Three local Vikings are building their own personal nerd Valhalla in 100 Mile House.
Viking Landscaping’s Jesse Gower, Doug Duhamel and Kierah Clark have pooled their resources to found Valhalla Games, a new arcade/hobby shop for the South Cariboo’s youth. The trio is currently in the midst of renovating Boomers Nite Club in preparation for their new venture.
“Valhalla is the Nordic heaven, essentially for warriors, and this is going to be heaven for nerds when we’re done,” Gower said.
There’s still a long way to go, however. Boomers Nite Club has sat vacant for over a decade and Gower, Duhamel and Clark are in the process of repainting the walls, installing new flooring, building new bathrooms and clearing out years worth of junk. Despite this, they’re all happy to see this venture get off the ground.
For cousins Gower and Clark, this has been a lifelong dream. For years the two have wanted to own their own arcade and often joked about it as children. Clark recalled how the arcade on her hometown on Vancouver Island was her favourite place to go as a child.
“I remember how much fun I had at arcades as a kid so I just want to offer that back to young people today,” Clark said.
For Gower and Duhamel their driving motivation is their own young children. Both said that growing up in 100 Mile House there’s not a lot for children and teenagers to do.
“We have kids and this town is kind of lame for kids. Me and Kierah have always been big nerds, we’re both into DnD, Warhammer and Magic the Gathering cards. We know about this stuff, lots of people in this town are nerds who like that stuff but there’s nowhere to do it in town,” Gower explained.
Their vision for Valhalla games is multipronged. Gower said they intend to cater to both parents with young children, teenagers and men and women their age who are into nerd and geek culture. Duhamel added they plan to rent the space out to families looking to host birthday parties.
“I’ve got two kids, a five-year-old and a six-year-old and the only place in town you can really take them for a birthday party is the bowling alley, which we’ve gone to every year for five years, or the movie theatre,” Duhamel said. “I’m looking forward to seeing kids run around with smiles and whatnot. It’s going to be a little fun park, that’s my goal.”
Roughly half the space will be taken up by merchandise which will include roleplaying games, war game minis, comic books, shirts and other parafenelia. At the centre will be several tables for activities such as Dungeons and Dragons games, Magic the Gathering Tournaments and other events still being finalized.
In the far right corner, Gower said they’ll be setting up their mini arcade. They currently have three custom coin-fed arcade games being built which will come equipped with 3,000 classic arcade games including Pacman and Galactica. They’ll be joined by a pinball and claw machine.
In the opposite corner, Gower wants to have some modern gaming available where a PS5 and Nintendo Switch will be available for rent. A pool table and karaoke machine have also been ordered.
“It’s kind of funny we’ve almost split the business in half. The first part of our days will be geared towards younger kids and birthday parties and the second half will be tournaments and events for teenagers and people our age,” Gower said. “In a town like this, you’ve got to have a variety of things to be successful.”
So far Gower said they’ve received a lot of positive support online which he hopes translates into people coming into the store. Thanks to the help of the District of 100 Mile House’s director of community services, Todd Conway, they have most of their permits squared away.
Gower aims to open on Oct. 2, if they’re able to get all the renovations done. They’ll be open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Sundays initially and welcome anyone from the community to come in and experience Valhalla for themselves.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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