LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — On most days, data from Clark County shows there are 3,400 local kids in foster care, taken from their homes due to safety concerns that often result from neglect or abuse.
The child welfare system can sometimes further victimize those vulnerable children, jeopardizing the chance for a successful future.
Too many stories in the foster care system end in tragedy — but this is not one of those stories.
When we first brought it to you in 2017, it looked like that's where it was going.
"I wasn't really sure where my life would end up," said Antonio Nieves, reflecting on the time 13 Investigates first shared his family's story."Although business has been great for me, I felt the most amount of purpose when I was fighting for my brothers and sisters. Looking back, I realize how challenging some of those obstacles were, and it made me who I am today."
So, who is Antonio Nieves? He's a 27-year-old father who's still a child at heart... a big kid with a savvy business sense.
Funbox bounced out of Nieves' imagination and, in short order, he and his partner franchised parks in the U.S., Canada and Spain.
"We have been in over 30 states already this first year," Nieves said.
But it's not all about entertainment. Funbox gives back to every community the attraction visits.
"We've been lucky enough to support around 30 different local foster care agencies," Nieves said. "This year, we've raised over $100,000 for those agencies."
All of it was motivated by two of his siblings: 13-year-old Kennedy and 10-year-old Cooper.
"Seeing them play in it has been kind of the culmination of all my hard work this year," Nieves said.
When Funbox came to Las Vegas, it was Cooper and Kennedy's first chance to see the success their big brother built.
"I was pretty surprised!" said Kennedy. "I remember he used to show me all his sketches of this."
It's an idea that began on paper and bloomed into a larger-than-life experience.
"It's the coolest place on Earth! I'll give you that," Kennedy added.
When we first met Nieves in 2017, Cooper and Kennedy — then the youngest of eight children — lived in a much different world.
"My mother has lost permanent rights to me, plus five of my siblings. So, this is a recurring theme in my mother's life," Nieves told us in 2017.
Antonio's mother gave him up when he was three years old.
He grew up in Clark County's foster care system, trying desperately to hold on to the pieces of a broken family. His youngest siblings had been taken from the foster home where they'd lived most of their lives.
"It was devastating," said foster mother Ashley Wendtland. "We knew the heartache that was going to be coming their way."
The two young children were removed from the Wendtlands' home and returned by a Family Court judge to their biological parents: a mother they barely knew and a father with a criminal record including charges of child neglect, battery domestic violence, drug possession, resisting arrest, burglary and more.
"The courts knew that, too; the department knew that, the attorneys knew that, and everyone just turned a blind eye," Wendtland said.
Nieves brought their plight to 13 Investigates, telling us:
"I'm just afraid something really drastic, really painful, is going to happen one of my siblings. I don't believe they're in a safe environment and I think it's just a matter of time before something like the unthinkable happens to one of them."
Kennedy remembers "coming home from school and always not being in a happy place. I was scared to come home, scared of seeing my dad and my mom."
The heartbreaking memory defined the siblings' daily life.
"They ended up in a homeless shelter, and I just... My heart broke, because here I was on the other side of the city and I couldn't talk to them, and I couldn't provide for them, and I couldn't keep them safe," Wendtland said.
Nieves could talk to them, and they told him things like, "Brother, I'm hungry. Brother, I'm thirsty. Brother, I just want to feel warm water on my skin. Can you give me a bath? Can we go get some food? Brother, he spanks me too hard."
Kennedy, then just six years old, did what she could for her three-year-old brother.
"I remember bringing home my snacks from school and bringing it to him and sharing it with him," she said.
It was the only way she could ensure Cooper would have something to eat.
With our reports, Nieves sought to amplify their cries for help.Looking back now, he says, "I really believe that the work that you did played a big role in saving my siblings' lives."
After our investigation aired, Cooper and Kennedy were returned to the Wendtlands — who formally adopted both kids — and now also have two of their younger half-siblings.
"There are four kiddos in our house, and it is loud and it is fun and it is sometimes chaos, but I wouldn't have it any other way," Wendtland said. "And we are making sure that these kiddos don't become a statistic, that these kiddos have a fighting chance at life; they can be successful at whatever they want to do. Their story doesn't define them. They have siblings like Antonio who are paving the way."
And he's got help from characters like Bubba, the giant frog, and 25 other fantastical friends at Funbox.
Nieves says most kids' favorite part of the park is an obstacle course where you have to go under and over ropes — overcoming obstacles kind of like his own story, in terms of what he had to go though to get to this point.
"I can't think of a better role model for my children than their big brother," said Wendtland. "He has not become a statistic. He is an entrepreneur, and he is fighting the good fight in communities all over the country, so we are so proud of him and so proud to call him part of our family, too."
Funbox will remain open at the Galleria At Sunset in Henderson through Dec. 31. They take $1 from the price of every ticket on opening day and closing day and donate it to a local charity, which amounts to between $5,000 and $9,000.
Here in Las Vegas, the proceeds will go to Nieves' own charity, Futures for Foster Youth, as well as Sunrise Children's Foundation.
