This business keeps 33,000 balls clean. Here's how they do it

Every Monday, the newly opened Slide's Indoor Playground closes the doors for an important task — cleaning each one of the 33,000 balls in its two pits.

The ball pit is essentially divided into two areas with an empty side, where the mats are cleaned and the other end contains all the balls. A large machine ordered from overseas sucks in the balls with a vacuum-style hose, cleans them with a restaurant-safe cleaning chemical and spits them out on the other side. An ultraviolet light helps dry them off, concluding the three-hour process.

"The playground right now is cleaner than my own home," said owner Safaa Serhan. "This place isn't massive, but we actually have 11 staff in total and it's because we want to keep up with the cleanliness and sanitizing of this place."

Her three boys, ages three, six and seven, are a big piece of that home and the inspiration behind the creation of the indoor playground. It opened Nov. 1 on Dougall Avenue, although last week was the official grand opening.

Safaa thought about this business concept after realizing the lack of indoor options for young kids to have fun and burn off some of their energy. The idea came to her during COVID-19, but didn't deter the couple from pursing this business venture.

"It inspired me even more. Because of those two years that went through, this is so needed. Our kids have been locked up for too long, masked up for too long. They need to be normal kids again. They need this," said Safaa.

The husband and wife owners say they aren't required to clean and sanitize all of the colourful, plastic balls, but wanted to take the extra step to allow families to feel safer. Ali said a deep clean of all the balls happens once a week and sanitizing happens daily.

"We take pride in maintaining and keeping the balls clean and sanitary for everybody," said Ali.

Research published by the American Journal of Infection Control in 2019 found eight bacteria within ball pits that could cause disease. The University of North Georgia examined six ball pits inside physical therapy clinics as a basis for its study.

Locally, respiratory activity in Windsor-Essex is at an "elevated" level for all age groups as of Thursday, compared to last week, according to Ontario's Acute Care Enhanced Surveillance (ACES) database.

Last week, WRH chief nursing executive Karen Riddell said while capacity strains at hospitals appear to be easing during a December lull, hospitals are still over capacity.