Hello, everyone, and welcome to Experience Michiana.

We are so glad that you bring us into your homes every week.

And we love showing you all of the things that you can do in this wonderful community.

And we also love bringing you lots of laughter and lots of fun.

So all I'm going to say is for this show, get ready for some Megafun.

All right, Courtney, you have way too much of a tradition of beating us.

Well, I just can't help it when it happens.

So today I have one goal, but the goal is we've beat Courtney at everything.

Aww man, you know.

I have a different goal, but she's savage.

I just want to survive, thats it just survive.

Courtney is Savage.

Thats a good wood for her.

All right.

You're an absolute savage.

Me.

Well, I'm excited to see what they have here to offer at Mega Play.

So I'm going to go right off, see if I can meet up with the general manager and see what's going on here at Megaplay.

All right.

We're going to warm up so we can beat you get ready for that, alright.

And if I can just walk out of here and I'll be happy one of the best staples for fun here in Michiana is mega play.

And they've been around for decades.

I'm so excited to be here surrounded by all the noise and entertainment that I have with us today.

Susan, who's the general manager here.

Thanks for having us today.

Thank you for coming.

I appreciate that there is so much to do here.

And I know I've been here with my kids before, too.

What are some of your favorite things to do here at Mega Play.

Drive.

You like to drive?

I can safely drive crazy.

I love that.

I know.

I like the motorcycle Kelly and I have done the motorcycle before too.

But you guys have over 300 arcade games, is that right.

Yes.

We've got anything from.

Oh, skeeball to.

The speed video games to Driving games, to helicopter games, to shooting zombies, of course, of the dance yourself to death, right.

I have dance clubs that do come in.

They, use my DDR.

Oh, great.

Oh, yes.

Oh, what would you say is your oldest one?

Because when we were walking around, I saw some very nostalgic options over there.

What's your oldest video arcade game?

I would have to be Pacman, OK?

It would have to be Pacman.

A close second would be Centipede.

Oh, a close third would probably be Dungeons and Dragons.

OK, so very classic stuff here, but also new stuff too.

And you also have options for the little ones.

Absolutely.

We have got an incredible 800 square foot enclosed playland.

Currently, because of covid, right, we do have our our our ball pit shut down.

OK, but we still have a 15 by 15 bouncer as well as that enclosed area that's got plenty to play with from slides to.

Oh, gosh, just toys to get that energy out.

For the little ones that I know, I don't know.

Families right now are looking for places where they can let their kids go and release some energy safely.

What are some of the precautions you're doing with covid restrictions?

Right now OK, first off, we clean on a daily basis or we're using CDC sanitizers.

Anything that can be touched sat on.

Yeah, touched surfaces, gets wiped down You know, whenever you think about it, I mean, that goes to trash can handles.

Oh, yeah, we make sure everything is wiped out and everyone should be wearing a mask when they come here to.

We do.

We do.

And they still do.

And you guys use their own player cards, too.

So if someone wants to load their card up, they can do that.

Absolutely.

And that actually is a much more sanitary way of doing things, too, because you're not having to deal with dirty tokens yet.

Exactly.

Not having to worry about, hey, where was that joking last?

Exactly.

And you guys even can do birthday parties here, too, which I know people are starting to get together in small groups.

And that's an option.

Yes, it's a huge option.

We do have a room that can seat up to three hundred people right now.

No, we just do small groups.

Ten Fifteen at a time.

OK, and those are those are two hours apart.

So given the space, they're able to, you know, not be on top of one another.

Absolutely.

And you guys have food and drinks here.

Yes.

So this is kind of an all all bounced off here.

Yes.

And you guys have been around forever.

Yes.

Under our ownership since 1997.

Amazing.

I mean, the concept was actually opened in 1992 under a different family, OK in 1997, our family took over through the years.

We've just kind of gone with whatever has been most popular.

Yeah.

And stuck with that.

You know, we we take care of basically the whole family.

It is.

So, you know, we're going to get the little guys.

We're going to get you.

Well, I worry about everybody else, but I'm ready to play.

So I'm going to go get Kelly and Irish Dave and see if we can get some competition going, because that's what I'm all about.

Absolutely.

Thanks Susan Hey, I want to know why their side isn't down as far as mine is.

That was a lot of fun.

Yeah, it was under a lot of exercise there at the end, but you know, I didn't win today.

Like anything nothing Yeah, but hang on.

You were going for her at the end.

I was going for you.

All right.

But we did have a lot of fun here today.

It was good.

So much to do here at megaplay and.

This has been around for decades, and so this is definitely a place it's all encompassing for all ages and there's so much that you can do here.

Oh, my goodness, guys, I have to get going.

I'm going to bed.

Are you going to bed?

Yeah, I'm tired.

I have to go to the fab lab and I can't go looking like this because I've got to look fabulous.

See you guys later.

All right.

I had so much fun with Dave and he had Mega play, but I had to run home, change my clothes, because now it's time to get to work, getting ready to meet with Chad.

He's the director of the Hanson Technology Center at Lake Michigan College.

And we're about to find out what's happening at Fab Lab.

Love that name.

It's got to be a fabulous place.

So let's go, guys.

Hi, Chad.

Hi.

Wow, this place is pretty awesome.

Welcome to the Fab Lab at lake michigan college.

It is the fab lab.

But can I just be honest with you?

I am extremely technologically challenged.

And so I feel like I might as well be at NASA Space Center here, You wont be after we're done.

Oh, are you sure about that?

Well, we'll try.

Well, this place is really cool.

How long have you guys been here?

So we just celebrated our four year anniversary and on April 1st, my birthday.

Birthday.

Happy birthday.

Thank you.

So we've been open for four years and we just kind of reached the needs of the community.

And whatever it is that the community needs, that's what we try to do.

So that was the inspiration behind opening day.

So we wanted to have a space where people can come in, learn the machines and learn machines that they may not have in their home, in their garage and be able to complete projects by utilizing the resources that we have available.

So a lot of invention, a lot of creativity.

So I think that's it's not about Shark Tank.

It happens here at Fab Lab here it happens right here.

So you have five different stations, right?

So there's five stations.

We have vinyl, laser sewing, 3-D printing and woodworking.

Lets take a look at the sewing center here Come on over.

So I heard that there was some really cool things that happened here because during the pandemic, you guys actually made a lot of masks for the Community.

We Did.

So what we were trying to figure out is what we could do and how we could help the community with what with what resources that we had.

And we we first started up with Face Shields where we 3D printed the visor, and then we cut out the face shields with our laser so that they fit perfectly each time.

That kind of morphed right into the masks.

And so we've got some mask here that are in pre right here production, if you will.

So this is just the two layers that are there currently.

But when this is done, it'll look just like this.

So we've got the two layers on each side along with the elastic so that it fits.

Each time, each now I heard you mentioned the three D is making the shields with that, so we made the visors with the visors or what would actually go around your forehead and we made those with the 3D printer.

And we also did some of the lasers as well.

But we did find that the 3D printers, the quality was much better than what the laser could do.

And congratulations, because you actually won the heroes award.

We did.

We won the community Hero award for Berrien County.

And we we were very humbled to receive that.

Well, I hear you talking about the 3D.

Can we take a look at it?

So that's the one that kind of scared me.

It was like, know, automated, I don't know, robotic looking thing.

So the 3D printers really are very, very easy.

And actually, the 3D printers are the only this is the only equipment in the lab where you can actually start it and walk away from, oh, you can run overnight.

I think the last the longest print we ever had was forty two hours.

Really.

So what can you make on something like this.

Pretty much anything.

This is great for prototyping.

So if you have an idea of something that you want to do and then you want to actually get the tangible and kind of feel it, it may not be what you want it to actually be made out of.

But this way you can at least print it and then you can at least Hold it feel it and make sure this is what it is that you want it to do.

And I was kind of eyeing the iron mask up there, Iron Man mask.

Is that something that was made here?

It was.

So this is one of the first prints that we did.

We wanted to have something that was kind of cool for the kids to kind of ooh and awe over.

So we 3D printed the Iron Man mask and then screwed it all together.

And as you can see, it's been worn and kind of dropped.

And so there's a you know, it's older.

And then we painted it so that it would be actually be the Iron Man.

I would put it on.

But it's a little bit too skinny for my my head.

I was going to put it on two, but it would mess up my hair.

But then I saw you have aquanet so the aquanet is actually used for the 3D printer bed so that you're able to just pop them right off the print, right off.

And so you just spray that spray that on about every third or fourth print.

Really?

Really.

OK, well, let's go take a look at another station.

Put iron man down a second.

OK, let's go.

So this is the design center.

This is the design center.

We've got six different computers here.

Most of the software that we have is located.

Actually, all the software that we have is located somewhere in the design center as well.

This enables people to come in, get their file already, do their computer work, if you will, to get the file exactly the way that they want that before they tie up a machine.

Now, on workshops here, because what if something like myself, I want to come in, I want to do something, but I have no idea how to work anything.

So there's two different ways to do it.

So there's a workshop where everyone does the exact same thing.

So if there is something that you see online, like a coaster workshop or a laser workshop where everyone's doing the same thing and you want that product, you can come in.

We'll teach you the the equipment.

And when you leave, you'll leave with that actual product.

If you don't want to do a workshop, you just want to come in during open lab time and do your own project.

Then you come in, you let us know what you what it is that you want to want to do.

We will help you decide what machines it is that you that you need and then you'll go to that machine will teach you the machine.

The goal is to get you on as quickly and as safely as possible and then you'll start working on your project.

We do have techs available here during our open lab time as well.

You can get something if you you won't break anything.

I have a tech that actually can fix just about anything, so don't worry about breaking anything.

But it's all about trial and error.

You try something.

Normally you fail, you learn, you repeat the process.

I like that because there's no pressure here.

Absolutely no pressure.

I guess probably the most fun thing about being in here, especially during open lab time, because I'll walk around and kind of see what people are doing.

And then all of a sudden you have a sixteen year old kid in a 72 year old retired woodworker that all of a sudden they're collaborating on something together because they you know, they're helping each other based off of their strengths.

So I love that.

So it's it's open to the entire community, not just students.

Yep.

So if you have a need and you're able to come to the Fab Lab in Lake Michigan College, come on in and we'll help you as much as we can.

Now, I'm assuming this is not material.

I can't make an outfit out of this but this is the vinyl that we have available for purchase here.

This is our vinyl cutter.

You can make stickers, magnets, anything of that nature.

We have a we have a dumpster actually outside that.

As for recycling, but let's say recycling anywhere.

So we made this yesterday when this started, it was just a piece of red vinyl that went through the cutter.

It cut the words out.

We then what's called reeded we weeded it out, everything that we didn't want.

Then we put a masking tape over it so that when we do, it comes comes apart.

We'll take the backing off.

We'll put this onto the floor, in this case, a dumpster, and then we'll squeegee it on so it cuts all the holes, are the air bubbles out of it.

And then once it's on there will peel the actual masking tape off and then just the vinyl will stick to that.

Wow.

It just seems like the possibilities are endless.

They are really.

So let's take a look.

This is the laser.

So this is our laser area.

We have found popular four different laser.

This is my favorite.

These are probably our most popular area.

My gosh.

What?

So this is one of the ukuleles that we do for one of our summer camps.

It's a utility building where they actually get the kit and then they can paint it or they can laser.

And this is our logo for Lake Michigan College lasered into the front and our local laser beam to the back.

That is so cute.

We also have over here, this is a piece of quarter inch plywood and we uploaded a file and this will actually hold bottlecap.

So this is great for like breweries.

We had a couple of them that wanted wanted something like this.

So this is what we were able to come up with.

So with the with the laser, I mean, there's, again, endless possibilities.

I see something there.

Is that a wine glass?

That is a wine glass.

Thats nice.

I love that.

So this is our Christmas theme Oh, look at the here on the back.

And this would be great for party favors as well.

But it could come in here.

And if you want and personalization, if you want to personalize anything, this is what you can do.

So we actually have an attachment that's our rotary attachment that goes right into the laser.

So it turns to glass for you.

So that's works really well, that's great.

Get it perfect each time.

So you come out to show me how to do this because the machine does the work for you.

A machine does the work for you.

You just have to tell the machine or tell the computer what you want Do I just talk to it.

Can you just talk to it?

So you're going to go over to the mouse, OK, take the mouse here, go up to file print just like you're going to press something on a printer.

I'm not going to mess this up am I?.

Not at all.

OK, all right.

Go back to fire.

It hit print.

OK, so we're going to go set up.

All right.

And then preferences.

And now I know the box is going to come open.

Oh, we're going to tell it.

So we're going to do a vector cut, which is already there right there.

Actually, I must have already done one of these because everything is already set the way that we want it to be.

Thank you, Chad.

We do need to change the piece size, though, right?

Size right now is of an inch by an inch, and that is actually three inches by three inch backspace and hit three.

OK, so what happens when you put fire with wood.

It burns.

So what we're going to do is we're going to turn the air on.

I thought it was a trick question.

OK, now we're going to turn the exhaust on so that all the fumes go out.

Oh, this is already set.

But we already told it what we want it to do as far as speed and power so that it will etch it in there, but it won't scorch.

OK. All right, so now go ahead and hit print one more times right here and lower green button.

Do you see the job?

Right, here I go.

Oh, wow.

So that is going a lot faster than I thought it was very fast, especially with a with a.

That is pretty amazing.

And again, it's just one of those things with trial and error that we found over time that I'm not sure that's a vector cuts not so deep or just go quicker than an engrave and so someone can come put in their design and then print something like that.

Exactly.

That's really cool.

And it's done.

And it'll open it up.

Oh, it's just grab it and slide it up.

They go.

Oh, look at that.

I did that.

Now it's not only open to the community, but it's free.

So it's free to come in and utilize like the the design area that we charge once we start using the machines.

The other reason that we do that is because we want to make sure that, you know, when when the machines break, that we are able to we have the money to be able to fix them and keep them maintained.

Now, I have to show you something that really caught my eye, which is this arcade, And so this is our first ever arcade that we did.

This is actually we've changed it quite a bit from from this.

But this is the basic design.

Now, this is something that can be done during one of the summer camps.

Right.

This is probably our most popular summer camp, if you will.

You start with a four by eight sheet of plywood.

The two sides are cut out with our shop and they're done perfectly each time.

But you're able to sand them and then actually stain paint or whatever it is that you want to do to them.

So you can basically prop them to match whatever decor that you want to do.

That is si cool.

I love it.

we recycle a computer screen of computer power source.

We get all the joysticks, all the buttons, the wire harness, and we teach you how to do all of this.

That is incredible.

You start by putting the cabinet together, then you do the wiring harness, put the buttons on the joysticks and you mount the screen.

You hook everything together.

And when you leave after four days, it's about four hours a day, three to four hours a day.

When you leave the camp, you leave with this and you can play the game.

Yeah, there is actually about twelve hundred games on it.

Twelve hundred.

The one that we do that usually goes with people has 60 on it.

My goodness I love that.

So kids, you want to play the game, you have to make it Pacman, Donkey Kong, all the popular ones.

Right.

That's great.

So what are some of the other camps that you have?

So we do a ukulele building camp.

We also do fab lab boot camp, which basically is a little bit of everything that you've seen so far in the lab.

We do different projects.

The kids can pick the projects.

And I keep saying kids and I shouldn't because we've had with all ages in here for the camp.

So you could be eight years old or you could be one hundred and eight years old.

You're going to have a good time in here and you're going to walk away with something that you've made and that you've actually personalized.

You feel really good about that as well, I'm sure.

So people would like to register.

How can they get in touch?

So there's a couple of different ways.

You can you can directly call the fab lab.

You can follow us on Facebook.

All of our accounts, workshops, open labs are all events that are listed on Facebook.

And you can also go to Eventbrite we're located on there or the easiest way is to go to Lake Michigan college dot edu slash fab lab and everything is located there as well.

Fab Lab.

It's lots of fun and it's so easy to go from inspiration to creation.

It is.

It really, truly is.

If you can think it, you can make it have one tech that always says, you know, think of it this way.

No one told you you can't.

Wouldn't it be cool if I then fill in the blanks after that?

There you go.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Me feel really good about myself today.

Thanks.

as things are starting to get back to normal, we're looking forward to more outdoor opportunities and things that are just make us feel more comfortable during the year.

And one of those that we always look forward to is the jamin in the vineyard at the Round Barn Winery.

And I'm so excited that this weekend they're actually kicking it off with their annual sangria party I have with us today, Jen, and I'm so excited for this to bring this back.

And I know you are, too.

Yeah, I think everybody in southwest Michigan and even greater Indiana is just so excited that we're coming back with this event.

Last year, we couldn't have it because of the covid shut down here in Michigan.

But we're coming back this year on May 1st to kick off the season with the annual Sangria Party and the kick off of jamming in the vineyard sponsored by honor credit union.

That's so awesome.

And now for people who are interested in coming, this is a free, non ticketed event.

So you could just show up.

Yep, you can just show up.

You can either go straight to our vineyard commons, which is first come, first serve no reservations needed.

But if you would like to make a reservation, we do have those available for a vineyard seating and cabana, elevated taste in our new vitnor suite, which is straight across from where we're at.

And it's a whole big area where you could get a private bartender and your own private bathroom AC and you get the views of the property.

So amazing.

So there are some perks of the whole pandemic and how things progressed.

Yeah, being able to have some of those private and even the grounds here, they're so spread out that you really have the opportunity to not be close to other small groups of people to so feel free to bring a few friends along with you to and share some share some sangria.

But you guys also have growlers that are going to be available this Saturday, too.

Yeah.

So this girl right here is our annual sangria party, Greller and the first one hundred orders of sangria, red or white.

We'll go ahead and get that.

So it's the growler, Phil.

So it's about a four dollar charge on top of the what the sangria would already be.

So I think it's about thirty four dollars and you would get that.

So just the first one hundred orders.

It's not available all day.

You gotta be here first.

Yeah.

While supplies last.

And once those are gone, those are gone.

So and if you're not from this area and you can't make it up, the sangria party, no fear, we do have our flavored cans, which are red sangria, you can get that online or a lot of your retailers.

Meijer carries that.

A lot of our local retailers carry it.

Awesome.

And you guys have both the red and the white sangrias will be available this weekend.

That's awesome.

And this is the red one, right?

That's the red one.

I know it's a little early for me on a Monday morning.

What time is i Eh it's five o'clock somewhere.

its Eleven thirty.

It's fine.

Oh, that's delicious, by the way, you have to try the white.

Yes, it's so good and so you can grab this this weekend.

What time is the sangria party?

It starts at 11 o'clock Eastern Time and it goes until about I think we close at 7:00 on Saturday.

So it goes all day.

We have live music starting, I think either at 11:00 or noon when the two times we have Bryans, Alison and we have Pablos, great revenge at play in that day.

And then as this is the kickoff for Jamin' in the vineyard, tell us a little bit more about that, because that's music available, too.

And again, people can be outdoors with that.

Yeah.

So Jamin in the vineyard, it was started.

I don't even know how many years ago.

Twenty nine.

Twenty nine years ago.

So We are celebrating our twenty ninth season this year and honor credit union sponsors that they're great partners to have here in the community.

They do a lot with us.

So they sponsor that program which is straight across over here on our stage.

We have bands starting Saturday and Sunday, but then after Memorial Day we're going to have a band on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday.

So that's the Fridays new this year.

We're super excited because last year we noticed that people were coming out on Friday afternoons for like happy hour or whatever the case may be.

They'd either had a half day and they would just come straight out here.

And there were some days where Friday it was just as packed as it would be on a Sunday.

So we went ahead and made a decision to have the bands come in on Fridays also.

So we're super excited to do what the people want to do.

Everybody and, you know, people are still it's the same round bar as it always has been, you know, come out here for relaxing time, a fun time, great place to celebrate, hang out.

But, you know, we're just kind of not we're just kind of going backwards, I guess you could say, in regards to, you know, we don't want a big party scene and we don't want the big crowds.

We definitely want to scale down, which is why we have the seating and the reservations and stuff like that.

And last year, people were super excited that we were having table service and we were doing reservations because it made them know that they had a spot right when they got here.

So exactly.

And even for the common areas, people can just at the first come, first serve.

But that's also spread out to and people can even bring their own chairs.

People can bring their chairs this year, which people are probably still excited about.

And another thing is that we are asking we are continuing to do credit cards only at the properties.

So it's good to know.

Yeah, I've been splitting checks two ways.

If you come with like a group of six, we're not going to do six individual checks.

It'll be just to check.

So take one this week.

Somebody else take it the next week and just change it.

Everybody keeps coming back and then our TABOR mountain trails will also be open.

They're open year round.

And Tabor trails has been super popular out here this year.

It connects us from round barn estate all the way to tabor winery right across the way over there.

And this is open to families, too, because I know that's one of the things that I'm always looking for, like what can I do to enjoy some adult time?

But also I have kids to to bring along.

And so my kids love to listen to music, too.

Yeah, we are kid friendly.

Dog friendly.

Bring your dog here on the leash.

It's just a great time for everybody.

Family fun all around.

You know, we're a family, family business.

So just go ahead and bring the whole family out here.

That's so awesome.

Well, thank you so much for having us today.

We have our sangria, so we have to.

Cheers, cheers, cheers.

And hopefully you can come out for the sangria party this weekend.

And Verona at the round barn winery.

Thank you so much for having us.

Thank you.

Well, we hope you guys have a lot of laughter, lots of mega fun, and we hope that this weekend, you know exactly what you're going to do in Michiana.

But this is also where we need your help because the weather's getting nice.

We're getting back out there and we're not quite sure what to do sometimes.

So please let us know what you're up to and what are the things that you're out there experiencing and the community.

Well, that's it for this week, guys.

We're so glad that you joined us.

And we can't wait to see you next week on Experience Michiana.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.