Ravenna graduates Matt Ferrell and Chad Konkle have spent the last seven years splitting time between their two businesses but have found the perfect solution, relocating Buckeye Residential Solutions and Battlegrounds Gaming Center to become neighbors. They held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at their new site 228 South Sycamore Street last Wednesday afternoon in Ravenna.
“We started Buckeye Residential in 2012 so we are going on our 14th year, we have been in Ravenna the whole time but have moved around to a couple of places. This is our new corporate office,” Ferrell told The Weekly Villager. “This is probably where we will stay for the next 20 years.”
Ferrell and Konkle, 2003 Ravenna alums, have now found the perfect site for their two businesses to sit next to each other.
Buckeye Residential Solutions, a home help service agency for people afflicted with developmental disabilities, will now have its corporate office in Suite 101 while Battlegrounds Gaming Center, a tabletop gaming store will reside in Suite 100 at their new location on Sycamore Street
For the Ravenna alumni, Buckeye Residential Solutions was created after the pair spent time working at Independence of Portage County, another agency that specialized in offering residential services to individuals with developmental disabilities.
“I fell in love with it because number one, I like working with people, and number two, it is fun to help people become the best that they can,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell noted that after leaving Independence of Portage County, he pursued a pharmaceutical degree while Konkle managed another agency that specialized in offering aid to people with developmental disabilities.
“Chad and I started talking,” noted Ferrell. “He wanted to start his own business and I knew how to do all of the business stuff and he had a lot of the contacts for the clients, so we just got together and made it happen.”
He added that Buckeye Residential Solutions services a broad client base in Portage County, as the ages of their clients range from 6 to 70.
In addition to providing aides to work with people in their homes to assist with their daily living skills, Ferrell said that Buckeye Residential Solutions also offers adult day programs which help them learn life skills and do activities. Buckeye Residential Solutions has also developed a children’s program, allowing parents to leave their children attended for several hours a week while they take care of personal responsibilities.
Ferrell said that he and Konkle have distinguished Buckeye Residential Solutions as a vital business not just because of their work with the developmentally disabled but also their involvement in the community with social gatherings and volunteer work.
“I think from the outset it was important for Chad and me to kind of engage everybody and help everybody integrate into their communities by doing activates and volunteering,” Ferrell said. “It has always been really important for us to make sure that the people we take care of are engaging in their community.”
Seven years after Buckeye Residential Solutions’ official opening, the business partners opened their second business, Battlegrounds Gaming Center, offering tabletop gaming activities to the community.
Ferrell said that at a young age, he, his father and brother played Magic The Gathering, a trading card game, and he has enjoyed the tabletop gaming experience ever since. They originally opened Battlegrounds Gaming Center at Plaza East, which was the original site of Buckeye Residential Solutions’ corporate office.
Battlegrounds Gaming Center originally offered Magic The Gathering trading cards, Pokemon trading cards and Warhammer 40000 trading cards.
“We have a lot of teenagers from around Ravenna that come here during the weekends to hang out and play and we have a lot of adults that come and play. We try to be everybody’s safe space,” Ferrell noted. “We welcome everybody, and we just like to play games and hang out.”
Battlegrounds Gaming Center has now grown its inventory and now offers Larcada, a Disney trading card game, Dungeons & Dragons accessories such as miniatures to paint and lines to paint along with different types of acrylic paint used to paint miniatures.
As large a following as the Battlegrounds Gaming Center has amassed in only seven years, Ferrell also spoke of how appealing it has also been to the clients of Buckeye Residential Solutions, offered them some of the tabletop games in their day programs and children’s programs.
“We have held some parties here before with some of our people,” Ferrell said. “We have held some after-hours parties like evening parties with some of our folks at Ravenna Sip’ n’ Social and the Horseshoe Diner. We will do special game nights and things like that.”
