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Denver game designer donates portion of sales to Jamaican Olympic bobsled team

Errol Anderson is a Jamaican-born Denver resident who turned his pandemic boredom into a new backyard game.

DENVER — Jamaica's bobsledding team may have not medaled at this year's Winter Olympics, but for one Denver man, seeing the team make it to Beijing was pure gold.

Errol Anderson is a Jamaican-born Denver resident who turned his pandemic boredom into a new backyard game.

"I'm in banking and real estate. I am not an engineer. I just got creative and just ran with it," he said with a chuckle.

Anderson created Popongo, a game where players take turns tossing foam balls into cups with different point values. Whichever player or team collects the most points, wins.

"I started putting it in front of my friends and my friends are like, 'I want one,'" Anderson said.

He started manufacturing the game in Colorado and is selling it online. He is using some of the proceeds to give back to his home country by sponsoring the Jamaican bobsled team during the Winter Olympics.

"The four-man team got to the Olympics for the first time in 24 years, and I had something to do with that. Popongo had something to do with that," he said. "It feels surreal. It feels amazing, and it just goes to show that with a little bit of hard work and perseverance we can achieve what we want, right?"

That's what Anderson hopes people get out of this game. His goal is to donate some of these boards to Colorado schools so kids can learn math in a new and exciting way and realize anything is possible.

"I want to one day say to younger Jamaican and Caribbean kids, 'I was sitting in that chair that you were sitting in, and if I can do it, you can do it,'" he said.

Anderson told 9NEWS he has gotten the game into one Denver-area school, and he hopes to contribute it to other schools and recreation centers in the future.

RELATED: Jamaican 4-man bobsled team makes first Olympics appearance since '98

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