The Good Choices Program was delivered in two of the Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Clubs on Monday July 13th.  In all, 52 children were put through the program.  A graduation event was held at the Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Club for all 52 children on Wednesday 12 August, with Nancy presenting them with their certificates.  More than 140 people were in attendance to watch these amazing children graduate.

The feedback from the Director of the Boys & Girls Club was extremely favorable and she’s very interested in participating further in the Good Choices program.  They are well on their way to becoming the third chapter of Happy House. The Director was also given a special recognition certificate by Nancy along with a bouquet of flowers. Of the event, she said, “I read through the book and loved it.  This is the exact thing that we wanted to present to the kids.  The kids really do need a good moral compass.  This program is so hands on and this is why I participated in every class because I really wanted to learn how it works and how it’s delivered.

“It’s so fun to see how the kids interacted and they’re so excited, and I love that.  Today when we passed out the papers and asked the kids what they got out of the program, some of the responses were beautiful.  Throughout the week we talk about what they’ve learned during the program and I get kids that come up to me and tell me how one of the kids is bullying another kid and feel he should be stopped.  So they really remember the lessons and talk about it throughout the week.  That’s why I know it’s working.”

We look forward to many more graduations like this in Santa Barbara.

Happy House is proud to announce the formation of its second chapter in Thousand Oaks, CA. The first delivery of the Good Choices program was done at the Los Cerritos Boys & Girls Club of Thousand Oaks.  The delivery of the program started on Friday June 25th for an hour in the morning and continued each Friday until August 6th.

Twenty-two children graduated the program and were presented with their certificates by Nancy Cartwright, during a graduation event on August 11th.  Over 80 people were present to watch these children graduate and all of the students and attendees were surprised with autographed Bart Simpson book marks.

The children were very excited about meeting Nancy and having completed the program.  The Director of the Boys & Girls Club expressed her appreciation for the work that was done with these children and has expressed her interested in having the program continue during the school year.

The Director was given a special recognition certificate by Nancy along with a bouquet of flowers. She was quoted saying, “I have seen the children really excited about the program and actually use the chart that shows them the degree of Good and Bad choices they can make.  I plan to post that chart and use it during the school year.  Our kids are amazing and have been very excited about the classes.  The kids are really good but they have stepped up even more on helping each other out.  We have a severely autistic child here and several of the kids that have been part of the Good Choices class have taken it on to really get to know her and make sure where she’s where she’s supposed to be, etc.  The kids love the program and have been really excited attending the classes every Friday.”

Welcome to the Happy House family to all new members of the Thousand Oaks Chapter.

Happy House territory is expanding and is now reaching into the Northern California region. This new and first official remote Happy House chapter was just recently acknowledged at the Happy House Headquarters in Northridge.

The name of the new chapter located in San Jose is “Community United”, quite an appropriate name because its activities do just that, unite communities.

We all had the opportunity to meet face to face with Co-Directors Donna Stewart and Jan Nikitin, who flew in to meet with Nancy and other Happy House volunteers. The excitement mounted as they told us some of the great things that are already happening with this new chapter.

Because of Donna’s interest and desire to help children who have been abused and neglected Donna received her CASA (Certified Court Appointed Special Advocate) certification last year. Through her work as a CASA Donna saw first hand the need for a community program that could help “at-risk” youth and their parents.

Donna and Jan decided to form Community United with other interested volunteers to provide a vehicle to help families by using the information found in the book ‘The Way to Happiness’. They began by delivering “The Way to Happiness Course” (in Spanish) to parents who were members of a local neighborhood group. The parents expressed great success from this course:

The Way to Happiness seminar has been important for me because they are gold rules that if you put them in practice all around us we can prevent problems, be happy and affect others in a positive way. We can make a difference. C. B.

With this course basically I remember and reconfirm concepts that I forgotten and had learned as a child. I found answers to many questions that I have now. I cleared many doubts about things that I had confused in my mind. I gave two books of Way to Happiness to two people that I thought needed them and one of them showed a very positive personal change. I found and learned a better way to communicate and help children and how to be better citizens and better persons. Thank you, C. L.

This course of Way to Happiness helped me to learn how to live better with people. The themes are very important: “respect” is one of the primary themes to get better the family and how to be patient with children. To talk to our children about gangs, we have to give a good example: we shouldn’t fight with people, we need to look to live better with persons. Talk to our children about the consequences that come from bad behavior. Show them to respect the parents, and be good children, so they can be good parents in the future. Thank you very much, M.G.
Community United was also invited to join the City of San Jose Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force. This is an organization which consists of city groups, schools, churches, non-profits and community groups that offer programs to address the issues concerning gang-related crime and crime prevention.

Using a pilot version of the TWTH book written especially for youth, Community United next delivered a 6 week program to children ages 8-12. Fifteen to twenty children attended each week. Then a 7 week program was delivered to teens ages 12-17 with another 15-20 attendees each week. Key to the training is the use of TWTH PSA DVD which is included in the program. What lucky kids!

Their successes read as follows:

To pursue a goal and you can accomplish it. Don’t do drugs, it could mess up your life. Treat people good like you would want to be treated. Be active and do the best choice you can make in your life. K.L.

The thing I liked about the program is that people always came in to talk to us. They talked to us about their lives and what they changed about their lives. I liked the pizza and the staff of Good Choices. O.U.

I learned to respect others and they will respect you the way you want to be respected. J.M

I learned that to respect people and they will respect people the same and trust other people and they will trust you. A.O.
Things kept blossoming from there and Community United has participated in various community activities such as the First Annual Crime Prevention Summit, their district Councilman’s Annual Resource Fair, their Neighborhood Association’s Family Giving Tree Program, and the annual Spring Egg Hunt an event which made the front page of the San Jose Mercury News Sunday edition.

Community United is very interested in building better communities by helping to build better families. They have received a large amount of support from their city and its full speed ahead!

Keep up the good work. It’s an honor to have you on board and may your community flourish like never before!

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 ontowww.movieswithamessage.org.

Nancy helped give out awards on Saturday, June 19th, at the 8th Annual Scholarship Celebration for Project GRAD, supported by friends Anne Archer and Marisol Nichols and run by CEO of Project GRAD Ford Roosevelt.

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.