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A Unique Board Game Just for Our Neighborhood

 

 

                 NOTE: This page tells the story of our successful board game. The games have                  all now been sold, and we will get no more after November 1, 2017.

 

 

  

Price Hill-Opoly, a custom-desighned board game based on the iconic game Monopoly, was one of the most succesful fund-raising efforts in the history of the Price Hill Historical Society & Museum. Sale of games combined with sponsorsip of spaces and other parts of the game, helped us to clear $25,000.

 

In the summer of 2014, volunteer and board member Joyce Meyer was playing Cincinnati-Opoly with her granddaughter Kylie. Kylie, who knew how many hours her grandma spent working at the Society, said, "Why don't you make a game about Price Hill?" Joyce liked the idea and rushed headlong into the efforts to have the game ready for Christmas, 2015. When finished, this would be the first Opoly game based on a neighborhood in Cincinnati.

 

Joyce got in touch with Late for the Sky production company, owned by the Schulte family of Price Hill. Mike Schulte explained to her what was involved in creating a custom game and Joyce got to working on the many details needed to create the game. Another big aspect of producing the game was to find sponsors to help pay for the game. Fellow board member George Onthrup took on the challenge of visiting local merchants and other organizations to convince them to sponsor parts of the game board.

 

Working together, Joyce and George created a unique game that appealed to both present and past residents of Price Hill. We know the games were found under many Christmas trees throughout the Greater Cincinnati area.

Individuals could get involved in the project by becoming a Price Hill Historian. For $150 they could have their name and the name of their favorite historice Price Hill business or landmark forever imprinted on an insert in every game sold. The games sold for $25 each.The game board included local schools, churches, and parks,  as well as well known businesses like :LaRosa's, KB Partners, LLC, Hoeting Realtors, Hart Pharmacy, the Incline Public House and Theater, the Crow's  Nest Price Hill Chili, and Baron Engraving, just to name a few.

The first games arrived in November, 2015, just in time for Christmas. To say they flew off the shelves is an understatement! Richard Jones was able to walk in the Thanksgiving Day Parade , dressed as Mr. Monopoly and wearing a signboard picturing the new game. The Society was open extra hours so  people could buy the game, and some local merchants offered to sell them for us, By the new year, most games had been sold, and we knew we had a winner. The money raised was used to make some long-needed repairs to our building and other projects that were placed on hold until funding was secured. It is amazing what volunteers on a mission can accomplish!

Late for the Sky Production Company began making specialty board games in 1984. Our first game was MIAMIOPOLY, based on Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Company founder and president is a 1980 graduate of Miami University and her time spent there served as the inspiration for the first game. The title list soon spread to around 80 major U.S. colleges. Each game is a walk around a specific university and the board spaces are the campus buildings, local businesses and traditions that are special to that school. The success in the college market prompted the entry into a new market - games designed around major cities, creating the CITY IN-A-BOX line of board games. These games are filled with local landmarks, icons, and traditions that present the character of cities all over the U.S. and Canada, without the clutter and bias of advertising.

 

The 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century have proven to be an incredible time of reinvention and innovation for us. In addition to our extremely popular COLLEGEOPOLY and CITY IN-A-BOX lines, we have brought to the marketplace some of the best selling board games based on popular culture themes like decades, animals and pets, music and movies, food and spirits.

 

PHHS & Museum used another division of the company. Custom Games are a collection of your own ideas, images, logos, and information that they develop into a property trading game just like all the ones you will see on their site. All of the board spaces, movement cards, deed cards, box images, box bottom copy, pewter tokens, and game money are connected to your subject. Organizations use a custom game to inform, promote, reward, make money – anything you can do with a variety of promotional products. The only difference is that a game is truly unique. Not that your logo on a coffee mug isn’t “unique”, it’s just that you’ve probably already done that or you’ve seen that item somewhere. Click on the logo at the top of this text to go to the company's Web site. Thanks to the Schulte family, especially Mike Schulte, for helping to make our fund-raiser a success!

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