LUMBERTON – Meredith Edwards says she has done about everything she can think of to generate interest in her family’s indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course.

Sea Glow Mini Golf, which opened Feb. 11 in the River Gate Plaza North off Lackey Street, is the only miniature golf course in the city of Lumberton. The next closest one from here operates up Interstate 95 in Hope Mills.

The potential customer base also includes the outlying towns of Rowland, Red Springs, Fairmont, Lumber Bridge, Parkton, Orrum, Pembroke and St. Pauls.

“When we first started,” the 37-year-old Edwards said Friday, “we were pretty busy. We had schools coming, we had churches coming. I had the Girl Scouts of Robeson County who came. We had two to three parties every Saturday. Some Sundays, we had parties.”

But that has not been the case over the last few months, she said. Business has continued to lag.

“We haven’t had any parties for months,” she said from the near darkness of the indoor black light mini-golf course.

“This is my baby. My husband and I put a lot of our money in it,” Edwards noted. “I try to do as much for the community as I can. Because I’m not about trying to get rich off of this. I’m trying to have somewhere for the community. ”

It’s a late Friday morning, and Edwards agreed to an interview from her fledgling business hours before it would open to the public that afternoon. She showed up wearing a pink Sea Glow Mini Golf shirt.

“I literally put every bit of myself into this place,” she said. ”I have done everything imaginable to make sure that you come in here and it’s an experience. Even my Christmas tree. My Christmas tree has octopus and things that look like sea urchins on it. The tree skirt has seahorses and starfish on it. I have a starfish tree topper.

“I have done literally everything,” she added. “I have put everything of myself in this place.”

A Lumberton native, Edwards can’t seem to figure out why the community hasn’t supported her small business enterprise like she expected. Other than this spot, she said, the only other comparable places for recreational fun in Lumberton are the Lumberton Bowling Center and the Town and Country Four Theater.

Sea Glow Mini Golf was designed to be a place for members of the community to go to hang out, have fun and enjoy some time together.

“I rushed to get it done before Valentine’s Day,” she said of the Feb. 11 opening. “Because I wanted a place for couples to go on Valentine’s Day aside from the typical restaurant that’s overcrowded.”

Edwards said she designed and created the business after “extreme hard work” and “a whole bunch of research.”

Sea Glow goes heavy on an underseas decor. Even the restrooms are decorated with this voyage to the bottom of the sea theme. Those that play on the two golf courses will see such decorations and fabrics featuring a scuba diver prop, a hanging shark, jellyfish, turtles, seahorses, whales, boats, a puffer fish, an octopus.

It seems like about the only thing missing is SpongeBob SquarePants and his underwater friend, Patrick.

With a laugh, Edwards said she has given names to many of the underwater creatures and items that adorn the layout.

“My husband and I could have built some rinky-dink ramps and painted-on glow-in-the-dark,” she said, “but I wanted Robeson County to walk in here and be overwhelmed. And just look at it like, ‘Oh, wow! This is awesome.’ And that’s what the majority of our money went to – this golf course.”

The Titanic, she said, really hits home for her.

“So I paid a tribute to the Titanic with my shipwreck course. If you look at the floor obstacles,” said Edwards, “there are actually screenshot items I took off the computer from the Titanic shipwreck. I sent it to the company (Art Attack out of Florida) and said, ‘This is what I want.’ And there’s actually on hole 8 on the wall, there’s a camera (facsimile) that went down – the very first one that went down to discover the Titanic – that’s on the wall in there.”

Edwards, her husband, Clint, and their family helped install everything inside the building.

The miniature golf layout features two nine-hole courses. Participants are able to play either nine holes ($8) or 18 holes ($14). Military, teachers and first responders receive a $1 off discount.

One of the nine-hole courses has a shipwreck theme; the other features a wonderland concept. Both carry the underseas theme.

Together, the golf layout comes to about 6,400 square feet.

“I wanted the main focus to be on mini-golf,” Edwards said of her business. “People ask me where did I get the inspiration from? The only thing I can come up with is it’s God-given.”

In the back, a roughly 2,000-square-foot arcade offers more than 20 games, including air hockey, a Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine, a small children’s carousel, basketball for kids and a pool table.

Popcorn and nachos are sold at the arcade concession stand.

But the miniature golf at Sea Glow is the – no pun intended – anchor of the operation.

“I love the reactions,” she said. “I will sit here and listen to people play. They’re having so much fun. And that’s what I created this place for – I wanted people to have somewhere to have fun.”