A few months ago, TheBlaze brought you the inspiring story of Caine Monroy who kept himself busy in his father’s automotive part shop by building an arcade — Caine’s Arcade — out of cardboard boxes. At the time, the 9-year-old only had one customer, but this one customer was someone who would help his story go viral across the nation and now around the globe.

Caine’s Arcade has not only spurred creativity among other children but it also inspired the launch of the Imagination Foundation. The foundation was created three days after the original short film by Nirvan Mullick about Caine’s story was released to the public. It was funded through donations and a $250,000 matching grant from the Goldhirsh Foundation.

Viral Caines Arcade Raises Money to Launch Imagination Foundation and Global Cardboard Challenge

Caine trying on one of the prizes from his arcade. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

The Imagination Foundation’s first initiative was Caine’s Arcade School Pilot Program, which has more than 100 schools in 9 countries using “cardboard arcade building to teach kids math, science, engineering, art, entrepreneurship, storytelling, creative thinking, and more.”

The foundation recently launched its second initiative: the Global Cardboard Challenge. This challenge, the foundation organizers hope, will ”foster creativity and entrepreneurship in kids,” just as it did with Caine. The basic idea of the challenge is to take cardboard and make something creative from it. On October 6 — the one-year anniversary since more than 100 people organized to show up at Caine’s arcade — local events will take place where cardboard creations will come together for others to try out. The Imagination Foundation sees this “day of play” as a time for “celebrating the creativity and imagination of kids around the world.”

Watch this sequel film to Caine’s story that shows what has happened in the five months since his original feature became a viral sensation:

In the video, Caine says “I told my dad, that was the best day of my life” — the day when a crowd surprised him to try his arcade as paying customers. He says people from London and Spain have since visited his set-up. What’s more, it shows how other children were inspired to create their own cardboard games.

Viral Caines Arcade Raises Money to Launch Imagination Foundation and Global Cardboard Challenge

People waiting outside Caine's Arcade on Oct. 6, 2011 flash-mob style. (Image: Vimeo screenshot)

“The idea is to give kids the tools they need to build the things they can imagine, but also to imagine the world that they can build,” filmmaker Mullick said.

If you somehow missed Caine’s original video, which has been viewed more than 7 million times, check it out:

(H/T: Gizmodo)