10/01/2023
December 12, 1993 - September 30, 2023. With a heavy heart I want to tell everybody that has come out to Michael's Fun World in the last 30 years....THANK YOU!.. But today September 30th will be our last day in operation. As I type this it is very hard, reality hasn't quite hit yet. I met a guy named Mike Nares in 1993 and he wanted to build something. At first he wanted to build a sporting complex, he wanted to have a place where soccer could be played, baseball could be practiced and golf balls could be hit, year round. I was hired on to help with the dream. A young 22 year old that was traveling around the midwest taking pictures of babies at Walmart. This may seem weird to the younger followers, but you used to go to Walmart, with your child, stand in line, have a photographer take pictures wait 3-5 weeks and get your $6.95 package with 30 photos of the same shot as the salesperson sold you more shots. That is what I was doing at the time, Mike said come work for me and then in 6 months you can work for my mom. Mike's mom ran portrait's by Annette for many years. It was right across palmer college. As the build was going up in 1993 we had rain...a lot of rain, it was impossible to build a building in that muck. One of our biggest floods was in 1993..The opening was pushed back by months. All of sudden the River's Edge was proposed... So much for the Soccer field. Let's put in golf simulators...So we did. Then in March of 1994 the batting cage was built. Mike says to me, "I love the go karts in Wisconsin Dells, I want to build a go kart track". At this time my 6 month job turned into, we will get it done. In a matter of months we had got everything going for the back track, I spent hours driving from tire shop to tire shop asking for used tires...Go karts were open. We were both amazed, again before social media, people loved and found out about our go karts. At this time there was mention of a game called Lazer Tag. We drove up to Chicago and saw one of the first arenas. On the way back we discussed if this would work in the Quad Cities?... We both agreed on let's try it. Lazer tag was introduced in 1995. We tried other things over the years bumper cars, RC cars, bumper boats and mini golf inside. But in 2002 we were offered the chance to buy the jungle zone from the former Pocket Change Park that was in Northpark mall. We said let's do it, but what else do we add? I suggested some inflatables and also found a game called trampoline basketball. They all fit nicely next to our bowlingo alleys. At this time we really weren't a sports world... What are we? We debated, at this time everyone still got the paper, especially the Sunday paper. I was reading the Sunday comics and turned to the last page and there it was, Fun pages. I went into Mike's office that day and said "Michael's Fun World" a fun place to be. Since that day we have been who we are. Unfortunately a few years later Mike's health started to fail, we had some hard times he wanted to let the place have a chance to keep it running. In 2010 it exchanged hands as I stayed along for the ride as I now had a family to provide for. We continued to provide a fun affordable place to bring your family just for fun or for that birthday party. All was good. Then 2020, shutdown...people were timid to go anywhere. Kids all discovered their smartphone. Kids would rather watch someone having fun, then go out and have fun. It is easier to snapchat then actually meet up with friends. Plus we had many competitors with deep pockets come into the area. YES.. I understand over the last few years we weren't as shiny as the other amusement in the area, but we tried to stay our best as an affordable place that we treated our customers with respect. We enjoyed the thank yous and watching the Fun that was being had. The times I have watched kids gasp as they walked into the building...priceless. It has made the last 30 years worth it. In closing if you got this far in the reading, thank you. Just know I am proud of how I spent my last 30 years, the friendships I've made, the opportunity to not only be able to work with my wife, but my 4 children. Michael's Fun World also has the opportunity to employ 1000's of people's first jobs. We have even had 5 couples that met and ended up marrying each other while working at Michael's. Ever seen a Carpetland commercial?...yep former Michael's employees...Finally after 30 years it is time to find my grown up job...anybody hiring a 52 year old with bad knees😃?
