It's a place where they can pepper their parents with foam balls from strategically placed playground parapets, or covertly zap anyone who comes too close in a laser tag cavern filled with neon shadows cast by black lights. And just in case the kids thought they were going to have all the fun, Mom and Dad are free to participate and retaliate with their own volley of foam balls or sneaky laser-beam attacks.
Ensuring a fun time for adults and children alike is the whole reason Patti Garrand and her sister-in-law, Candy Cross, opened the family entertainment center on June 2.
"It's not really restricted to one age group," Garrand said. "That was our goal with TreePaad; we wanted to make it fun for a family group."
Creating the center on Dix Avenue, however, wasn't easy or instantaneous.
"This was five years in the making," Garrand said. "Since we both ran the First Baptist nursery school in Glens Falls, we were pretty familiar with what kids like, but finding a building in the area was a challenge.
"We needed high ceilings, and this is 15,000 square feet, so it's not small. We looked at four other locations before settling here."
By comparison, a standard ice hockey rink is 17,000 square feet.
During the long, sometimes frustrating search, though, Garrand said she and Cross never lacked what all entrepreneurs need most.
"The support we've gotten from the community has been amazing," Garrand said, adding that everyone, from the contractor to the business adviser, went the extra mile to help them make TreePaad a reality.
T.J. HOOKER -
The TreePaad family fun center opened June 2 on Dix Avenue in Glens Falls. On Saturday, the facility held a benefit event for 2-year-old Teagan Klingenberg of Ballston Spa who was recently diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
To order copies of staff-produced photos from The Post-Star, please visit http://reprints.poststar.com/. And now that it's open, TreePaad is returning the favor by providing some family-oriented entertainment.
On the entertainment front, a few of TreePaad's major activities include a rock-climbing wall, laser tag, an arcade, "Fort Ballocity" and "Jumpshot."
Fort Ballocity is somewhat special as far as playgrounds go because it has reverse-vacuum systems that can be loaded up with foam balls. When the button on the system is pushed, the balls fly up to the second level of the playground. There, children can load the multicolored spheres into six different blasters and pelt the people in the open space below.
"It's an air-powered playground, and you hear so many kids just laughing in there," Garrand said.
"Laughing? They're screaming," chimed in John Cross, Garrand's father.
Jumpshot is a basketball game played one-on-one on enclosed trampolines.
"The basketball has just been wild -- the adults even do it, too," John Cross said.
TreePaad also has a full kitchen and five birthday rooms to accommodate parties, which come with a party coach provided by TreePaad.
"The party coach is assigned to the party, and they handle the whole thing. ... All the parents have to worry about is taking pictures," Candy Cross said. "We just didn't want the parent to have to worry about anything."
Going beyond sheer entertainment and worry-free parties for Mom and Dad, TreePaad is also giving back to the community.
The center has already held a benefit to help Teagan Klingenberg, a toddler recently diagnosed with leukemia. According to the Klingenberg family Web site, www.teamteagan.com, the benefit raised a little more than $1,000 to help treat Teagan's illness.
Garrand and Cross also gave a presentation to a BOCES early education class about what it takes to operate a business that caters to and is responsible for the safety of children.
Two students from that class have been hired to work at TreePaad.
"It makes us feel good to be able to give back to the community," Garrand said.
IF YOU GO
Where: 217 Dix Ave., Glens Falls.
Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sundays.
More information: Call
832-7958, or visit
www.treepaad.com.
Prices: Fort Ballocity: $5 per visit, Laser Tag: $5 per game; $8 for two games, Jumpshot: $3.50 per game; $5 for two games, Rock Climbing: $5 per climb; $8 for two climbs, Birthday parties start at $159 for 10 guests and include party coaches, games, soda, cups and plates, cake, private party rooms and other items.
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It's a place where they can pepper their parents with foam balls from strategically placed playground parapets, or covertly zap anyone who comes too close in a laser tag cavern filled with neon shadows cast by black lights. And just in case the kids thought they were going to have all the fun, Mom and Dad are free to participate and retaliate with their own volley of foam balls or sneaky laser-beam attacks.
