A Few Changes for 2010

Happy Holidays from your friends at PUMP'd. What an amazing 2009 we've had!! We owe it all to our fantastic customers, super friends & supportive family. A big heart-felt THANK YOU to each of you!!

Other than being closed for New Years Day on January 1, 2010, we will be keeping with our normal operating schedule during the winter school break.

OPEN JUMP hours
MON-FRI: 10am - 1pm and 3pm - 6pm
SAT-SUN: 9am - 12pm

As of January 1, 2010 our OPEN JUMP admission price is $7 per child. Children under age 2 and adults are FREE with a paid admission. We have discontinued our discounted "Additional" admission fee. All kids 2 and over are $7 each.

Pricing on our Standard and PUMP'd party packages will slightly increase as of January 1, 2010. Reservations and deposits received before 6pm on 12/31/09 will receive our 2009 prices

Local Vendors Wanted for Holiday Craft Fair

**Updated with new vendor pricing & floor-plan images***

When: Saturday, November 21st, 9am - 2pm
Where: Pump'd - Inflatable Fun Center, 555 Main Street, Watsonville

Come and showcase your wares at the First Annual Pump'd Holiday Craft Fair & Trunk show!

Shoppers will be invited to bring their kids to take advantage of our "Open Jump" session (Open Jump rates are $7/$5 per child) while they browse your merchandise. We will have 2 to 3 of our party rooms available for tables/booths.

Space fees will go toward a print advertising campaign to run in the Sentinel and Register Pajaronian. The event is also being promoted in the November issue of Growing Up in Santa Cruz as well as on our website, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Space Fees (Vendors to provide their own tables):
8 foot table: $40
4x4 Card table: $15
Limited number of corner spaces (8 foot plus 4x4 foot) also available for $55

Please call us at 831-761-5321 for more information. Ask for Joe

Please email us too: joe@pumpdfuncenter.com

Autumn Happenings at PUMP'd

Talk about a crazy week on the Central Coast. High winds and driving rains on Tuesday followed by 80 degree weather on Wednesday and beyond. Here's to hoping things settle down a bit.

We have a few exciting events coming up at PUMP'd and wanted to tell you about them

Oct 31st (HALLOWEEN)
Trick or Treat Open Jump, 9am - 2pm
Costumes are welcome!!

Nov 1st
Surrender Your Candy!
Give us at least 1 pound of your Halloween candy (per child) and pay only $3.00 admission each

Nov 21st
Craft Fair/Trunk Show & an extended Open Jump (9am - 2pm)
Bring your children to play while you shop the day away in our party rooms. Ask at the Front Desk for more details

Nov 26th
Thanksgiving Day
We will be CLOSED on Thanksgiving day

Nov 27th
Black Friday Fun Day
All day Open Jump. 10am - 6pm

We also want to take this opportunity to introduce you to a few fresh faces that have joined the PUMP'd team. Please join us in welcoming Daisy, Jesseka and Ron!!

Daisy and Jesseka are our newest party hosts. They both hail from Watsonville High. Class of 2010 and 2011, respectively. They will be joining Adrienne in ensuring your party experiences are enjoyable and memorable ones.

Ron will be stationed at our front desk during weekday Open Jump operations. He hails from Chicago and has lived in the area for the last few years. We haven't asked him, but we're pretty sure he might be a Cubs fan. We won't judge him.

When it rains...It leaks

Dear customers

Due to the severe weather today we will not be able to host Open Jump this afternoon.
Several leaks are dripping water onto our inflatables - creating an unsafe condition for our customers.

We plan to re-open on Wednesday morning at 10am

We apologize for the inconvenience this causes.

-Pump'd Management

Putting the FUN in Fundraising

We are aware budget cuts have affected all of us in California. Many organizations are painfully under budgeted and may not survive an economic recovery. At PUMP’d, we would like to help out your organization by hosting a PUMP’d FUNdraiser!

The concept is quite simple. Here is how PUMP’d FUNdraising works:

• Contact PUMP’d at 761-5321. Provide us your organization name, class number, Tax ID number or team information, as well as a contact person and phone number. Your group will be given a date on our FUNdraising Calendar. Each organization may receive up to two days per school year.
  
• Announce through your organization that PUMP’d will donate 15% of your specific day’s OPEN JUMP REVENUE to your organization—No sweets to prepare, no booth to staff, no stress for anyone involved.
  
• Encourage participation from everyone in your community to visit PUMP’d on your particular day. Use your website, newsletter, Twitter and/or Facebook accounts, reminder notes with homework packets, banners at school, etc. to get the word out that money will be generated and sent directly to your group.
  

Within one week of your specific date, PUMP’d will issue a check to your organization. A letter will accompany it describing how many people visited OPEN JUMP on your day and how much money your organization has earned.

We sincerely hope that your organization considers PUMP’d FUNdrasing as a valuable option for generating additional funds for your class, school and/or team. We are looking forward your continued success!

*Dates will be scheduled during normal operating OPEN JUMP hours Monday-Thursday through May 2010. We will have blackout dates during school/federal holidays. Dates will be issued on a first come, first serve basis

Family Fun Night - September 10th

It's time once again for Family Fun Night at PUMP'd. We've decided to mix things up a bit for our final installment of the Summer.

The September edition of Family Fun Night will be focused on community and safety. We're proud to have McGruff the Crime dog, with members of the Watsonville Police Department join us to help our younger customers learn how they can help take a bite out of crime. So please bring your cameras.

Also joining us will be firefighters from the Watsonville Fire Department. They will be rolling in on one of their fire engines. This is a great opportunity for your youngster to get up-close and personal with some of the brave firefighters from our area -- not to mention an opportunity to climb into a real fire engine! The firefighters will stay with us for as long as possible, however they are on duty and could get called away at a moments notice.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Details:

• Thursday, September 10th. 6:00pm to 8:00pm


• $7.50/person (kids under 2 are free!)


• Includes 2 slices of pizza and beverages for everyone


• Full access to our inflatables & toddler area


• Meet McGruff the Crime dog & members of the Watsonville Police Force


• Learn about fire safety and meet the brave firefighters of the Watsonville Fire Department

As always, everyone is required to wear socks

-PUMP'd

Afternoon OPEN JUMP session added for Saturday (8/22)

We are extending our OPEN JUMP hours this Saturday (8/22) to include an afternoon session. In addition to our 9am - 12pm session, we will also be open 3pm - 6pm.

Please stop by and join us for either of sessions for a bouncing good time.
Normal OPEN JUMP rules and restrictions apply.

We'll see you there!

Free Open Jump for Families Displaced by the Lockheed Martin Fire

If you or anyone you know is displaced by the Lockheed Martin fire, please send them our way.

All they have to do is show us some ID with a Bonnie Doon area address and their kids can bounce for FREE!!

The offer is valid now through Monday (for now) during any of our Open Jump sessions.

Mon - Fri: 10am - 1pm and 3pm - 6pm
Sat - Sun: 9am - Noon

Our thoughts and prayers are with you

-PUMP'd

From the Suggestion Box, Vol 1

A few weeks ago we set out a comments and suggestion box for our customers to leave anonymous feedback about their visit to PUMP'd and to let us know how we're doing.

As the box fills with feedback, we will post the comments and our remarks here. So, this weeks suggestion comes to us from Customer Steve H.:

"Parents who appreciate the value of fresh, organic snack food for their children should be able to bring those snack foods into your fantastic facility, since they are not offered here. Fresh, Whole, Organic, Local! Thanks"

Thanks Steve. We actually do try have an equal mix of snack foods available. We carry nuts, freeze dried fruits, trail mix and granola bars -- as well as some not-so-healthy snacks. What we've seen is that our snack-buying customers prefer candy to fruit (unfortunate, but true). We have had to discard plenty of our wholesome treats simply because they sit and eventually expire.

We are working toward a solution whereby we completely eliminate the sugary processed snacks all-together. There is a company called Yo! Naturals that has created a new line of Healthy Vending Machine options to meet todays demand for nutritious snacking. They carry a complete line of snacks that are found at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

The problem is, there isn't a distributor for Yo! Naturals in Central or Northern California yet. Here we have a FANTASTIC product, but no way to get our hands on it.

We are also looking at carrying fresh cut fruit cups in our refrigerated machine. We have a few calls to local shops so that we can negotiate an arrangement.

Thank you for the suggestion Steve H. Hopefully on your next visit you will notice an improvement to our snacking options.

Have a great day!

-PUMP'd

Family Fun Night at PUMP'd - August 13th

Family Fun Night is back at PUMP'd -- and so is Faery Fae!

We are proud to announce that Fae Diddle Diddle of Happily Ever Laughter will be returning to provide her special brand of magic, face painting and more for our guests. If you weren't able to make it in July, please be sure to clear your schedule for Thursday, August 13th.

Details for Family Fun Night...

Thursday, August 13th -- 6pm to 8pm

Admission is just $7.50 per person (kids under 2 are free!) and includes...

• 2 slices of pizza & a beverage per person
  
• Access to our inflatables and toddler room
  
• Magic show, face painting & balloon animals courtesy of Fae Diddle Diddle from Happily Ever Laughter .
  

Everyone must wear socks. Brand new socks for sale at the front desk for $2.00.

Family Fun Nights at PUMP'd are a monthly event throughout the summer.

Please tell your friends and we'll be seeing you on August 13th.

Please call or email with any questions. 831.761.5321 or info@pumpdfuncenter.com

More Open Jump this Saturday (July 25)

Hello again

Due to a recent change to our party schedule on Saturday, we will have an afternoon Open Jump session.

Join us either from 9am - 12pm and/or 3pm - 6pm on Saturday, July 25th.
Please take advantage of this spur of the moment opportunity.

We will have these surprise sessions whenever the weekend schedule permits. The best way to be in the know is to check this blog often or to join our Facebook group.

We'll be seeing you on Saturday!

Extra Open Jump session this weekend only

Please join us on Saturday and Sunday (July 18 & 19) for a special afternoon Open Jump session.

Weekend Open Jump is limited to 9am to 12pm only-- but this weekend we're adding a session from 3pm to 6pm both days.

Looking forward to seeing you!
-PUMP'd Management

Free Pizza Offer

Today is quite the news day at PUMP'd. Not only did we just announce our upcoming July "Family Fun Night", but now we have a special offer to tell you about.

Anyone that makes a party reservation before August 31st, 2009 will receive a FREE Large 1-Topping Pizza for their event. The party can be next week, next month or even next year.

Simply make your reservation before August 31st to take advantage of this offer.

Click here to get started!

Family Fun Night - July 23, 2009

Family Fun Night is back at PUMP'd -- and this time we're adding a touch of magic!

We are proud to announce that Fae Diddle Diddle of Happily Ever Laughter will be on hand to provide a some magic, face painting and more for our guests. This is something you don't want to miss.

Details for Family Fun Night...

Thursday, July 23 -- 6pm to 8pm

Admission is just $7.50 per person (kids under 2 are free!) and includes...

• 2 slices of pizza & a beverage per person
  
• Access to our inflatables and toddler room
  
• Magic show, face painting & balloon animals courtesy of Fae Diddle Diddle from Happily Ever Laughter .
  

Everyone must wear socks. Brand new socks for sale at the front desk for $2.00.

Family Fun Nights at PUMP'd are a monthly event throughout the summer.

Please tell your friends and we'll be seeing you on July 23rd.

Please call or email with any questions. 831.761.5321 or info@pumpdfuncenter.com

A special "Summer Break" offer from your friends at PUMP'd!

In honor of the upcoming 4th of July holiday we are offering a special discount for booking a party at PUMP'd.

Submit a party reservation with us before July 4th and you will receive 10% OFF the base price of your party! There are no restrictions as to when your party takes place -- During Summer, in October or even next spring! Simply make your reservation (including deposit) on or before July 4th to receive this special limited time offer

Call, come in or reserve online now!

Please contact us with any questions -- HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!!!

CLICK HERE TO MAKE YOUR RESERVATION

*All PUMP'd rules & policies are applicable during this promotion. Please contact a manager with any questions

All Day Passes at PUMP'd

By popular demand we are adding an ALL DAY PASS that will enable jumpers to enjoy both Open Jump sessions at PUMP'd for one low price.

This is a perfect solution for customers who have been longing for play at both weekday sessions.

Come and jump for a bit, head out for lunch or to run some errands, then come back. The pass offers the flexibility many of our customers have been looking for.

At A Glance

• The All-Day Pass is $10.00 per child
• We will require parents/guardians to sign our waiver for each re-entry
• Parent/Guardians are required to supervise their children at all times
• Valid on the day of purchase only
• Valid only during normal weekday Open Jump hours (Not valid on the weekends)

Please comment with any questions/comments. We'd love to hear from you!

Family Fun Night at PUMP'd

Come join us as we kick off the summer of 2009 with our first Family Fun Night on Thursday, June 18th!! Package price is based on a family of four (4). Additional family members and guests can join in on the fun for only $5.00/person.

From 6:00pm until 8:00pm treat yourself and your family to an evening of bouncing, jumping, sliding and eating!

The $30.00 cost of admission for a family of 4 includes:

• Use of all of our inflatables
• 2 slices of pizza (cheese & peperoni) & a beverage for each guest
• Additional family members over the age of 2 are only $5/person
• Everyone must wear socks. We have new socks for sale at the front desk for $2.00

We hope to make this a semi-monthly event throughout the summer. Please tell your friends & we'll be seeing you on June 18th

Please call or email with any questions.
831.761.5321 or info@pumpdfuncenter.com

Pump'd is now on Twitter

That's right, we're jumping on the technological bandwagon and have created a Twitter account.

For those of you who don't know, Twitter is a simple on-line tool that allows people to instantly communicate what they're doing with others.

If you "Follow" someone using Twitter, you will receive email and/or text message updates from that person. Perhaps they're stuck in traffic, or want to recommend a fantastic new restaurant, or maybe..just maybe they are at PUMP'd having a fantastic time.

We want to use Twitter as a means to update our customers with late-breaking news, changes to our schedule and to provide exclusive "Special Offer" alerts.

To start following us, simply visit http://twitter.com/pumpd
You'll have to create an account for yourself. It's simple and only takes a few seconds.

There will be opportunities in the future where we will add/extended our Open Jump hours on the weekends. Twitter is a fast and practical way of letting our customers know of these surprise opportunities in a timely manner.

Please sign up and start following us today.

Addressing Health Concerns

As Santa Cruz County is bracing for the first official case of the 'Swine Flu' virus, we at PUMP'd are being pro-active by enforcing a new policy that prohibits anyone (child or adult) exhibiting allergy, cold and/or flu-like symptoms from entering our facility.

There is nothing more important to us than our customers health and safety. It is for this reason that we are more aggressively enforcing our wellness policy.

If you or anyone you know is planning a visit to PUMP'd, please ensure their wellness.

Anyone who has a runny nose or is coughing and sneezing will be asked to leave. No exceptions.

We apologize in advance if this appears to be an extreme precaution. We simply do not want to contribute to the spread of this potentially fatal virus.

This choice was made with our customer's best interest in mind.

-Pump'd Management

Balloon Artistry Comes to PUMP'd

In an on-going effort to become a one-stop-shop for all of your party needs, we have just worked out an arrangement with Greg Grio of Party Time Balloons.

Greg has been a Balloon Twister since 1999. He has worked extensively throughout the Gilroy area and has dazzled kids and adults at countless events: Birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries and Grad-Nites. He's also provided his services to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and MACSA

He is one of the fastest and creative balloon guys you will ever see!!

From balloon animals, fairy wings, hats and swords to your favorite comic book or cartoon hero, Greg does it all.

Add Greg's services to help make your next party unforgettable .

We need your Yelp!

That's right, Yelp. For those of you not familiar, Yelp.com is a site where people can rate and review businesses they frequent to share their experiences with others in the Yelp community.

Many people use this service to help them decide whether or not to try a new restaurant, hair stylist, dentist or indoor family entertainment center.

We would appreciate it if you could spend a few minutes and give us either a "Star" rating and/or a review of your experience at PUMP'd -- be it good or bad.

We will use your experiences and feedback to help improve our service.

Also, we recently created a few e-coupons for $2 off an Open Jump admission. Either of the following links will provide the offer:

https://pumpd.pcsparty.com/
or
http://www.merchantcircle.com/coupon/Pumpd.831-761-5321/display/265702

Your input is extremely valuable to us. We appreciate your business and support.

PUMP'd Policy Enforcement

This is the type of post we hoped to never make. However, we have to stick to our guns and ensure we provide as safe and clean of an environment as possible for our guests and customers.

We've had issues recently with people not following two basic PUMP'd policies. We wanted to let everyone know we are strictly enforcing our "No Outside Food/Drink" and "Parental Supervision" policies. Management has tried to be accommodating and some customers have taken advantage of our hospitality.

As of this posting, we will ask anyone we see with outside food or drink to pack up their food and finish eating in our lobby or parking lot with their children. The only exception to this applies to babies/toddlers that are bottle fed.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. The resulting messes and spills we have uncovered while cleaning each day are far too common and are very costly. Again, as a new upstart business, we want to maintain the cleanliness of our facility (including the carpeting and soft play items) as well as keep our admission price reasonable. Thank you for your cooperation on this policy.

We also strictly enforce the policy of parent/guardian supervision during "Open Jump." We have allowed customers in the past to leave the building for a minute or two (forgot something in the car, make a call, etc.) -- while leaving their children to play inside. Recently, we had a parent claim he was running out to the car for something. After 15 minutes, PUMP'd staff went to look for him to see if he was OK; he was nowhere to be found. He left 5 children at PUMP'd unsupervised! Thankfully the children were cooperative and we located the adult and he returned. But needless to say, this is unacceptable.

The laundry-list of scary scenarios are too numerous to ramble off, and we feel we should not put the children nor the staff of PUMP'd in that risky situation again. Beginning today, if an adult needs to leave the building for a moment, we respectfully ask that they take their children with them.

Again, our policies are in place to maintain a fun, safe and clean environment for all of our customers and guests.

We welcome any comments or feedback.

March 2009 Review

March has been a thrill-ride of a month for us. We'll attempt to recap:

• Grand Opening Party. On March 7th we hosted our official Grand Opening. We had so many families turn out. It was amazing! Thankfully we had a number of family and friends on hand to help with serving cake and drinks to everyone that attended. Thank you so much for making it a memorable event

• Sign(s) of the times. Our Main Street signage also went up in March. The good folks at Northwest Signs did a great job fabricating our logo. You should see it lit up at night. We also had our storefront lettering installed. All kinds of good stuff is on there -- Our hours, phone number and web-address.

• A Splash of Art. Work has begun on the mural that will adorn the exterior wall of our main entrance. Art Thomae is spending his days perched on a scissor lift outside our building. I'll be sure to include a few "In Progress" shots in my next post. Once completed, it will warm up our main entrance and be very inviting to all passers-by.

• Life is a Party. As the word is spreading about our little business, more and more families are sharing their special occasions with us. Most parties end with kids asking their parents, "Can I have my party here? PLLLEEEEAAASSSEEEE". A few of the lucky kids that have partied with us in March were: Andre, Nicholas, Carly, Emma, Destiney, Charisma, Sage, Trenten, Jocelynn, Lily, Alicia, Kaitlynn, Liana, Jacob, Trinity, Nikos, Jackson and Kassandra.

• On the Menu. We've added a few new items to our menu. We are now carrying a large family garden salad (serves 12), garlic parmesan twists & buffalo wings from Round Table. These additions compliment our pizza and deli offerings perfectly.

• On the Horizon. Many of our customer have asked about Open Jump memberships. We're brainstorming on ways to make that happen. We're hoping to have something to offer soon. In the meantime, we do offer our Open Jump pass. For $30, you buy 5 discounted Open Jump admissions and receive 1 for FREE. In all a $12 savings.

Thank you for making March so fantastic! We look forward to seeing you during the various spring break vacations throughout April.

A Big Thank You

We would like to thank everyone that attended our Grand Opening Party on Saturday. We were amazed by the fantastic turn-out & kind words. There were many familiar faces as well as new ones visiting for the first time.

A big THANK YOU is due to our friends at Bay Federal Credit Union, Round Table Pizza, The Pacific Cookie Company & the Pepsi Bottling Group. Their generous contributions and involvement helped make our event on Saturday memorable and possible. We encourage all of our customers to frequent these fantastic companies.

We hope you will be visiting us soon. Our new "Open Jump" hours are:
Mon-Fri 10am - 1pm and 3 pm - 6 pm
Sat-Sun 9 am - 12 Noon

Birthday Parties are booked on-line at our website (www.pumpdfuncenter.) or call us and we'll help you out.

Thank you again for your support.
~PUMP'd Management

Announcing WEEKEND OPEN JUMP

By popular demand...Open Jump will be available on the weekends!!
Starting Saturday, March 14th you will be able to enjoy OPEN JUMP between 9am and 12pm (noon) on Saturdays and Sundays! The remainder of the weekend is reserved exclusively for parties.

We are also making a change to our weekday Open Jump schedule:

• Effective March 9, Open Jump hours are: 10am - 1pm, then again 3pm - 6pm. We are effectively closed between 1pm and 3pm.

This change does not affect party scheduling availability at all -- just Open Jump. Customers will still be able to schedule weekday parties during our Open Jump closure.

This change will be posted on our website and in our outgoing voicemail messages shortly.

We encourage our customers to leave comments about our blog posts. Let us know how we're doing.
Thanks

Grand Opening Party

FINALLY...

PUMP'd Management is proud to announce our GRAND OPENING PARTY!

Come celebrate on Saturday, March 7 from 10-4pm for All Day Open Jump!

Enter to win some fabulous raffle prizes every half hour -- all day long.

Can't make it that day? Enjoy a $2.00 off coupon (good on our $7.00 admission price) for any future Open Jump time. The printable coupon will be appearing on our website. Just click on any of the "Book Online" buttons to print your coupon now.

For all you Facebook users, you can receive our updates automatically by joining our OFFICIAL Facebook group. Simply do a search on PUMP'd and click the "Join this group" button. It's that easy.

We look forward to seeing you on March 7th

Hello again

First of all, we want to thank each of our customers who have shared their special events with us while we gear up for our 'Official' opening. The feedback from you and your party guests has meant a lot to us. THANK YOU !!

Todays post is to announce that starting Monday, Feb 16th (President's Day) we will be open for daily operations, which includes OPEN JUMP.

Our OPEN JUMP schedule is as follows:
10am - 6pm
Monday thru Friday ONLY -- We will be adding weekend hours in March.

Please tell your friends & we look forward to seeing you soon.

Thank you
-Pump'd Management

Are we or aren't we 'Open for Business'?

This is a question we receive often, and unfortunately the answer is Yes and No.

The city of Watsonville issued us a Temporary Occupancy Permit in December. The permit came with one condition: That we are only open for private parties and closed to the general public until we address a small number of building and safety issues. This has a direct impact on 1/2 of our planned operation -- Open Jump. It is our hope to have these last few items addressed this week.

We have had to turn away at least 60 families from being able to come in for Open Jump, despite our best efforts to let callers and visitors to our website know that we are currently ONLY open for parties.

It's not the best position for us to be in, but this is our reality at the moment.

We ask that our future customers hold on for just a while longer. Our "Now Open" signs are here and ready to replace Coming Soon.

Please stay tuned
-Pump'd Management

Front Page Article on the Pajaronian

Happy 2009 Everyone.

There's a great write-up on PUMP'd in todays Register Pajaronian.
You can read it and check out the cool photos by clicking here

Or you can just read on...

"Sam Covington used a rope and footholds to climb walls, squeezed his body underneath a giant roller and sailed down a large slide.

And the 5-year-old laughed, giggled and smiled the whole way.

Sam is lucky. He’s one of the few kids who have gotten the chance to play at Pump’d Inflatable Fun Center, a brand-new business on 555 Main St. in Watsonville that currently offers private parties, but is expected to open to the general public in about two weeks, said Joe Bettencourt, who owns and runs the business with his wife, Lori.

“It’s so bouncy and it has very big slides!” Sam excitedly said when asked what he liked about Pump’d.

Pump’d features four inflatable play structures — an extensive obstacle course, a 17-foot-tall slide and two bounce houses —a colorful toddler corral, private party rooms and arcade games. When the business opens to the general public, it will charge admission of $7 for the first child, $5 for each additional child and free for parents and guardians.

The Bettencourts are starting their business at a time when many businesses are struggling financially, but they also don’t have much competition locally in providing fun to Watsonville-area youngsters. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and a pair of bowling alleys cater to families, but the nearest inflatable fun centers are in Salinas and Monterey. And with 9,000 square feet, Pump’d, Joe Bettencourt said, is the largest of such local businesses.

“We saw a real opportunity here,” said Bettencourt, a Watsonville resident. “There’s really nothing other than a couple peak establishments here for families to get together to throw a party and enjoy themselves.”

Getting the business up and running has been a long process for the Bettencourts. After researching the bounce-house business and briefly trying to get into renting out the increasingly popular inflatable kids’ play structures, they decided to join the increasing niche business of inflatable fun centers. They got the keys in April to their site, located in the building that used to house Chavez Furniture, but have had a few complications that have delayed its opening.

In the meantime, the economy has worsened, and Joe Bettencourt acknowledged that opening the business in the current financial climate has been stressful. He added, however, that he thought the kids entertainment industry might be less affected by the economic downturn than restaurants and retail shops have been.

The last remaining hurdle before Pump’d can go beyond just holding private parties is to fix a faulty rear door that prevented the city from giving its final approval. Bettencourt said he could have had the door fixed and gotten approval by Christmas if the city hadn’t decided on its money-saving holiday shutdown, but he instead had to tell people who knocked on the door that their kids couldn’t come in and try out the facility’s four inflatable fun structures.

“I felt like the Grinch,” Bettencourt said.

Still, Bettencourt said he was grateful that the city did give them approval to open for private parties. Pump’d has held four parties so far, will hold four more parties this weekend and has received more than 100 phone calls from people interested in using the fun center, he said.

On Thursday, contractors were still making a few final touches, and Bettencourt was completing a few final tasks, such as bringing in arcade games and setting up wireless Internet network. The Bettencourts are currently running the entire business, but expect to hire four to eight part-time employees, Joe Bettencourt said.

“I know more about commercial building than I ever thought I would,” he said. “Now I’m just eager to run our business, and we’re almost there.”

Meanwhile, the Bettencourts’ 4-year-old twin daughters, Jillian and Brooke, and friends Sam and 2-year-old David Torres had all the inflatable play structures to themselves. The four jumped in a bounce house, and Jillian, Brooke and Sam tried their hands on the mega obstacle course and jetted down the 17-foot-tall slide many times, their antics entertaining the adults watching them.

“It’s like super fall-y and super sliding,” Sam said of the slide.

Eventually, the youngsters’ energy started to run out, and Brooke came over to her father to be picked up, and as he held her, tiredly told him she wanted to go home.

Joe Bettencourt then gestured to his daughter, her head against his chest and shoulder, smiled, and said, “This is a satisfied customer right here.”

Thanks to Eric Anderson for the fantastic story.