To all of those business-suited workers who spend lunch hours gazing longingly at fenced-in construction sites watching large machines push tons of dirt and steel around, Randy Stenger has the outlet for you.
Extreme Sandbox is a playground for grownups who have always wondered what it would be like to operate an excavator or bulldoze their way through a mountain of dirt. Located 30 miles southwest of Minneapolis in Hastings, Minnesota, Extreme Sandbox is exactly what it sounds like — an open space where anyone can climb into a huge machine and play.
Stenger, a former Target consultant, was driving with his three sons past a construction site when one boy said, “Dad, wouldn’t it be fun to play on those trucks?” One thing led to another and, in spring 2012, Stenger launched Extreme Sandbox.
“No one ever wants to ever grow up. They just want to be a kid in a sandbox,” he says. Initially, the facility was just an open space. In 2013, Stenger added a 6,000 square-foot conference center and began marketing to corporate groups. He partnered with The Prouty Project (ProutyProject.com), a Twin Cities-based provider of team development and leadership programs to create a corporate package. Clients have included 3M and General Mills.
“This is for someone who wants team building that’s not just team building,” says Peter Bailey, senior vice president of The Prouty Project. “It’s an environment that is out of the ordinary and ideal for teaching problem solving initiatives.”
Bailey and his team will lead a group through training in the Extreme Sandbox conference center before adjourning to the big rigs for some team competition. The popular “dueling excavators” event pits two groups head-to-head and includes picking up a car and moving it from one platform to another.
“It stretches them beyond where they think they can go and teaches them that they can’t be successful without working with others,” says Bailey.
Visit ExtremeSandbox.com for group pricing and additional information.
