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Around the time Rio Greeley was in middle school, he gravitated to a space in downtown Belfast where kids like him could play board games, assemble puzzles and have other types of analog, outside-the-box fun.
During his time hanging out at The Game Loft — where kids have long gathered after-school to play everything from Dungeons and Dragons to Pokemon — Greeley made different friend groups, found new perspectives on life, built more of a connection to his hometown and learned different approaches to teamwork and problem-solving.
It’s an experience that many other midcoast kids have shared.
“It’s really important, especially in our current day and age, to give people a place to be, especially one that is not focused on technology,” said Greeley, who at age 30 is now program manager for The Game Loft.
That analog haven for midcoast youth likely wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Ray and Patricia Estabrook, who in 1998 moved their recently opened board game store, All About Games, to a new location at 78 Main St. in Belfast and started The Game Loft in its upper floors.
Now, the Estabrooks are getting ready to retire and close All About Games on Feb. 15. But their nonprofit youth gaming program, The Game Loft, will live on, continuing to help local adolescents find community, connections and life skills outside the traditional realms of home and school.
During an interview, the Estabrooks recalled that the early days of The Game Loft were relatively slapdash.
“We just put the kids and all the other gamers upstairs, and managed it with volunteers,” Ray Estabrook said. “But then we realized that we had something going on here and we needed to get some, get a little more organized and figure out what it was we were really doing up there.”
While the structure of the nonprofit has changed over the years, what’s remained consistent is the opportunity it’s long offered midcoast kids to put their decks of Magic the Gathering cards to use, catch the next Pokemon, or toss 12-sided dice while adopting the personas of elves and other fantastical beings for cooperative D&D campaigns.
“The outcomes that teens experience by coming out of isolation and being in a community of their friends, day after day, playing games together, building strong and close friendships with each other, was a very large increase in their social and emotional learning skills, particularly caring, contributing, connecting and confidence,” Ray said.
The Estabrooks expressed appreciation for all The Game Loft participants they’ve met over the years, who are referred to as “legends” once they graduate. Some are now old enough to send their own children into the program.
The couple expressed confidence that there will always be players drawn to offline, non-electronic games. They also know, according to Ray Estabrook, that “all kids need someone who believes in them.”
Their goal is to keep making the space for that in Belfast.