This Halloween, support people who dress up all year long

Hi there. Halloween is upon is and while you and I may dress up and pretend to be someone else for one night, there are people who do this sort of thing for a living (sort of).  And they do it for our benefit. They are called actors of course. And my sister is one of them.  Recently, I’ve been helping out my sister with marketing her accolade-heaped theatre company TUTA.

Being as I’m the big sister, I will now take the prerogative to digress. I’ve always been amazed that my sister knew at an early age exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up. And even though she chose “actor,” a difficult path by any accounting (unless maybe you are the child of someone famous, which I assure you she is not), I am less surprised that she has managed to achieve success in her chosen field.  This is a girl who refused to be concerned over certain math grades or household chores, regardless of repeated recriminations, but was willing to work 14 hour days mucking stalls because she loved horses.  She was always practical. And always driven about working hard to achieve the goals she set for herself.

So fast-forward today to TUTA. Nine years ago, my sister decided to go beyond acting and actually found a theatre that would help her deliver the type of theatre of loved to do and loved to get audiences involved with. She did it with a group of talented friends, some of whom are Serbian, and it is with great pleasure they are right now in Serbia presenting that country’s premier run of Homebody/Kabul.  So cool.  In a world increasingly dominated by 140-character pop culture, TUTA provides an opportunity to go deeper. It does so in a way that embraces current trends, music and the arts, and then uses those touchstones to remind us of the continuity of the human condition across cultures, time periods and genres. TUTA productions provide bridges for the mind to wander into the unknown and back home again,  kind of a mental fun house.  That is why I call TUTA a treat, and why I support their actors who dress up for us all year long.

Lucky us, I’ve convinced TUTA to perform and videotape a little taste of what they do at their Nov. 15 season kick-off “Get Engaged!” party — if we can scare up 100 online donations by the event!  So, please donate online now — any amount helps — and if all goes well, on Nov 16 I’ll be sharing a video treat with you all!

Sweep while you leaf peep

Now is a great time to get outside and enjoy the fall weather. Here in NYC, after some blustery December-like days, the temperature has relented and popped back into the 60s. While you are outdoors at the park enjoying falling leaves (or at the beach enjoying a crisp walk), why not also hunt down some litter which shouldn’t have made it’s way to the ground? Picking up trash (and recycling) may not sound like a good time to you, but trust me, kids find it an exciting treasure hunt.   We took our young Real-World Super Heroes class out to Central Park for about a half-hour of clean-up time and we could barely corral them to leave when time was up. 

It is worth doing a little prep and following some simple procedures to make sure your outing is safe.  Before heading outside, we reviewed our safety rules: no picking up any glass, anything sharp, anything poop-like (ewww!). We all put on disposable gloves (a must!) and the adults carried bags for trash and recycling. We also asked our Heroes to guess how much trash and recycling they would collect during the clean-up; the consensus was 1 bag or “not much.” 

During this outing, the kids used some cool “trash grabbers” supplied by Central Park’s “Pitch In, Pick Up” program.  Our Heroes quickly became adept at using the grabbers (kind of like learning how to use chopsticks!).   Not surprisingly, we found a lot of trash to pick up, especially around the park benches and especially because it had been so windy for a few days.  We covered a large area inside the park and ended up filling 3 large garbage bags.  The kids were amazed at much fun cleaning up was and at how much trash they were able to find. Now I’m wondering if a getting my son his very own trash-grabber might convince him it is fun to clean up at home too! Worth a try, right?

Join the Party with “Think Pink” this Friday!

Join us this Friday, June 26 from 7-10pm at the Fulton Exchange Bar and Lounge. $40 gets you an open bar and gets us a healthy portion of the proceeds, courtesy of our good friends at Exchange.

Thanks to the amazing support of the family and friends of the 10 members of Team Think Pink, we are now on the board as 4th highest fundraising team for the upcoming Boston 3-Day Walk event!  Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far! 

Considering this is our team’s first-ever event and we have the minimum number of members, we are amazed at what we’ve collectively accomplished so far.  We still have a long way to go before the big event July 24-26, so we are doing our best to maintain the momentum — which naturally means it’s time to PARTY!

Join us this Friday, June 26 from 7-10pm at the Fulton Exchange Bar and Lounge at 90 Fulton Street. $40 gets you an open bar and gets us a healthy portion of the proceeds, courtesy of our good friends at Exchange.  We are doing our part to raise funds to fight breast cancer.  The least you can do is raise a glass to help bring on the cash.

See you there! Cheers, Aimee

The power of lemon-aid — and a sugar cookie

Lemon-aid for NYC Fire Department

It’s Lemon-Aid Part II.  As you may recall, a couple of weeks back when it was still cold and rainy, our Super Heroes prepared all the fixings for a Lemon-Aid Stand. They made sugar cookies to sell, signs to advertise our even, and treasure boxes to collect the profits.  They were inspired hearing about other kids who raised money for causes they care about.

On Thursday, June 4, our Heroes headed outside to set up and run two stands: one in Central Park and one in front of Columbia Grammar School.  While the day was overcast, our group was sunny. In the Park, our Heroes serviced a slow but pretty steady stream of customers, and we had visits – and donations — from some friendly faces.  The stand in front of the school, as expected, was slower during the hour but just crammed during pick-up. 

Big check for our firefighters

In all, our Real-World Super Heroes raised more than $200. Last week, our Heroes had the opportunity to present the treasure they raised for the NY Firefighters Burn Center in the Bronx  to the members of the firehouse on W. 100^th Street. 

Of course, your kids can use the time-tested lemonade stand tactic to raise money for any charity they feel strongly about. It is also a nice way to get kids involved in a charity effort you are involved in, such as a walkathon. Let them raise money to pledge against your targets. Sometimes all it takes are sugar cookies to turn an individual effort into a family affair.