Most escape room’s main purpose are to provide a fun experience for mystery sleuths looking for an adventure of finding clues and solving puzzles.
An escape room is a physical adventure game in which players are typically locked in a room and must use elements in the room to solve a series of puzzles and escape within a set time limit.
Games are set in a variety of fictional locations, such as prison cells, castles, mansions, operating rooms and old time western saloons, to name a few of the thousands of themes available.
Valley Escape Adventures, LLC (VEALLC), however, is no ordinary escape room adventure. The primary goal in the business model, is of course, to provide a fun and engaging challenge to the general public.
Beyond that are other facets of the model that differentiate VEALLC from other escape rooms. The co-owners of VEALLC, a special education administrator who is a Radford University alumni and a business consultant with a Doctorate in Business Administration, have a vision to serve the community by offering various types of communication and team building workshops along with opportunities for charitable fund raising activities.
Team building is one of the foundations of organizational development that can be applied to groups such as sports teams, school classes, work groups, etc. VEALLC offers multiple types of workshops ranging from one to four hours depending upon the needs of the group or organization.
These workshops are designed to align team members around organizational goals and build effective working relationships through training to further develop problem solving and communication skill sets.
VEALLC teams with RU ABLE, Radford University’s adventure based learning experience, to combine their ropes and/or “feet on the ground” exercises with training for emotional intelligence and personality recognition to encourage better communication and teamwork within groups. To date, VEALLC has worked with several area high school students, KTI LTD a local transportation services company and local hospital staff members.
In addition to group and organizational workshops, VEALLC’s business model includes charitable fund raising opportunities. The goal of this facet of the model is to give back to the community by working with charitable organizations and school groups to offer special discounting and donation opportunities typically in excess of 60 percent of the escape room fees. For example, VEALLC is currently working with a local humane society to have a week dedicated to fund raising. The idea is to offer a reduced reservation fee of $15 per person and $10 per person is donated to the charity or school group. The portion VEALLC keeps is to cover operating costs such as rent and utilities.
Co-owners Cheryl Austin, as an RU alumni and Dr. Theresa Turner a longtime Radford City resident and business owner, are excited about the opportunity to provide a venue to offer charities, schools or other groups a fund raising vehicle for their causes. This business model is not just an opportunity to provide entertainment, but an educational resource for businesses and a community service fund raising opportunity. At $20 per person for the general public and discounted rates for organizations and groups, VEALLC has established a business model that serves the community in a variety of ways that are an affordable positive and engaging experience.
Reservations are required and can be made at www.veallc.com or call 540-250-4161 for information about workshops or group rates.
— Submitted by Theresa Turner
