking and prodding and them waking me up at 2 in the morning to take blood. I didn't want to be there. I wanted to be climbing trees, riding bikes, you know, being a kid. That was the one thing I remember that was good, you know, of that experience. Now we're giving them pinball. And maybe when they're older and they have the means to do so, they'll share that with their family and grandkids. I mean, hooray for pinball. That could bring it a whole other cycle. Right, Joe? The next audience that we have. So we have a captured audience in the hospital. They use it for their benefit. They might come back to it in later years and share it with everybody else. That's a great point. When we were at Mass General, we had one little girl. Her therapist was there, and her therapist told us They told her a week ahead of time that the hospital was going to be getting a brand new pinball machine in their rec room. This little girl was having a really hard time walking. She could only walk three or four steps, five steps. She had a hard time getting to the bathroom without help because of whatever illness it was she had. She kept working on walking for an entire week because she had to walk past four rooms to get to that pinball machine so that she could play it. and she was the first one they let play and she walked from her room out the door, down the hall into that room, right up to the limo.
    57:25
    This is a girl who for weeks hadn't been able to walk to the bathroom in her own room at all. So that's an impact. That's through Dave's eyes there.
    57:36
    I mean, that's why I do what I do. I mean, I hear stories, I see stories and we get these parents that reach out to us all the time and they share with us these stories as well. Go out on Facebook. You'll see them. They'll rate what we do and they share their stories out there as well.
    57:56
    I think we better wrap it up here. Another thing is, I want to say real quick, is therapeutic. We want to do it for maybe people recovering from strokes. You see them on the parallel bars, right? All the time.
    58:14
    They're trying to learn how to control maybe their body again. And what better platform than a pinball machine?
    58:23
    I mean, you can hold on to it, and if you could distract them where they're working on 30 seconds. You know, we did two minutes. Let's do two and a half minutes today, three minutes. Put them in front of the pinball machine. I bet we could go past that 30-second threshold, you know, and have them not worrying about what they're feeling, maybe concentrating on what's in front of them. So what about a pinball machine? It's pretty stable. The way they build it, it's very solid. So if they lost their balance and they land on a, you know, on top of a machine, I think it would be good. So we're looking at that as well.
    59:04
    We, in the early times. Sorry, John. Oh, sorry. Joel remembered the story too in the early 90s. developed a sip and puff mechanism for a pinball machine. Remember that? I think, I don't know exactly what happened in that project. We made several of them and sent them out and it just kind of stopped there. And it's, you know, we're busy doing, making pinball machines. And that's probably something that should come back. I talked to John about this a while ago. I knew that he worked on that project.
    59:36
    The problem with that, we have to make it ADA compliant. So we would have to pretty much cut 10 inches off the bottom of the cabinet to allow a wheelchair to roll into it safely. Then we have to pad pretty much everything in there just in case they do not have feeling in their legs where they wouldn't cut themselves and not realize it. So we have to move the legs backwards, cut off the front of the machine. John talked with me about the ball trough mechanism. We've got to shorten up that throw, put in a stronger coil. So we would like to do that as well. But again, we're trying to do a lot here. So if you guys want to help us, come see me. I'll give you several ways that you can do fundraisers for your community or one of these projects that we talked about. Like I said, I'm a full-time volunteer so you don't have to worry about me throwing this out at the end of the year or anything. I love it. And this is what I do. So thank you for joining us. Thanks. Thank you.