Comcast RISE.

Business basics

Owner demographics

Tell us about your business

Rent-A-Theme brings purposeful play to Colorado schools, senior communities, and corporate brands. We design and deliver mobile mini golf, life-size board games, life-size Lego challenges, Science FX stations, and intergenerational play days that help kids and seniors stay sharp, connected, and human. Every experience is hands-on, collaborative, and accessible to every participant, regardless of age or ability.

I founded Rent-A-Theme in 2009 after 17 years in education, including roles as enrichment director for Denver Public Schools and Cherry Creek. We have served Colorado schools, senior living communities, and corporate clients including Toyota and Kaiser for nearly two decades. We are a Colorado DBE-certified, BIPOC-owned, woman-owned small business, and an alum of the Goldman Sachs Black in Business program.

What is the biggest opportunity for your business right now?

Our signature program, Grandfriends Play Days, is ready to scale. We bring a class of students into a senior community for two hours of facilitated play. The program addresses two of the most-funded outcomes in our market: senior isolation reduction and intergenerational connection. We have the equipment, the educator-founder, the warehouse, and 17 years of relationships across Colorado schools and senior living.

What we do not yet have is the marketing and digital infrastructure to scale the program. Our current website does not represent the quality of what we deliver. Our case study production is manual. Our sponsor outreach is one-to-one rather than scaled.

The Comcast RISE package would unlock the next stage of growth. We would put the cash grant directly into our Grandfriends Play Day pilot. The marketing and tech services would rebuild our digital presence, produce our first case study assets, and give us the visual library we need to win corporate sponsors and recurring senior living contracts.

How will you use the grant funding?

If awarded the cash portion, the $5,000 funds the Grandfriends Play Day pilot: equipment refresh, printed materials, photography for the case study, and post-event sponsor packet production. The pilot brings together one Colorado senior community, one school class, and one corporate sponsor. The output is the case study and impact data we use to book the next 12 events across the state.

If awarded marketing services, priorities are:

1. Professional photography and video at the Grandfriends pilot
2. Website rebuild support and Google Ads credits to drive senior community and school inquiries
3. Print collateral for the three audience-specific one-sheets (Schools, Senior Communities, Corporate Sponsors)

If awarded tech services, priorities are:

1. Rebuilt website infrastructure
2. CRM and email automation for sponsor and partner outreach
3. Booking and inquiry system that captures lead data we currently lose

What does growth look like in 12 to 24 months?

Twelve Grandfriends Play Days delivered in year one. Twenty-four in year two. Six recurring senior living communities on annual contract. Three corporate sponsors on multi-year partnerships. Expanded from Denver metro to all of the Front Range. A second team member running events so I can focus on partnerships and grant pipelines. Total revenue growth of Tonya provides realistic projection over 24 months.

Who else has invested in your business?

• Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women / Black in Business: national grant, ongoing alumni network
• $35,000 grant administered through Camp Digital (Google partner) for website development (2023 to 2025)
• COVID-era PPP and emergency grants
• Corporate clients including Toyota, Kaiser, and Destination Colorado Meetings members

What makes your business different?

Three things.

1. Purposeful play, not party rental. Our competitors sell bounce houses and equipment. We design events around outcomes: senior wellbeing, intergenerational connection, family engagement, cognitive activation, and brand engagement.
2. Educator-founded. I spent 17 years inside Colorado schools before starting this. Every program is built from the inside of the school day, not from outside.
3. All ages, every event. No competitor can credibly say their stations are accessible to an 8-year-old and an 88-year-old simultaneously. We can. We do.