The four week program started with a week at the San Fernando Elementary School and ended with three weeks of “field trips” to the Anson Ford Theatre in Hollywood, CA.  This remarkable venue was ideal for Carol Loweree, Happy House Good Choices Director, to impart the 21 chapters of the “How to Make Good Choices ™,” booklet.  Based on The Way to Happiness ®, which has over 90 million copied in circulation, the Good Choices program helps kids learn basic common sense values so they can make their own good choices.

“There is enough discipline and danger in their lives,” Mrs. Loweree said.  “We don’t tell them what to do.  We simply show them that there is a choice and they can make it.”

The Good Choices program was taught in a “round robin” with Freshi Filmworx. Freshi, the largest company teaching film techniques to children nationwide, specializes in teaching kids basic film making and video game design techniques. The students were split into three groups  based on age and each hour every morning they would go from one to the other, first learning Good Choices and then on to game design or filmmaking.

Each child created their own video game either solo or with a team and the entire group created six short movies.  These movies, all based on the chapters of the Good Choices Booklet, can be entered in the Movies with a Message contest sponsored by Good Choices and held during the International Family Film Festival in March of 2011.

Nancy Cartwright, founder of Happy House, had the great fun of visiting the students and presenting certificates of completion and some signed goodies.  “These kids are incredible,” said Nancy.  “They have such great manners, are so creative and I can really see how much this means to them.”

For more information on the Good Choices Program go to www.goodchoicesprogram.org and to find out about the Movies With a Message Contest go to www.movieswithamessge.org.

Every year, Project GRAD honors the academic accomplishments of a new class of college-bound scholars. This year, one of the honorees was connected to us in a strange way. Myriam Martinez approached Nancy at the event and told her that Leo Martinez, Nancy’s gardener, was her father. She was the youngest of four children and Leo had encouraged all of his kids to go through the program and they had all succeeded.

Nancy decided this was worthy of recognition and awarded Leo the first ever Happy House Good Choices Award. She presented Leo with the award, with his family in attendance, at her home in Northridge. He was recognized for his “extreme dedication as a father in applying the precepts ‘Help Children’ and ‘Set a Good Example’.”

Great job Leo! You are truly an example in your home and your community.

Currently in its fifth year of providing filmmaking, communications and production classes to youngsters throughout the country and the world, Freshi Filmworx is partnering with Nancy Cartwright and the Good Choices program, as well as The International Family Film Festival (IFFF)  to establish the “Happy House Good Choices™ Movies With a Message™” Contest. This unique film competition, in which a choice of three themes communicates a way in which to make Good Choices, can be entered by students in two age groups, from 6—10 or 11-14 years of age. The theme options are “Take Care of Yourself,” “Try Not to Do Things to Others That You Would Not Like Them to Do to You” and “Try to Treat Others as You Would Want Them to Treat You.”  The films, not to exceed 10 minutes, can either be live action, animation or a combination. With computer capabilities and programs like those of Freshi, younger and younger filmmakers are evolving.

Nancy Cartwright works diligently through her non-profit Happy House, which is responsible for the Good Choices program that is sponsoring this contest, to try to help to build better families. “We are ecstatic that the very basic principles of decency and ethics we try to instill in kids from grade school through high school will now be included in the Freshi programs and that kids will have an opportunity to creatively express them through film.” The actress, who is in her 22^nd year of voicing Bart Simpson, and has more credits than can be listed here, goes on to say, “Filmmakers of any age have the ability to change the world with their ideas, images and stories.”

There are multiple reasons for this endeavor. According to Suzanne Shoemaker, one of the founders of Freshi, “The dropout rate in schools was approaching 50% nationwide and we realized we had to do something to infuse the visual communications tools of the 21^st century into the classroom to get kids reengaged.”

She also feels strongly that film projects provide an opportunity for kids from different cultures to work together rather than judge each other, thus providing the foundation for unconditional relationships that are not based on indiscriminate hate or fear.

The Grand Prize, for Best Overall Film, is a day In Hollywood with Nancy Cartwright. For Best Representation of Theme, the winner will get an escorted tour of Universal Studios Theme Park and a video camera, for Audience Favorite an escorted tour of an animation studio and a visit to a taping of a show, Most Imaginative film creator will receive an escorted tour of a film studio and a free Hollywood Film Camp, Best Use of Filmmaking Skills will be rewarded with a free filmmaking program for the school the student goes to and a video camera and the Best Family Project (one in which the entire family participates) will receive a free DVD series, “How To Make Movies,” and a day with a filmmaker filming the family. All prizes will be given in each age category.

The submission deadline is January 16, 2011. Fifty semi-finalist films will be chosen to be submitted to the International Family Film Festival (IFFF) for judging. These filmmakers will be notified of this selection by January 26, 2011. Twelve films will be selected as Finalists in each age bracket and screened at the International Family Film Festival (IFFF) in Hollywood on March 19, 2011, when and where the award presentation will take place. For additional information contact (818) 882-7483 or log onto www.movieswithamessage.org.

More than 200 men, women and children came out to enjoy a beautiful afternoon and support the launch of the new Good Choices Toolkit. The event kicked off with nearly 100 poker players eagerly awaiting the start of a very competitive tournament. Nancy issued the traditional “Shuffle Up and Deal” call and the action was underway. When the dust settled, only Erik Aude was left standing, with Mark Hart, Shelly Preston, Tom Hill and Bill Methvin Jr rounding out the top five.

Outside the poker area, there was some great food, live music, bingo, face painting, hat making, and a giant slide. It was a wonderful time for everyone and the event was a fantastic success, made even better by the fact that we had an opportunity to debut our new after school program, The Good Choices Toolkit, to which the proceeds of the event will be going.

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.

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