Larry McKenzie

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Nicolas Cage is in the news a lot lately.

Apparently he is broke and cannot pay his taxes.   He is one of those actors who I really love all of his movies.  I think that he is an amazing actor.    I also am under the impression that he helped Johnny Depp in his early part of his career.

Although it always seemed like he feels that the public is beneath him.  I may be wrong, he may be a nice guy..but he always seemed stuck up.  Great movies though.

Halloween is good.   Charity is good.   Halloween and charity is VERY GOOD!

Spirit of Children Program Brings Halloween to

Hospital Child Life Departments Across the U.S. and Canada

NEW YORK, October 29, 2009 – Spirit Halloween, the country’s leading seasonal Halloween retailer, announced today that its 2009 Spirit of Children campaign has successfully raised a record-breaking one million dollars in customer, vendor and partner donations as well as merchandise contributions.  One hundred percent of the money raised will go to improving the comfort and experience of pediatric patients through the purchase of items including books, computers, and entertainment centers, games specifically designed for children with physical challenges as well as toys that are fun, educational and therapeutic for hospital child life departments. This year, Spirit Halloween hosted Halloween parties for children at over 50 participating hospitals.  Since its inception in 2006, Spirit of Children has raised more than $1.8 million for hospitals all across the United States and Canada.

“Spirit of Children is a way for Spirit Halloween to bring the fun and fantasy of Halloween to children who otherwise might not be able to enjoy the holiday,” said Steven Silverstein, Spirit Halloween President and CEO. “The positive response we receive from the hospitals and the excitement of the children this program touches is extremely meaningful for our organization, the hundreds of our employees who participate on their own time, and our customers who donate generously. We hope to continue to grow this initiative in the years to come.”

The Spirit of Children program has built significant momentum, receiving support from participating hospitals and Spirit employees in every region of the nation. The program has expanded its reach from 11 hospitals in its 2006 to 74 hospitals in 2009, including such leading medical institutions as Texas Children’s, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Maimonides Infants and Children’s Hospitals, Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital and Phoenix Children’s Hospital as well as ten Shriner’s Hospital for Children locations throughout the country.

“Thanks to the Spirit of Children program and generosity of the community, we’ve received more than $150,000 in the last two years,” said Jamie Byrd, Child Life Manager at Texas Children’s Hospital. “With this money, we’ve been able to greatly improve the Child Life facilities at Texas Children’s by adding a variety of amenities to improve the hospital stay for our young patients.”

The Spirit of Children program takes a three-pronged approach to providing holiday excitement and support for children during hospital stays. Volunteer Spirit employees bring Halloween celebrations to participating hospital child departments with costumes, pumpkin painting, costume parades, Halloween games and crafts, offering a temporary escape for the young patients, in hospitals across the United States and Canada. Additionally, the program raises needed funds through the generous donations of Spirit Halloween’s customers and partners as well as from the profits generated through the sale of exclusively designed eco-friendly trick-or-treat bags, available at all Spirit Halloween stores.

For a full list of participating hospitals and additional information regarding the Spirit of Children program, please visit www.spirithalloween.com/spiritofchildrenday/.

About Spirit Halloween

Spirit Halloween (www.spirithalloween.com) is the largest seasonal Halloween retailer in the country with 725 locations in strip centers and malls across the United States and Canada. The authority on all things Halloween, Spirit has offered one-stop shopping — ranging from costumes to décor and party goods to accessories — for more than 25 years.  In addition to being a fun and interactive event for shoppers, Spirit stores offer complete selections of costumes and accessories for infants/toddlers, children, ‘tweens, teens, adults, and even pets. At the heart of Spirit Halloween is the Spirit of Children program, which is devoted to bringing the fun, imagination and fantasy of Halloween to pediatric patients in hospitals and rehabilitation centers across the United States.

What a bummer that Vic Mizzy passed.   He was the creator of great music such as theme to Addams Family – The Ghost and Mr. Chicken – Green Acres.

A great asset to the Halloween community has passed away at 93.

Arghhh!   Facebook Fan Pages currently are mostly blank!  Not all of them, but some of them.  Coke – Pepsi – Spirit Halloween – Walmart – most of them!

This is one of those times when it does matter that they do not have an easy way to contact them.

What is going on?  Hopefully this does not last long.

There was an earthquake about 44 miles from Las Vegas the other day.    I was sitting at the desk and my butt and everything else moved for a sec or 2.  Being from California, I knew that feeling.   Was not big 3.9, but enough to make freak me out for a second.

It caught me off guard when reading about Zappos being acquired by Amazon.

The CEO of Zappos explained that they will continue to run as they have been.   They have been pretty impressive over the years.  (They are here in Las Vegas).

I think it was a good move on both of their parts.   Hopefully all jobs there will stay secure.

As I open my eyes around me I realized that since Independence Day is happening on Saturday that many people are streching their weekend to 3-5 day weekend.   Ok, I admit I am a little jealous (I have a lot of work to do), but I am happy for those who can.

Everyone make it a safe 4th of July!  Be nice!

I have to admit.   This week Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and Billy Mays died.

I am sure that there are others too that we all know.

It just is time to be thankful for what you have.  Life life.

Are you the owner of a .yu domain? Then you might have heard the news: as of September 30, all .yu domains will stop working, regardless of their renewal date. This means that any content you’re hosting on a .yu domain will no longer be online. For those of you who would still like to have your site online, we’ve prepared some recommendations to make sure that Google keeps crawling, indexing, and serving your content appropriately.

Giving to charity is very rewarding.  To both the charity as well as the one making the donation.

Hopefully this does not sound selfish, however each time I give to a charity such as St. Jude Hostpitail I cannot help but feel very good about it.

I know that every little bit helps.  If everyone was to just give $5 to their favorite charity each month, it would make the world a better place.