Jason Paden is a multi-faceted artist and inventor who grew up in the Schoharie School District. In school, Jason spent years learning multimedia in the Video Club and eventually graduated early with his Diploma in his Junior Year due to mental health issues that were newly emerging. After completing his Associate’s Degree at the Junior College of Albany, majoring in Visual Arts, he began independent video work such as filming weddings and parties for clients.
Simultaneously and seasonally, Jason also developed a small, seasonal entertainment business that created family based Holiday Productions, Halloween themed hayrides, live puppetry shows and party events. Around that same time, he also became Technical Director/Consultant to many local area stage productions, as well.
However, his most ambitious achievement was the creation of a full sized, transportable, 9-hole castle miniature golf course where customers happily putted there way inside and out of our 20-foot-tall fantasy building. It traveled regionally in Upstate New York from Schoharie County to Herkimer Diamond Mines and the Erie Canal Village to Guilderland and Hunter Mountain’s Fall Festival. He resourcefully designed and built it from scratch on a limited budget and it was well loved by many families for years.
Soon, Jason began not feeling well and began a long 10 year Recovery after being diagnosed with mental illness in his twenties, he got better and discovered NAMI – the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where he became a presenter. He later went on to become an active NAMI Board Member in Fulton, Montgomery and Hamilton Counties for two years.
Independently, Jason created his own presentation story and grew to become a professional motivational speaker addressing agencies, groups, colleges and schools with a unique custom designed multimedia presentation of his Recovery story, which has been shown at various educational engagements throughout the Northeast.
But what brings you here is his invention called The OopsLoop: a patented a little phone gizmo that uniquely prevents people from dropping their phones, all while helping raise mental health awareness!
It's an exciting time for Jason and his old NAMI friend and new business associate Paul Klein as they work together to bring the OopsLoop project to life and help the mental health cause that is important to each of them and both their families.
