After 23 years, a family-run Wahiawa business looks back on years of family fun

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - A Wahiawa business that has been providing fun and games for 23 years is closing down and selling off bounce houses, trains and carnival games.

Xtreme Fun Rentals ran the Christmas Train at the Honolulu City Lights, but that exciting ride is coming to an end.

Owners Claire and Delbert Kim are selling everything in their warehouses.

“We have all of our giant inflatables, bounce houses, games, arcades, giant 80 foot inflatables,” said Delbert Kim.

“There’s a lot of stuff in here. It’s jam packed,” he added.

“It’s going to be sad because all these rides are really fun,” said Kim’s grandson, Hailionaona.

Tens of thousands in federal and city aid kept the business afloat, but with warehouse rent and mounting bills for nine months, Xtreme Fun Rentals couldn’t survive without any carnivals, school fairs or large community events on the horizon.

“We actually should have shut down earlier, but we thought that we would try to hold on as long as we could,” said Delbert Kim.

The Kim’s say their family grew up with their rental business and weekends were always busy.

[Read more: From generators to bounce houses, XTreme Fun Rentals auctioning off items]

“When we came in with our equipment and the smiles on the children’s faces,” said Claire Kim describing her memories.

“When you sit back and you watch that and all the rides, all the inflatable’s have long lines, it’s pretty gratifying for us,” said Delbert Kim.

The Kim’s are certain mainland businesses would buy their equipment, but they prefer to keep it local.

“We really wanted to make sure that children of Hawaii still have an opportunity have fun and grow up with this as maybe their parents did,” said Claire Kim.

The auction on Oahu Actions ends at 6 p.m. on Friday.

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