The Father-Daughter Co-Founder Team
Jon & Cally
Jon Fisher
Jon was born in Kansas and raised in the countryside of Minnesota. He went to Germany for 12th grade, followed by two years at the University of Minnesota, and four years at the US Air Force Academy, where he specialized in foreign languages.
Jon began his career flying the “Huey” helicopter, then transitioned to the Air Force “Blackhawk” variant for combat rescue. In addition to flying, he ran operations at the Air Force Survival School, taught cadets at the German Air Force Academy, got a master’s degree, planned astronaut rescue, and recovered the first flight of the Orion capsule. Following ten combat deployments, Jon became a Foreign Area Officer, studied languages in Austria, the Netherlands, and Czech Republic, and served in two embassies.
Jon made plans with his daughter Cally before retiring to start a business, and after six months of planning, they organized the company and incorporated Wizard Tag LLC.
Cally McConnell
Cally is originally from North Dakota, but she moved frequently as a military brat. She lived in six states, plus Washington DC, Germany, Canada, and the Czech Republic.
Cally attended an International Baccalaureate high school in Canada. She furthered her education at Full Sail University, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Film, with a focus on Editing and the Art Department. After graduation, she traveled with the family for one more military assignment in Prague, where she worked at the US Embassy.
Cally and her father drew up preliminary plans for a business and got some advice from the Ambassador, who is a prominent businessman from Wisconsin. Before leaving the Czech Republic, they had extensive plans for the business. Once back in the US, Cally and her father began Wizard Tag LLC.
Finding Fantasy
Our Introductions to & Life with Fantasy
Jon’s Story
I spent my childhood growing up in a forest in Minnesota. We built forts all over, sometimes twenty feet up in the trees. We crossed creeks on fallen trees, skipped across stones, or long-jumped the gap. We ran wild, even beyond the boundaries of our forty acres. Forts and locations in our forest had names such as Peter Pan’s Peninsula, Deer Valley, and Minas Tirith. Sticks became swords, staves, and bows. One day we found a need for flaming arrows, but that is a story unto itself!
Our adventures in the woods intermingled with fantasy from movies and novels. My mother read The Hobbit to us before bed. We bought lots of books, and often came home with more books from the school library. I was especially fond of Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology. When I was about twelve, my brother and I moved into the family library after my two youngest sisters were born and displaced us from our bedroom. It was a wonderful room, with floor to ceiling shelves of books overflowing around the room. We read all the time. Sometimes I stayed home “sick” for weeks at a time to read. I tried to pass on that love of fantasy to my children. Bedtime stories for Cally and her brother included classics like Tolkien, fantasy teen fiction, and Harry Potter.
This love of fantasy, along with awesome experiences playing laser tag, paint ball, and capture the flag were huge parts of why Wizard Tag had to be created. We wanted to have all the excitement from the fantasy worlds of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, but in a game that we made to value imagination, health, and fun!
Cally’s Story
My dad always read stories to me and my brother at bedtime. He read books like Bartimaeus, The Last Apprentice, Harry Potter (of course), and many more.
My dad even took the time to call and read to me when he was deployed overseas. Every once in a while, he would send letters written with calligraphy, on parchment, wax sealed with little holes from the owl’s talons, waiting for me on my pillowcase.
We went to midnight book releases for Harry Potter, and watched all the films on release day (we usually dressed up, obviously).
I attended university in Orlando, Florida, so, naturally, whenever I was caught up on assignments and didn’t have a lecture or lab to attend, I would dress up in my wizard’s robes and spend the day at Universal Studios Wizarding World (my dad would also dress up and he and my mom would spend the day with me at the park).
I have many aunts and uncles. Years ago, some of them became involved with Live Action Role Playing (LARP) and introduced it to my grandparents. Every summer since I was about eight years old, there would be a LARP event in the forest where my father grew up. Everyone played a character, or a background character in the tavern or village set up in a clearing in the woods. One year, I designed my own LARP with the help of my dad, which took over six months of planning and resulted in a game master’s manual that was over two hundred pages long! The result was an epic fantasy weekend.
The love of fantasy is an important part of our lives, and we want to demonstrate that with Wizard Tag. Our design for the wands and how they will be used is made by fantasy fans for fantasy fans.
