Were you one of those kids who built things out of cardboard boxes? I know I was one of them, and so was Caine Monroy. At age 9, Caine build his own cardboard box arcade in the front of his dad’s auto parts shop. In the summertime, he would go with his father to work every day and build new games for his arcade. Some of the games and mechanisms became quite complex and were extremely clever. Caine would work every day even though it took quite a while to have his first customer. His commitment certainly paid off.
Nirvan Mullick stopped by the shop one day to purchase a door handle for his car. He was immediately amazed by Caine’s arcade and bought a “Fun Pass” for $2 (a Fun Pass let you have 500 plays on any of the games—good for one month). A few weeks later, Mullick stopped back at the shop to speak with Caine’s father. Mullick was so inspired by Caine’s arcade that he wanted to make a short film about it. He started the film making and decided to take it a step further. He created a Facebook event for a surprise flash mob at Caine’s arcade and word quickly spread. The event attracted an incredible amount of attention from the news, Reddit, and other venues on the internet.
Eventually, a college fund was set up for Caine and donations quickly exceeded the original goal. Caine’s creativity has inspired things like the Global Cardboard Challenge. Children from all over the world build games and other inventions out of cardboard and share them on the internet to show Caine and to inspire other kids.
Caine retired his arcade at age 11, but today (now 14-years-old) Caine is still seeking to inspire young creators. He has done speaking engagements with Mullick and is currently an aspiring engineer.
Caine’s perseverance has paid off in a big way. Through running his arcade, he gained more confidence and has been able to dream big for his future. I admire the fact that he cared enough about his business to keep running it even though, in the beginning, he did not have a single customer. He spent that time making his arcade better.
Not only Caine’s perseverance but his ingenuity to build the arcade is remarkable. It is amazing how his little arcade could have such a big impact in inspiring other children.