Enterprising Nine-Year Old Builds Gaming Arcade From Cardboard Boxes

Like most kids his age, nine-year old Caine Monroy loves gaming arcades - so much so, that he can rarely pass by one and not play at least a few games. So when the Los Angeles resident was faced with a long summer that entailed hanging out at his father's auto parts shop, he decided to build his own - From recycled cardboard boxes!

The first arcade game comprised of a small basketball hoop stuck to a box. Rudimentary as it was, the success inspired Caine to build another and then another. He enjoyed it so much that even after summer ended, he continued to add to his collection every weekend.

Soon, the gaming arcade had grown so large that he had taken over his dad's entire storage area. Not only that, the games also got increasingly sophisticated. To make the arcade as authentic as possible, Caine even figured out how to give customers free tickets when they scored - He simply crawled into the box and slipped the tickets out from a little slit he had carved out. And just like the real deal, he had prizes ready for the winners too!

However, there was just one problem - Thanks to the shop's location in an industrial part of East Los Angeles, there was no foot traffic and nobody, not one person ever came to the arcade. However, that did not discourage the young boy. He would open up Caine's Gaming Arcade every single weekend and wait patiently.

Then one day, something magical happened - A customer looking for a door handle went into the store and decided to check out what the arcade was all about. As it turns out, this was no ordinary customer, but award winning filmmaker, Nirvan Mullick. He decided to buy the 500 game pass which the young boy had priced for a reasonable $2 USD and try out every game the arcade had to offer.

So impressed was he with the young boys talent and hard work that in October 2011, he organized a Flashmob inviting everyone in Los Angeles to come play at Caine's arcade and posted it to his Facebook page. The best part was that he and Caine's dad kept the entire event a secret from the young boy, so you can only imagine his surprise when he saw not one or two, but hundreds of people lined up outside his arcade ready to play on that fateful Sunday afternoon.

And, it gets even better. After seeking permission from Caine's dad, Mr. Mullick filmed a short movie about his story, which he posted on video sharing sites just a few days ago. It received such an amazing reception that he decided to ask people to donate $1 or more towards a scholarship for this young budding engineer, setting the bar at $25,000 USD.

However, within a short time, he had collected over that amount, and decided to increase it to $100,000USD - Not surprisingly he has almost reached this new target! To read more about Caine or donate some money to his scholarship fund go to cainesarcade.com.

Resources: huffingtonpost.com, dailymail.co.uk, facebook.com