Happy House » Chapter News

Nancy has Thanksgiving Dinner with Community United

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:08:25 +0000

Community United hosted its 4th annual Thanksgiving dinner at both the Starbird and Alma Youth Centers in San Jose. Nancy made a special trip to San Jose and told the youth how proud she was of them for making good choices and staying in school. She showed them a special episode of Simpson’s!!! She answered questions and even performed a dozen “voices” having the kids guess the characters from many different shows! Representatives joined the celebrations from both the Vice Mayor’s office and Councilman Pete Constant’s office!

Nancy signed bookmarks and photos, and took lots of pictures with the kids and their parents and grandparents! Everyone had a great time and a wonderful turkey dinner thanks to a donation from Trader Joe’s, the community and special contribution from Nancy! Several kids (and adults) said it was the best Thanksgiving ever!! And when asked what she thought of the event, Nancy said, “There are lots of things I am thankful for but to see those smiling young faces gobbling down some gobble-gobble was a topper this year.”

Happy House Seattle Chapter Newsletter

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:51:12 +0000

San Jose Golf Tournament a Big Success

admin — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 17:48:12 +0000

Community United, the San Jose chapter of Happy House, hosted their first ever charity golf tournament on Saturday, August 20th. Sixty-four golfers braved the heat, some in traditional golf attire, for a great day of fun and friendly competition. And they raised money for a great cause! Thanks to everyone who participated and volunteered their time to make the event a huge success.

All Things Wheels

admin — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 17:38:43 +0000

On Saturday, August 20th, 35 kids and kids at heart from the Good Choices Kids’ Club Seattle decorated their bikes, trikes, scooters and wagons for the Shoreline Parade just North of Seattle. The theme for the group was “All Things Wheels” and they rolled out in style. They also handed out more than eight hundred Good Choices and Way To Happiness booklets to spectators at the parade. Keep up the great work up North.

Nancy Speaks at the Hip Hop Chess Federation’s Spring Classic

admin — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:29:32 +0000

Founded by award winning Lecturer and Author, Adisa Banjoko and Hip-Hop graphic artist Leo Libiran, the Hip Hop Chess Federation is dedicated to providing an inclusive setting for individuals to interact, play and develop life skills with people they view as mentors. Along with recreational activities, the Hip Hop Chess Federation also provides workshops and sponsor supported education scholarships.

They hosted their Spring Classic in San Jose, California on Saturday, May 14th. The free event was chock full of great things for kids to do, from B-Boy’ing and Jiu Jitsu to Eskrima and Skateboard Demos and celebrities like Zion I, Casual and T-KASH; NBC 11’s Scott Budman and Chess World Master, 15 year old, Daniel Noroditsky were all in attendance. It was an honor for Nancy to be included in that list and a part of the panel that spoke to more than 100 people in attendance! An outstanding theme throughout the day was “Choose a goal and stick to it.” What a great message and a wonderful event! Thanks to Adisa and everyone for making it such an awesome day.

San Jose Neighborhood Council Event

admin — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:14:28 +0000

Sunday, May 15, Nancy joined Community United, the San Jose Chapter of Happy House, for the Starbird Park Community Event. The event played host to more than 200 people and praised the work of Community United and other neighborhood councils and communities. There were talks by Councilman Pete Constant, Timothy Starbird (son of the center’s namesake), Adisa Banjoko, Jan Nikitin and Nancy Cartwright.

There were also new partnering programs for the Starbird Youth Center with Community United Happy House in attendance; Tapestry Arts Exec Dir and Board Members , as well as Santa Clara Parks and Rec Director and History San Jose Director.

It was a wonderful day of outreach, information and fun. Celebrity Andy Z joined the event and gave fabulous performance and the balloon maker was a huge hit with kids. Thanks Community United for all of your work in San Jose!

Community United Making a Difference

admin — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 23:03:20 +0000

The Happy House chapter in San Jose, Community United, continues to make a huge difference in the Bay Area. Below are pictures of their involvement in the San Jose Resource Fair as well as an image of their booth representing the United Neighborhoods of Santa Clara County. Keep up the great work Community United.

Happy House Hits Thousand Oaks, CA

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:56:57 +0000

Happy House is proud to announce the formation of its second chapter in Thousand Oaks, CA. The first delivery of the Good Choices program was done at the Los Cerritos Boys & Girls Club of Thousand Oaks. The delivery of the program started on Friday June 25th for an hour in the morning and continued each Friday until August 6th.

Twenty-two children graduated the program and were presented with their certificates by Nancy Cartwright, during a graduation event on August 11th. Over 80 people were present to watch these children graduate and all of the students and attendees were surprised with autographed Bart Simpson book marks.

The children were very excited about meeting Nancy and having completed the program. The Director of the Boys & Girls Club expressed her appreciation for the work that was done with these children and has expressed her interested in having the program continue during the school year.

The Director was given a special recognition certificate by Nancy along with a bouquet of flowers. She was quoted saying, “I have seen the children really excited about the program and actually use the chart that shows them the degree of Good and Bad choices they can make. I plan to post that chart and use it during the school year. Our kids are amazing and have been very excited about the classes. The kids are really good but they have stepped up even more on helping each other out. We have a severely autistic child here and several of the kids that have been part of the Good Choices class have taken it on to really get to know her and make sure where she’s where she’s supposed to be, etc. The kids love the program and have been really excited attending the classes every Friday.”

Welcome to the Happy House family to all new members of the Thousand Oaks Chapter.

San Jose Happy House Chapter National Night Out

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:26:29 +0000

The Blackford Neighborhood Action Coalition’s National Night Out held at Starbird Park was one of the largest in San Jose with over eight hundred in attendance. Community United, the San Jose Chapter of Happy House Los Angeles, was one of the primary sponsors of the event along with several of the local churches, businesses and community members.

The goals of National Night Out are to:

Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness
Generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime efforts
Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships
Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back

We definitely met these goals!

The weather was beautiful, the hot dogs were great and the air was buzzing with all the interest and activity.

Nancy Cartwright and the executives of Happy House flew to San Jose to attend the event and participate in the graduation of over thirty children who had just completed The Way to Happiness Good Choices Program at Starbird Park Youth Center. City Manager Debra Figone, Councilmember Pete Constant, and Joe Mosely from the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force attended from the City. The Police Department was well represented with Police Chief Rob Davis, Police Captain JR Gamez, and two Campbell Police Captains all in attendance for the Graduation Ceremonies.

Nancy and the City of San Jose were also presented with a piece of art entitled “Peaces of a Dream” by local artist Debbie Arambula. The piece symbolizes that it takes two people, two city officials, two towns, two countries standing side by side to create change….” This piece exemplifies what we are creating together.

There were over 20 volunteers from Community United helping with booths, food, entertainment and all the logistics of putting on an event of this magnitude. The mounted police and the fire department were there to help as well.

The air was full of over three hundred yellow Good Choices balloons. The Community United – Happy House booth handed out hundreds of The Way to Happiness booklets to community members.

The City of San Jose and Community United have worked hand in hand throughout the summer to create this event and deliver The Way to Happiness Good Choices program to over fifty youths in the community. The culmination of all this hard work was a success!

Nancy and the executives from Happy House also made a stop at the Alma Youth Center to meet with the teens from that center and present awards to those who were working towards completion of their Way To Happiness Good Choices Program. This was the highlight of the program for them and something they will always remember.

We are looking forward to our next partnership and creating magic!