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What's happening
Below is a lot more about us, to help fill you in, if you arent familliar with Excelsior. The breif rundown is, we are a community gaming center in Maynard MA that offers free gaming to our local community, paid for by a small store front attached to our gaming lounge. This means, even though neither my partner nor I make money off Excelsior, we cannot declare as an official non-profit for the time being.
We opened here, at 8 Waltham street, more than two years ago now. Both my partner and I have more than 7 years working in town on this sort of endeavor, with much success. We have become a pillar to the community. We give the local kids a place to call home.
Yesterday we received very last minute news we would have to vacate our current location in 60 days, due to the building being sold. Something my landlord, again and again, promised wouldn't be a problem. Our current location is very out of date, but also almost 4000 square feet. we have a few locations that may work, WITHIN MAYNARD, but need help getting the funds together to finish the move and build out.
We are looking to raise a few grand. We have most everything needed to open a new, right away. But we need to secure the funds to pay first, last, and security on whatever property we can get, and begin build out.
We will also need physical help due to the last minute nature of this.
The kids are crushed. They are afraid we are going to have to close. For many of them, this is all they have. I absolutely cannot let that happen.
Bobby and I don't take money from Excelsior. Anything the store makes goes right back into the Lounge and leaves with a very small cushion to work with.
Please, any little bit you can do to help is huge. I am fishing fir support from companies like Home Depot and Lowes, I am going to be looking into public grants. Everything I can.
What makes Excelsior unique.
I know, I know. You have heard THAT one a million times. Every store is going to claim they are not the typical, everyday, run of the mill joint. What kind of marketing would it be for someone to say "Come to Excelsior, they are the same as everyone else!"? So, do me a favor, and hear me out. I promise you wont be disappointed, and I actually think I'll surprise you.
When we opened the doors to Excelsior in 2014, Bobby and I had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do. We had a few years under our belt from running a previous comic shop, that just happened to carry games. We knew we wanted to focus more on gaming. Despite my undying love of comics, it is REALLY tough to build a new store on them. It is just impossible to get the backlog. Plus, we weren't opening under the ideal circumstances.
To fill you in on what makes us so unique, Excelsior is built for the players, by the players. The funds used to open the lounge the first time were raised by tee shirt sales, the idea of one of our regulars. Many of the local kids scoured high and low for furniture to give the lounge its homey feel. The Smash and Project M kids collected TVs and video games to allow us to open up free gaming all hours of the day. Local families donated tables, chairs, and so much more. The boy scouts painted our walls.
This was all done about a month before we opened. This changed a lot about how we wanted to approach things. We didn't want to be a store. We wanted to be more. We wanted to be a place for these very same people to call home.
For a little more background. Neither Bobby nor myself grew up terribly well off. Something I encountered while growing up were community centers, hosted by local churches, giving kids a place to play games. Maynard has the Boys and Girls club. It is GREAT for sports, and loud, excited, physical play, But that isn't the best place for everyone. So many of our kids want a quiet board game, or a group to role play with. They want a place where people understand that they may be overwhelmed by too much all at once.
Enter a unique social environment that redefines the way you play video games with your friends. Over 400 PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Wii games and consoles fill the space to immerse you into the most popular games from League of Legends and Call of Duty to Super Smash Brothers and Splatoon.
Unlike many new age gaming lounges, we offer the full table-top gaming experience to boot. We run at least one role playing game every night. Tuesdays we run a free, all ages, Pokemon. Bobby joins the boys in the table top card game, playing matches, teaching them how to play, and helping guide fair trading, and assisting deck building. Thursdays, we offer a similar program with Magic The Gathering. We also host Friday Night Magic weekly, for those of a more competitive nature.
Games aren’t the only thing Excelsior serves up. A snack bar designed to keep you fueled delivers tasty concessions well into the evening. Tournaments and events, and a lineup of friendly and knowledgeable staff complete a one of a kind gaming experience.
Here is the kicker. As a general rule. We don't charge for events. Most places have an hourly rate. not us. Unless we are paying out for product (IE Friday Night Magic) or it's a tournament, everything we host is free. We are able to do this because Bobby and I don't take money out of the store. We function similar to a non-profit. What the storefront earns goes right back to the kids. Getting them new games, paying the bills, replacing the furniture, buying books, and neat odds and ends to really make the place theirs. Providing them a place to play. A place to be them.
This is what makes us unique. This is how we changed. Yes, Excelsior has a game store attached to it. Yes we keep up to date on comics, board games, Magic, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, books, you name it. The only difference is, now when you buy from the store, you are helping build a community. We are helping a new generation of geeks grow into confident selves. This is how we choose to keep moving forward, always upwards. Any store can be a store. Not everywhere is what we are growing though. And we aim to be so much more.
What people have to say about us
-Alex Kuvalanka: It's been something I really look forward going to visit. I live in southeast CT, so whenever I go up, it's for smash. And out of the few times I went, it's like I never left home. Everyone is nice and accepting, and I just love visiting tbh
- Jay Broughton: This place is dope, haha; I loved my first experience here. The people who work here are very friendly and accommodating. Other friendly people seem gravitated toward here too, so it's a great place to make some friends and enjoy a vibrant community. Check out the events too; they host a good variety of them. I look forward to stopping by here more often and I highly recommend this place to others too.
-Leslie Blanton: Stopped by today with my son, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that this is so much more than just a store. It is a great outlet for teens to interact with others in a safe and fun atmosphere. Great addition to Maynard !
-Daniel Moniz Fantastic people that welcome you right at the door. Great selection of games, cards, etc. Amazing place for my kids to hang out.
-Patrick J. Scott : Took my 8 year old son and 4 year old daughter there, because they wanted to go there and spend their money on some toys. The owner was very enthusiastic, helpful and knowledgeable. Their prices were good, and both my kids left very happy with their purchases (so did I). It's a nice to have a local shop with helpful people that is kid friendly.
-Deb Kavaler Wysopal: A non-profit labor of love - amazingly friendly, knowledgeable and just all around welcoming. Love it!
-Bill Newton: Excellent place for everyone to hang out and play games . I brought my 5 year old in and he had a blast gaming !!!!!!
-Doll Hart: Having Excelsior means having a safe, nurturing, judgment free place to bring my child to learn and play. I didn't have anything like that in my community growing up and it's invaluable for a child to have a place to go to.
-Justin Robbins: Going to Excelsior is something I look forward to every Sunday to play board games with my friends, friends I've only met through Excelsior. It is also a vibrant, friendly, and overall wonderful community for Magic: The Gathering on Friday nights.
-Drew Barker: I've stopped in many times and there is ALWAYS room full of people playing games together, in a safe regulated space.
-Donnie Stormageddon Murray: It's one of the few places I belong, if I can risk sounding cliche. My health has always been a problem, mentally and physically, and Excelsior is always a place I can show up, relax, spend time doing whatever the hell I'm into atm without worrying about judgment or my outside issues.
-Chelsea Rask: Excelsior is a home away from home for many by people including myself. It's always an open fun safe and all in all great place to be and hang out at. It also is a place for a lot of us who just want to go to and be in a place where we feel like we will always belong. The people and the place is just fun and great.
-Christina Autumn Kearney: I really appreciate the kindness and patience and fun to be had at Excelsior. It's meant a lot to me, even though I haven't been in lately. Thank you.
-Alison Bird: We searched around at multiple stores to find a place to play table top war games. All the other places that we looked at had too much of that "alpha" nerd feel. Excelsior has an open, inviting, and casual atmosphere. If Excelsior was not around and within such easy driving distance, we would have no doubt gone to another store, been miserable, and then stuck with playing by ourselves at home. Which would have driven me crazy. Thank you Excelsior for giving my husband a place for casual play.
Below is a lot more about us, to help fill you in, if you arent familliar with Excelsior. The breif rundown is, we are a community gaming center in Maynard MA that offers free gaming to our local community, paid for by a small store front attached to our gaming lounge. This means, even though neither my partner nor I make money off Excelsior, we cannot declare as an official non-profit for the time being.
We opened here, at 8 Waltham street, more than two years ago now. Both my partner and I have more than 7 years working in town on this sort of endeavor, with much success. We have become a pillar to the community. We give the local kids a place to call home.
Yesterday we received very last minute news we would have to vacate our current location in 60 days, due to the building being sold. Something my landlord, again and again, promised wouldn't be a problem. Our current location is very out of date, but also almost 4000 square feet. we have a few locations that may work, WITHIN MAYNARD, but need help getting the funds together to finish the move and build out.
We are looking to raise a few grand. We have most everything needed to open a new, right away. But we need to secure the funds to pay first, last, and security on whatever property we can get, and begin build out.
We will also need physical help due to the last minute nature of this.
The kids are crushed. They are afraid we are going to have to close. For many of them, this is all they have. I absolutely cannot let that happen.
Bobby and I don't take money from Excelsior. Anything the store makes goes right back into the Lounge and leaves with a very small cushion to work with.
Please, any little bit you can do to help is huge. I am fishing fir support from companies like Home Depot and Lowes, I am going to be looking into public grants. Everything I can.
What makes Excelsior unique.
I know, I know. You have heard THAT one a million times. Every store is going to claim they are not the typical, everyday, run of the mill joint. What kind of marketing would it be for someone to say "Come to Excelsior, they are the same as everyone else!"? So, do me a favor, and hear me out. I promise you wont be disappointed, and I actually think I'll surprise you.
When we opened the doors to Excelsior in 2014, Bobby and I had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do. We had a few years under our belt from running a previous comic shop, that just happened to carry games. We knew we wanted to focus more on gaming. Despite my undying love of comics, it is REALLY tough to build a new store on them. It is just impossible to get the backlog. Plus, we weren't opening under the ideal circumstances.
To fill you in on what makes us so unique, Excelsior is built for the players, by the players. The funds used to open the lounge the first time were raised by tee shirt sales, the idea of one of our regulars. Many of the local kids scoured high and low for furniture to give the lounge its homey feel. The Smash and Project M kids collected TVs and video games to allow us to open up free gaming all hours of the day. Local families donated tables, chairs, and so much more. The boy scouts painted our walls.
This was all done about a month before we opened. This changed a lot about how we wanted to approach things. We didn't want to be a store. We wanted to be more. We wanted to be a place for these very same people to call home.
For a little more background. Neither Bobby nor myself grew up terribly well off. Something I encountered while growing up were community centers, hosted by local churches, giving kids a place to play games. Maynard has the Boys and Girls club. It is GREAT for sports, and loud, excited, physical play, But that isn't the best place for everyone. So many of our kids want a quiet board game, or a group to role play with. They want a place where people understand that they may be overwhelmed by too much all at once.
Enter a unique social environment that redefines the way you play video games with your friends. Over 400 PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Wii games and consoles fill the space to immerse you into the most popular games from League of Legends and Call of Duty to Super Smash Brothers and Splatoon.
Unlike many new age gaming lounges, we offer the full table-top gaming experience to boot. We run at least one role playing game every night. Tuesdays we run a free, all ages, Pokemon. Bobby joins the boys in the table top card game, playing matches, teaching them how to play, and helping guide fair trading, and assisting deck building. Thursdays, we offer a similar program with Magic The Gathering. We also host Friday Night Magic weekly, for those of a more competitive nature.
Games aren’t the only thing Excelsior serves up. A snack bar designed to keep you fueled delivers tasty concessions well into the evening. Tournaments and events, and a lineup of friendly and knowledgeable staff complete a one of a kind gaming experience.
Here is the kicker. As a general rule. We don't charge for events. Most places have an hourly rate. not us. Unless we are paying out for product (IE Friday Night Magic) or it's a tournament, everything we host is free. We are able to do this because Bobby and I don't take money out of the store. We function similar to a non-profit. What the storefront earns goes right back to the kids. Getting them new games, paying the bills, replacing the furniture, buying books, and neat odds and ends to really make the place theirs. Providing them a place to play. A place to be them.
This is what makes us unique. This is how we changed. Yes, Excelsior has a game store attached to it. Yes we keep up to date on comics, board games, Magic, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, books, you name it. The only difference is, now when you buy from the store, you are helping build a community. We are helping a new generation of geeks grow into confident selves. This is how we choose to keep moving forward, always upwards. Any store can be a store. Not everywhere is what we are growing though. And we aim to be so much more.
What people have to say about us
-Alex Kuvalanka: It's been something I really look forward going to visit. I live in southeast CT, so whenever I go up, it's for smash. And out of the few times I went, it's like I never left home. Everyone is nice and accepting, and I just love visiting tbh
- Jay Broughton: This place is dope, haha; I loved my first experience here. The people who work here are very friendly and accommodating. Other friendly people seem gravitated toward here too, so it's a great place to make some friends and enjoy a vibrant community. Check out the events too; they host a good variety of them. I look forward to stopping by here more often and I highly recommend this place to others too.
-Leslie Blanton: Stopped by today with my son, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that this is so much more than just a store. It is a great outlet for teens to interact with others in a safe and fun atmosphere. Great addition to Maynard !
-Daniel Moniz Fantastic people that welcome you right at the door. Great selection of games, cards, etc. Amazing place for my kids to hang out.
-Patrick J. Scott : Took my 8 year old son and 4 year old daughter there, because they wanted to go there and spend their money on some toys. The owner was very enthusiastic, helpful and knowledgeable. Their prices were good, and both my kids left very happy with their purchases (so did I). It's a nice to have a local shop with helpful people that is kid friendly.
-Deb Kavaler Wysopal: A non-profit labor of love - amazingly friendly, knowledgeable and just all around welcoming. Love it!
-Bill Newton: Excellent place for everyone to hang out and play games . I brought my 5 year old in and he had a blast gaming !!!!!!
-Doll Hart: Having Excelsior means having a safe, nurturing, judgment free place to bring my child to learn and play. I didn't have anything like that in my community growing up and it's invaluable for a child to have a place to go to.
-Justin Robbins: Going to Excelsior is something I look forward to every Sunday to play board games with my friends, friends I've only met through Excelsior. It is also a vibrant, friendly, and overall wonderful community for Magic: The Gathering on Friday nights.
-Drew Barker: I've stopped in many times and there is ALWAYS room full of people playing games together, in a safe regulated space.
-Donnie Stormageddon Murray: It's one of the few places I belong, if I can risk sounding cliche. My health has always been a problem, mentally and physically, and Excelsior is always a place I can show up, relax, spend time doing whatever the hell I'm into atm without worrying about judgment or my outside issues.
-Chelsea Rask: Excelsior is a home away from home for many by people including myself. It's always an open fun safe and all in all great place to be and hang out at. It also is a place for a lot of us who just want to go to and be in a place where we feel like we will always belong. The people and the place is just fun and great.
-Christina Autumn Kearney: I really appreciate the kindness and patience and fun to be had at Excelsior. It's meant a lot to me, even though I haven't been in lately. Thank you.
-Alison Bird: We searched around at multiple stores to find a place to play table top war games. All the other places that we looked at had too much of that "alpha" nerd feel. Excelsior has an open, inviting, and casual atmosphere. If Excelsior was not around and within such easy driving distance, we would have no doubt gone to another store, been miserable, and then stuck with playing by ourselves at home. Which would have driven me crazy. Thank you Excelsior for giving my husband a place for casual play.