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AT the mcdermont house, squeeze greets guests and guides them to the fun areas

Central California Recreation Center Becomes Home to "Squeeze," the Live Animated Mascot for Kids

McDermont Field House in Lindsay, CA opens for summer with "Squeeze" greeting customers and welcoming them to the huge new facility south of Fresno. "Squeeze" appears on a 65-inch LCD screen just inside the front doors, and he's a talking orange with a purpose.

Squeeze has lots of great toys to play with and he shares them at the center

A live animated cartoon character welcomes weekend visitors to the McDermont Field House, with an uplifting "Hey there!," and asks them their names. Then he answers back, just like a real person. "Squeeze," as he is named, can interact with visitors in real time, and can speak both English and Spanish.

The CHOPS & Associates team recently completed their first installation of a Digital Puppeteer system in the US at the facility, a city-run family recreation center (FRC). It is just part of a multi-million dollar installation funded by the state and federal government to provide recreation for the citizens of central California.

Exterior view of the Central California-located facility The building is an original California fruit packing plant, with two big additions. On the south end, they've extended it with a gym big enough to hold four or more basketball courts, laser tag and interactive light dance floor. The new steel building on the north end is now complete, and houses indoor soccer fields, a Flo-Rider water park, skateboard park, climbing wall and more.

So "Squeeze" gets to help everyone get around the facility, during special events and weekend programs. He is also expected to appear on the many screens around the center to serve as host and MC when needed.

Gary Jesch delivered the Digital Puppeteer system to McDermont in late May and the summer grand opening was held a few weeks later in June. The character was designed by Jaren Fisher, an artist on the city's staff and built in 3D by Tom Knight, CHOPS 3D animator.


The lead staffer of the Lindsay project, Brad Albert, has dreams of the Field House being as fun and compelling as a Disney theme park one of these days, and was inspired by the live animation show called "Turtle Talk with Crush." He met with CHOPS at the IAAPA tradeshow in November 2007 to begin the arrangements, including the design of a versatile character that could change "accessories," including laser tag gear, a surfboard, boxing gloves, basketball outfit and more.

Squeeze is performed by part-time staff on weekends as more of the facility's offerings are available. Since many of the guests are Hispanic children in the area, he will speak both English and Spanish.

    Here's a link to a interview with Squeeze and VirtuaLibby in the "In The KNOW" Studio -

Link to YouTube to see more videos of the McDermont Field House

For more information about using this technology, please contact Gary Jesch at this number - 888-766-6677 - or email us via the Contact Response form here.