‘Medina-opoly’ game arrives, highlighting 70 local businesses

Photos by Tom Rivers: Jesse Cudzillo (left), director of the YMCA in Orleans County, and Tim Elliott hold the new Medina-opoly game that is being sold as a fundraiser to upgrade the women’s locker room at the Y.

MEDINA – The Monopoly game has been given a facelift in Medina, with local businesses taking the place of the prime real estate featured in the economics-based board game.

Players buy and trade properties in the game, and seek to develop them with houses and hotels.

The Medina-opoly game starts in a corner featuring the Medina Area Partnership. About 70 Median businesses and organizations are featured on the board.

Tim Elliott, a former Medina village trustee, worked with Jesse Cudzillo, director of the YMCA in Orleans County, to sell the spots on the board. They were a quick sell out.

“Medina is lucky to have businesses to fill it up and to have a waiting list,” Elliott said.

The board highlights Medina’s historic downtown business district.

There are 350 copies of the game that arrived in early September. The sponsorships paid to have the game produced in a Medina theme.

The games are being sold for $35 each, and the proceeds will go to the Y to update the women’s locker room. If the games sell out, the Y should receive about $12,000 towards the locker room improvements.

“It’s a Medina keepsake,” Cudzillo said. “It takes a snapshot of where Medina is in 2024.”

The Y director said he appreciates the support from the community in buying spots on the board, and also in purchasing the games. So far about 75 have sold. The came be purchased at the front desk of the Y. They will be there for the upcoming Ale in Autumn event on Sept. 28. They are also available online through the Canalside Tattoo website.

Medina was featured in the Monopoly game before, back in 1995 and 2000. The Medina Rotary Club led the effort to sell the spaces on the board and to make the games available to the community.

Elliott said the game could be updated again in the future.

“This shows how Medina has changed,” he said about the new board, compared to the Medina businesses from 1995 and 2000. “In 10 years there will be more changes.”