Support Go Play! Arcade in the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest

Cast your vote by April 4 to support Belmar residents Risa and Sonny Nardone in their quest to reach the final round of the 2018 FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. The Nardones, who own Go Play! Retro Arcade in downtown Belmar, are hoping to win one of the 10 FedEx grant awards — $7,500, $15,000, or possibly the grand prize of $25,000 — to add new games and make improvements to the arcade's party room rental.

"We would love to get Space Invaders, Qbert, Frogger, and a couple of pinball games that our customers have requested," says Risa. "Other improvements we'd like to make are a makeover on the party room with new furniture and paint, and also new benches for outside."

The Nardones opened their retro games arcade in December 2014. Sonny had recently retired after 25 years of service with the Belmar Department of Public Works and as a Belmar fire marshal. Risa, a successful corporate software saleswoman for 20 years, was looking to redefine her priorities after surviving emergency neurosurgery to treat a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2012.

"I was taken into an operating room for emergency surgery not knowing what would happen next, " Risa wrote in her FedEx contest entry. "Thankfully, surgery was successful, and I realized then my life would be forever changed. After 20+ years in sales, I decided that seeing people smile and hearing people laugh would be a better way to spend the rest of my life. I wanted to provide a fun place for people to enjoy. And that is what we do!"

Go Play! offers more than 40 classic and new arcade games, from skee ball and pinball, to the circa 1981 Ms. Pac Man/Galaga combination, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and the original Millipede. Other games include a sit-down wave runner, air hockey, Wii, XBOX One, PGA golf, and much more.

"We knew when we are looking to start the arcade that the only town we would want to be in would be Belmar," Risa says. "It’s a great business community, and the local residents are amazing. We work with many of the local schools and organizations with donations and fundraisers. We also have days that we open for groups with special needs for a minimal charge so that we can offer a safe and fun place to play. We love parties: birthdays, reunions, end-of-season sports celebrations, those kinds of events. I can’t imagine anything more fun to do with my life!"

Friday nights are family fun night at Go Play!, with special pricing of $10 for two hours of game play per person. Other times, Go Play! offers flat admission rates to save it patrons the hassle of putting coins or debit cards into each machine or game they want to play. Thirty minutes of unlimited play cost $6, one hour of play is $10, and a daily pass with re-entry is $15. A two-hour party package with pizza starts at $285 for up to 15 guests with unlimited game access.

The top 100 finalists in the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest will be announced April 12, and the 10 prize winners will be named on April 24.

Vote now for Go Play! Retro Arcade

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