Happy House » Happy House News

Santa Barbara Boys and Girls Club Completes a Super Year

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:11:02 +0000

Great family, great friends and great neighbors all gathered on the evening of January 26^th to enjoy great food and celebrate another year of great kids at the Santa Barbara Boys and Girls Club, one of the longest running and most successful after-school sites in the country.

Executive Director Carolyn Brown spoke passionately about the dedication of her Board, sponsors and staff and turned over the microphone to talented youth to hand out awards for volunteering, mentoring, standing out as a youth of the year, participating as an athelete of the year as well as awards for the ten children who completed the Good Choices Program.

SB B&G Club Program Director & Good Choices Class Instructor, Calvin Mass, joined his class on stage and invited Nancy Cartwright, along with members of her Happy House team, to hand out the graduation certificates that confirm completion of the program.

“Make Life GOOD, Make Good CHOICES,” the ecstatic children called out in unison.

This graduating class is one of several who have completed the program over the last two years and Carolyn announced that the program will soon be expanded to include training of teens to deliver the program to the younger members.

Nancy was so impressed with the club, the staff and, most of all, the kids. “You rock, man!” she called out with that “special voice.”

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.”

Children’s Day 2011 Raffle Winners

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:54:39 +0000

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!

4th Annual Children’s Day Celebration, September 17, 2011

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:47:36 +0000

Children’s Day 2011 was a huge success! And I am proud to say that the Happy House sponsored Arts and Entertainment Village was a resounding victory! Of the roughly 4000 kids that did crafts in our Arts and Crafts tent – created once again by the fabulous Bobbi Brunhoehler – I can’t even imagine how many kids (and parents) we made fabulous paper hats for or how many custom fans kids made to stay cool (in more ways than one). We also had our Good Choices booth offering an insight into our Good Choices program and signing families up for some cool free raffles.

Two show-stoppers this year that the kids really loved were our Green Screen LAPD Motorcycle ride and our Storytelling Stage. Irfan Merchant and his IBC Mobile Motion team set up the green screen and kids had a ball sitting on a genuine LAPD motorcycle and seeing themselves race along an LA freeway. Meanwhile, our storytelling stage went over amazingly well. Personally, I had the pleasure of joining in on improvisation with the Guerilla Theatre Troupe and then I told stories to a crowd of smiling faces. We had some fantastic celebrity guests join us to read to the kids, including Jack McGee (he got an Academy Award nomination for his role in “The Fighter”), Jesse Snider (star of “Growing Up Twisted” and son of rock star Dee Snider), Josh Keaton (the voice of “Spiderman”) and lots more.

NBC’s Fritz Coleman hosted this 4^th Annual Children’s Day Celebration at Woodley Park in Sherman Oaks on Saturday September 17. Put on by the LAPD and the Anti-gang Coalition, the park was filled with tens of thousands of smiling faces. Families enjoyed all the amazing festivities which included celebrities signing autographs, including Booboo Stewart from Twilight, Grace Phipps from ABC Family’s Nine Lives of Chloe King, Mathew St. Patrick from Six Feet Under, Adam Irigoyen from Disney Channel’s Shake It Up, Rico Rodriguez from Modern Family, and his sister Raini Rodriguez from Paul Blart Mall Cop, Nolan Gould from Modern Family, and there were lots of performances both on the main stage and on the Disney Radio stage. Other special guests included police captains, the fire captain, our local Councilman Mitch Englander, and others. Taped messages included a greeting from Mayor Villaraigosa.

There were also police cars, fire engines, police on horseback, lots of food trucks, and carnival rides.

This was truly a gift to the city of Los Angeles and the families and Children of this community. Throughout the day you saw children experiencing the thrill of sitting on a police motorcycle, kids making all kinds of magical creations, and most importantly, kids and parents alike learning about opportunities and safeguards from police officers, gang prevention experts and others at booths that covered most of the enormous park.

All in all this was a memorable day. Hats off to the hundreds of volunteers and staff of all the organization that made this happen.

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.

Newsletter August 2011

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:49:06 +0000

Happy House Attends Heritage Weekend

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 21:17:19 +0000

The North Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, along with the Kiwanis Club joint sponsored Heritage Weekend at Northridge Park. There was a full blown carnival, games, cheerleaders, fireworks and much more. Happy House had a booth where they handed out booklets and talked to guests about the Good Choices Program.

Nancy was there and chatted with some local community members, including several volunteers from the LAPD Cadet program. She autographed a couple booklets each and let the young men know that their own program is very much aligned with the Good Choices program. Upon finding that out, one of the Cadets asked for a couple more booklets to give to his brothers and sisters.

That is the beauty of the program. It is meant to be “passed forward” and on and on.

They walked away, with their booklets and big smiles on their faces.

Happy House Poker Fundraiser a Huge Success

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:56:07 +0000

The 6^th annual Happy House Poker Fundraiser and Family BBQ at Nancy Cartwright’s home was the largest ever. One hundred and forty Texas Hold ‘Em players faced off poolside while at least an equal number of non-players and children enjoyed family fun including face painting, a bouncy house and water slide, bingo, ping pong and a wide array of arts and crafts.

Providing a back-beat were Tony St Tone and his band as well as DeeDee O’Malley and her new band Size 7 Hat. Even Nancy jumped up and sang a bit.

The winner of this year’s event was Henry Engle and he chose the Simpsons table read basket as his grand prize. It couldn’t have gone to a more deserving recipient because he not only beat a very talented field that included poker pro Kenna James and poker celeb Camryn Manheim, he is also perhaps one of the greatest Simpsons fans on the planet. His story is amazing. Diagnosed with a serious illness, he made it through by going home from harsh treatments and watching the Simpsons.

Our thanks go out to the nearly 40 volunteers who helped with this event, all the players and contributors and to this year’s top 14 (from 14th to first): Jana de la Cerra, Victor Hooper, Camryn Manheim, Josh Scott, Chriscilla Guyer, Joe Langer, Kittie Aleman, Kirsten Mellinger, Kim Schneider, Aaron Kapitan, Mike Armstrong, Anthony Turner, Brad Harris, and of course Henry Engle.

Click on any image above to see a larger version.

The proceeds from the event benefit the Happy House Good Choices™ Program. Key contributions came from Innovative Artists, Origin Oil and LA Racing Experience. Happy House Good Choices is an after-school program for youth that gives them a very simple way to make better choices in life and survive in a dangerous environment. To find out more go to www.goodchoicesprogram.org.

See you next year!