Stressed? You may want to visit this Kansas City rage room
When Kansas City went into lockdown last March, Timothy Hayes, pastor of 24 Hour Faith Training Center, had to close his church.
“That has an effect on me as a leader,” Hayes said, “I could not use it as a source of income.”
One day while he was staying at home, Hayes watched a sermon from Pastor Jamal Bryant of New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The sermon was titled “I wanna break something.”
For the first time, he heard about a makeshift warehouse outside Atlanta where people come in and pay to break things. His mind started to tick and he began to do his research.
“This was something very popular overseas and was starting to make its way to America,” Hayes recounted. “All the major cities in the world have it, and I said Kansas City is a major city and we need this also.”
Fast forward to December, Hayes opened Smash House KC, a rage room located in Suite 149 in the Hy-Vee Arena. The business offers packages that go up from 5 minutes to 30 minutes of smashing items, like plates, glasses, appliances and more. Each guest will get a hard hat, an apron, gloves, safety goggles and a bat.
“Number one source of people coming in is because they are stressed. They are tired of hearing about the election. They are tired of hearing about the racial tension in the world. They are tired of dealing with the pandemic. They don’t know who to believe. They are tired of hearing about the Capitol riot”, Hayes said, “they just want a place to release their stress and emotions.”
Avia Ramsey of Kansas City brought her mother and daughter to Smash House KC for a family night on a recent Monday. After beating things for five minutes, she said she was tired but it was worth it.
“It was fun. That’s all I need, a couple of minutes. It was a workout.”
Besides helping people with stress, Hayes says another goal of the business is to beautify Kansas City. They sent out trucks to pick up junk and breakables from the road and from people’s homes. Hayes collected 85 percent of the breakables from donations.
“One person’s trash is another person’s treasure,” Hayes said, “we live off of donations.”
Hayes says anyone wanting to donate an item can contact the business via email, phone call or social media. They will schedule an appointment to pick up the item. www.smashhousekc.com
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 10:53 AM.
