“I’m Billy from La Mesa… I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
Those were among the first words spoken by NBA great and always-cheerful Bill Walton to a hometown crowd of nearly 250 Thursday morning for the grand opening of a state-of-the-art gymnasium named for him at the Boys & Girls Clubs of East County.
The 10,000-square-foot La Mesa gym is the crown jewel of the Brady Family Clubhouse, just down the road from Helix High, where Walton, now 65, attended school in the 1960s with his older brother, Bruce. He starred at UCLA as a center for the Bruins basketball team, followed by a successful 14-year NBA career.
While staying in hotels, Larkin also noticed large jugs of water with sliced fruit available for guests. My initial concept was.how do you make that large jug accessible for an individual consumer, shared Larkin. Cutting up fruit and having it actually all available is a challenge, but, if you dry it, it makes it shelf-stable which makes it more convenient to have around.
The initial user Larkin was trying to target was the worker. So, this person is working nine to five sitting at their desk that wants to have a healthier lifestyle and wants to drink more water and probably has a water cooler in their breakroom, said Larkin. But, having fruit at their office is sometimes a challenge or annoying to keep.