Caine Monroy
A used auto parts store in Los Angeles doesn't seem to be a likely place for a boy on summer vacation. It also doesn't seem like the ideal place to build a cardboard arcade, but one boy did. Caine Monroy was 9 years old when he created "Caine's Arcade." With a good amount of cardboard and a soaring imagination, Caine changed the way we look at creativity. Despite the location, Caine formed his arcade by designing games, creating customer passes and even prizes. At first, traffic was slow. But then, filmmaker Nirvan Mullick came to his father's used auto parts store. Mullick saw something special in Caine's Arcade and wanted to tell his story. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Mullick's film has received over 7 million views, along with 120,000 Facebook fans. Caine has inspired more than 100 schools in 9 different countries to create their own cardboard arcades. Caine's Arcade has been seen on various websites and television programs, from Forbes and Wired to Good Morning America and NPR. Caine's adventure took him to France as the youngest speaker ever to address the Cannes Lion Conference and to the USC Marshall School of Business.
Caine's story proves that a child's imagination is limitless and cannot be bound. With persistence and creativity, Caine managed to change not only his local community but communities around the globe.