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Happy House-Community United Embraces New Partnerships

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:33:56 +0000

Happy House-Community United San Jose has a fabulous new group partnerships facilitated and led by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)!

SVCF, the San Jose Earthquakes and their two support groups, Casbah and 1906 Ultras, have embraced the Starbird Community Center kids in an all-in mentoring program in the field of soccer.

Tickets and Team clothing, practice with the team and mentoring with the supporters make for an exciting adventure up in San Jose. SSFV also provided the Community United centers with soccer nets, balls and equipment! Here is a photo of the youth on San Jose Earthquakes’ Opening Day in March 2012.

Happy House’s Community United Honored by City of San Jose

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:07:15 +0000

San Jose Mayor, Chuck Reed, delivered his annual State of the City address at the San Jose Civic Auditorium before a packed house on Thursday evening February 9^th. Attendees included the City Council, other elected officials, city employees and volunteers as well as Happy House chapter, Community United, which had been selected by City Councilman, Pete Constant, to receive an award for the important volunteer work being done with the children and families in his District 1 at the Starbird Youth Center, and expanded to the Alma Youth Center.

Happy House Founder Nancy Cartwright as well as Executive Director Peter Kjenaas and Executive Consulant Kathie Heard, joined Community United’s Executive Director Donna Stewart and her co-founder Jan Nitikin; top Donors (& Volunteers!), Marie Guenat and Bruce Stewart; and the core team that services the Starbird and Alma Youth Centers to receive the award.

The beautiful crystal sculpture from The City of San Jose (with logo), The Capital of Silicon Valley reads: “2012 Community Honoree Presented to Community United San Jose In recognition of your exemplary dedication and contribution to making San Jose a prosperous and vibrant city for all”

The Good Choices Program was also cited in this important and appreciated recognition!

The mayor made it clear in his State of the City address that the Gang Prevention Task Force, which Happy House Community United is an important part of, was responsible for an overall drop in crime and had performed a great service in keeping youth activities alive during tough economic times.

Happy House Community United is proud to accept the award and with the dedicated staff at the Starbird and Alma Youth Centers is committed expanding its efforts to help more and more children and families who could use a little help.

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