And The Winner Is…

Happy House is happy to congratulate three lucky people on winning decked out Simpsons baskets at Children’s Day 2011. Hundreds of people entered the raffle to win one of three baskets, but only three could take home the prize. Congrats to Jorge Aguilar, Enrique Velasco and Jessica Ruelas on a basket full of cool toys and Simpsons gear. If you wish it were you, get on down to Children’s Day 2012 for your chance to win. See you there!

Nancy Cartwright and her Happy House team are proud to be participating in the San Fernando Valley Heritage Festival at Northridge Park on Saturday, June 4, and Sunday, June 5. Organization of the event—formerly known as the Salute to Recreation—has been taken over by the Northridge Kiwanis and the North Valley Chamber of Commerce, and the festival will play host to more than 30,000 people over two days.

Join us along with the great people of the Northridge Kiwanis and the North Valley Chamber of Commerce for line dancing (among other kinds of dancing—there is a live DJ), carnival rides, children’s shows, and arts and crafts. And be sure not to miss out on Saturday night’s fireworks extravaganza.

Happy House will be hosting an arts and crafts booth, there will be a raffle for a giant basket, and we will also be handing out free copies of The Way to Happiness and How to Make Good Choices booklets.

As always, the event is free; so come out between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, or 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, and enjoy all the festivities.

See you there!

If good citizens make good choices and good choices make good citizens then the Santa Barbara Boys and Girls Club is creating the best citizens of all.

What an incredible night!  The Happy House Good Choices team was invited to attend the annual awards night put on by Executive Director Carolyn Brown and her team of superlative staff and extraordinary volunteers.   We filled a table and felt more than honored to be a small part of what was clearly a very big acknowledgement for the staff, Board, volunteers, coaches and kids that make this club such a resounding success.

It all kicked off with music and more music.  There were many highlights in this evening which included professional quality recitals capped with a positive message rap by Christian “C Rush” Pearson that brought the house down.  This guy is pro quality!  The Board was honored for their service as well as the Alumni Association, many of the program directors, the athletic coaches, the new Women’s Auxiliary and the capper was the ribbon cutting of the new Pat Van Every Teen Center.

This new center is a fantastic place for teens.  I want to be a kid all over again.  Check out these amenities: brand new computers, satellite access on the giant flat screen, places to hang out and, most importantly, mentorship and leadership programs lead by Tyler Forshey, a gentle giant who is dedicated to these kids.

Richard Nunnelee—who introduced our organization to Carolyn Brown last year—and Happy House were honored to receive awards for our Good Choices Program.  We look forward to many more nights around the table with the Santa Barbara Boys and Girls Club.

Our hats are off to the team of committed leaders.  You Rock!

It’s nearly November, and for the third year in a row, that means Children’s Day and a chance to celebrate our local children. Join Nancy and the Happy House team at Woodley Park in the San Fernando Valley on Saturday, November 20th from 8 AM to 4 PM. There will be carnival rides, games, music, food, a petting zoo, climbing wall and a ton more. The event will, once again, be sponsored by Radio Disney, so bring the whole family for a celebration of children.

And of course, Happy House will be in attendance with tons of resources, some of Nancy’s voice over friends, crafts and other great activities. See you there!

Here’s some images from last year’s event.

Happy House recently had the privilege of delivering a basket full of goodies to Aaron Morales. The four-year-old, pictured here with his mother Sonia, won the basket at Children’s Day last weekend at Woodley Park. It was raffled off at the Good Choices booth and all were welcome to enter. The winner was ecstatic to learn that he had won and accepted his prize with joy.

Here’s Nancy picking the winning entry. ]]> http://happyhouse.org/site/2009/11/the-childrens-day-raffle-winner/feed/ 0 http://happyhouse.org/site/2009/11/the-children-have-their-day/ http://happyhouse.org/site/2009/11/the-children-have-their-day/#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:52:53 +0000 admin http://happyhouse.org/site/?p=52

The all-day event is about kids and for kids with activities to keep the day fun and entertaining as well as over a hundred resource booths where local non-profit organizations displayed their programs designed to provide services for children and families.

Tens of thousands of kids and adults filled the nearly one half mile long park and enjoyed the rides, the creative activities, the police helicopter and the song and dance.

Happy House hosted three features.  We had a resource booth, ably run by Marty Kassowitz and Tim Melchior, for the release of our new Good Choices Program which features a simplified version of The Way to Happiness for children.  Here families could find out about our Good Choices Toolkit, which gives a clear program on how to improve character and the quality of choices.   They could also enter a raffle for a giant animation basket.

We also hosted the annual Arts and Crafts tent, an open-air 40×40 canopy run by Bobbi Brunoehler, which was touted by one event organizer as the top feature of the year.  The biggest hit in Bobbi’s world was the paper hats that were fashioned to fit by Happy House volunteers.

A third offering was our new Giant Happy House, where families could get photos taken for free and really get the feel of what Happy House is all about.

Last, but certainly not least, Nancy Cartwright once again brought her voice-actor friends in to entertain the kids on the children’s stage.  They followed this up with a signing of special photos featuring the characters they are famous for.

There were other features that Happy House helped bring to the party.  One was a Jumbo-tron which lit up the day behind the main stage.   It was the back drop for the likes of Dave Kos and many others and during act change-overs several of The Way to Happiness PSAs played on the giant screen.   Another were theatre extraordinaire performers of the Teenage Drama Workshop, led by Doug Kaback and Ronnie Sperling.  And also gracing the stage was A Faery Hunt, Deborah Rothstein’s wonderfully entertaining and magical troupe of fairies, which also painted faces, strapped on fairy wings and made us all smile.

It was truly a day for the children and one where parents could feel safe and secure and really let their kids be kids.

www.childrensday2009.com

The 4th Annual Monte Carlo Night took place on October 3 with a Denim & Diamonds theme. It seems this party gets better every year!!  Every one of the people in attendance – numbering over 500! — had a blast.  Nancy, dressed in elegant cowgirl regalia, once again opened her Northridge home to raise additional funds for PALS (Police Activities League Supporters) to purchase materials needed and for the various programs for the Councilman Greig Smith LAPD Devonshire PALS Youth Center, named after the local councilman who has been so supportive in the efforts of PALS and other organizations. The money raised over the past few years has helped to build a brand new 5500 square feet youth center which will proudly open November 2, 2009. The Center is targeted to provide after school activities and motivational opportunities for potentially “at risk” youth.

Loads of Nancy’s celebrity friends, professional poker players as well as a few hundred other people came for an evening of Texas Hold ‘Em and other casino games including black jack, roulette and craps. Tom Kenny, the amazing voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, once again lent his talents as emcee of the festivities. Music was provided by the Cody Bryant Band, which certainly added to the country western feel for the evening.  Entertainment included a musical set from Nathan Osmond, another in the long line of amazing Osmond singers.  Nathan previewed many of the songs from his new country CD, Feels Like Heaven. Songstress Dee Dee O’Malley performed the PALS theme song, which she wrote and debuted last year. The Explorers once again served as Color Guard which emphasized the positive impact of the programs that PALS and this event support.

The celebrity guests mixed, mingled and played Monte Carlo games until the very end of the evening. Kirstie Alley, Camryn Manheim, Yancy Arias, Bill Smitrovich, Kate Linder, Stefanie Schaeffer, Patrick Cassidy, Derrick Williams, Jose Canseco, Dorian Harwood, and others joined Jamie Gold, World Series of Poker Main Event winner of 2006, as well as Poker pros Mary Jones, who once again hosted poker boot camp, Barbara Enright, Marsha Waggoner, Kristy Gazes and others.

The top five Tournament winners received seats to a WSOP satellite tournament and full entry to next year’s Monte Carlo night. Other prizes included Polanti watches, Las Vegas show tickets, a Talisman Unlimited necklace and a private lesson with Annie Duke! Mark Eddleman won the 1st Place Trophy.  Second place went to Mike Armstrong and the third place winner was Marina Baroco.

Dinner and dancing, including line dancing lessons, were enjoyed by all.  Trick roping and magic by Mickey Silver were also part of the eye candy. The cigar bar was a success as always and, of course, the open bars, with specialty margaritas including POM mixers, made everyone just a bit happier.  The silent auction and Chinese raffle let several people bring home treasures, including jewelry, specialty baskets and celebrity and sports memorabilia. Some lucky person even won lunch with Nancy!!!

The evening could not have been possible without the support of many people and sponsors including Innovative Artists, Polanti Watches, Rockstar, Before and After Mints, Wiseman & Burke, Law Offices of Leah Antonio-Ketcham, Esq., H20 Water, LifeSource Water, Fox Television, and many others.