Author: play_surron

A Bullying Awareness Educational Program Yesterday, the Karen Klein Anti-Bullying foundation officially joined forces with Macmillan’s Children’s Publishing Group to introduce a national anti-bullying awareness educational program called ‘Be A Friend, Not A Bully’ to help provide bullying prevention education in schools, at home, and throughout our communities.

WNBA NY Liberty School Day As part of the launch, we had the honor of working with Keia Clarke, Manager of Promotions & Fan Development for the NY Liberty to introduce our educational program book display during their annual anti-bullying rally ‘School Day’ event being held at the Prudential Center.  The basketball game (NY Liberty vs. Indiana Fever) brought together 5,000+ students from Newark, NJ to take part in a half-time cyberbullying discussion with Miss New York 2011 Kaitlin Monte.

3000 Free Books For Kids The event also featured a “free” educational content giveaway with former Ford Escape Routes reality TV stars/models & college division 1 basketball players Chekesha Johnson & Tiffany Jackson, 15 year old Universal recording artist & Teen Spokesperson for the Foundation Breje; MCPG award-winning authors Matt Davies & Nick Bruel; seasoned songwriter & children storybook-music artist Ron Surrey; and our own bullied bus monitor Karen Klein.

With the support of our network of authors, illustrators, music artists, celebrities, athletes, city officials, community leaders, and corporate sponsors, we were able to film the last chapter of the ‘Bullying Behavior In America’ documentary project.

Thank you Karen, Amanda, Elizabeth, Ellen, Audrey, Robby, Mariel, Kelly, Molly, Jaime, Liz S., Marie, Kelsey, Nick, Matt, Ron, Tiffany, Chekesha, Breje, Seema, Donovan, Alexandria, Matti, Patrick, Fabio, Cameron, Mallie, Charles, Keia, Hasim, and the entire WNBA NY Liberty ‘School Day’ event team for helping us make a difference in the world…One child at a time! 🙂

Meet Illustrator Nick Bruel author and illustrator of, among other books, BAD KITTY, POOR PUPPY, BAD KITTY GETS A BATH, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAD KITTY, BAD KITTY VS. UNCLE MURRAY, and now BAD KITTY SCHOOL DAZE.

The reason we chose Bad Kitty School Daze to be the perfect tie-in to an anti-bullying message for kids is because Bad Kitty and Puppy had to go to obedience school for fighting.

Thank you Nick for sharing your story and allowing us to take your latest book from the shelves to the classrooms.

Meet Cartoonist Matt Davies Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for Tribune Media Services and The Hearst Newspaper Group in Connecticut.

Ben Rides On is the first ever children’s picture book from our award-winning cartoonist and bullying prevention advocate Matt Davies.

Thank you Matt for helping us to inspire young readers and listeners a like to rally behind a worthy book.

A Good Samaritan From Toronto Yesterday, we traveled to Greece, N.Y. to film bullied bus monitor Karen Klein and Max Sidorov of Toronto, Canada. They were both eager to participate in our ‘Bullying Behavior In America’ documentary story and help spread the StopBullying anti-bullying campaign.

Nurturing Respect Did Karen Klein have a responsibility to assert her authority over her seventh-grade tormentors? Some might be quick to point the finger and write that, “The takeaway for a child witnessing her passivity would be: ‘If a grown-up can’t do anything to stop them, then I sure can’t.’ That simply isn’t true. School districts and parents must learn from this case.”

Hopefully, Karen’s story will inspire all of us to get involved.

Karen’s Words To Live By: As her story begins to fade from the news cycle into a full blown movement, Karen will ride off into the sunset a whole lot richer because of a video of that incident went viral and inspired Max Sidorov to set up an online fundraising account in her name. In less than 1 month, the video has net more than $680,000!

What the seventh-graders meant for bad, God turned it to good. Returning to a school bus, however, is not part of the plan.

We’re Going To Disneyland We had the honor of meeting Amanda Romig and Michelle Hawkins, the daughters of Karen Klein, who were gracious to interview for our documentary. Thank you Amanda, Michelle, Karen, Max, and the 3 little Klein granddaughters for allowing us to share your story. Enjoy retirement!

VuMee Presents A refreshing new TV series created by Chris Surrey and J. Alexander Martin to give fans and followers of J. Alexander Martin a personal look into the life of a fashion expert and business advisor. J’s passion for fashion, business, faith in action, music, arts, films, authors, and travel news stories come together in a weekly TV program.

The quirky 24 minute show will offer business tips, lifestyle & branding consultation with celebrities, and insights into fashion trends around the world.

Topics of discussion will range from “Where in the world is it best to be a woman?” to “Starting a family and a business at the same time?” to “8 Steps to Create a Brand for Your Blog”.

And with VuMee, fans of ‘A Fashion Mind’ show can view videos posted by J. Alexander Martin as they happen, any time – any place.

Inside A Fashion Mind with Reporter Bobbi Jo Kitchen Thanks to the spontaneous interviewing skills of Bobbi Jo Kitchen, we were able to film our first pilot and documentary project around J. Alexander Martin, plus add a new talent to the PaintBox Labs team.

Bobbi Jo exploded onto the modeling scene as a lead in the Young Buck music video for the single “I know U Want Me,” featuring Jazze Pha. As a model/actress, she has since been recognized by artists and casting directors as a woman who definitely stands out above the rest.

Making The Brand J. Alexander Martin, an accomplished designer, has successfully given the fashion industry a unique line of clothing through FUBU (For Us By Us), which currently reports over $6B in sales to date.

As Vice President and Creative Director of FuBu/FB and Crown Holder, J’s stylish market trends and industry techniques reflect his strong eye for color coordination, fabric and embellishments have made him a definite one to watch on any runway.

Does J have what it takes to land a judge role on a new fashion competition show called ‘Making The Brand’? To be continued…

An Anti-Bullying & Tolerance Music Video Story Yesterday, we had the honor of meeting the students of Madison-Oneida BOCES middle & high school located in Verona, NY. Thanks to the warm welcome of school officials, we were allowed to film and interview the students about an anti-bullying and tolerance music they participated in called The Groovy Project, featuring artist NateKid.

A Social Media Experiment Our film crew documented Jennifer Maloney-Prezioso and Nate Lombardi, the creators of The Groovy Project, as they engaged the students (Chris Standen, Chris Northup, Devin Clark, Kevin Drake, Allora Baker, Gabriella Titus, Esteban Ramos) about the rise of anti-bullying campaigns and the effects of television, the internet, and social media on bullying behaviors in America.

1 Million People And Counting The goal of the pro-acceptance and anti-bullying music video project is to get it to 1 MILLION people. With the dedication of the Awaken Entertainment staff, the Madison-Oneida BOCES officials, and a 2 day social media experiment, the students conducted an aggressive viral campaign to prove a positive message can infiltrate the news media just as quickly as negative news.

They encouraged as many of their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and MySpace friends to watch their music video and send it to EVERYONE they knew. In less than 1 month, the video has gotten over 25,000 hits…and counting!

What Are YOU Doing To Make A Difference? Thank you Doug, NateKid, Jennifer, Alyssa, Laurie, Sapna, and Mary Jo for being Groovy and allowing us to share your story. They encourage EVERYONE to Be An Element of Change! Get Involved! Stop Bullying! Because Words Do Hurt!

World’s Highest Quality Chef Jackets Joseph “Chef JJ” Johnson & J. Alexander Martin of VuMee, chose Crooked Brook to help design Chef JJ’s custom chef coats for the HealthCorps’ Teen Battle Chef Showdown in NYC. The Vice President and Creative Director of FuBu/FB and Crown Holder, presented Chef JJ with two different chef coat styles to wear during the photo shoot, press presentation, and showdown competition.

Grey Chef Coat (left) – style M101 style, 100% Organic Cotton Twill fabric with Abalone Buttons
White Chef Coat (right) – style M101 jacket, 100% cotton Seersucker fabric with White Rivershell buttons

Embroidery placement for both jackets:
Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ logo & VuMee logo on left chest
Crooked Brook logo on the left sleeve
Teen Battle Chef logo on the right sleeve

For Us By US J. Alexander Martin, an accomplished designer, who has successfully given the fashion industry a unique line of clothing through FUBU, stopped by the film shoot to meet Chef JJ and some of our kids cooking show cast members (Aubrey, Khail, Jelani, Joshua, and Morgan).

J’s stylish market trends and industry techniques reflect his strong eye for color coordination, fabric and embellishments have made him a definite one to watch on any runway. He is currently working on his own brand called “J. Alexander” featuring designer men’s suits and dress shirts. Hopefully, we can encourage him to add an Executive Producer title to his list of impressive accomplishments.

Record it…Name it…Upload it…Share it…Vu It. Thanks to the generous sponsorship support of VuMee, we were able to print custom Kids Love Cooking with Chef JJ/Let’s Move! tees to promote our cause and give them away for free to festival patrons.

Our VuMee online channel will give viewers a “behind the scenes” look into the making of our show. The 3 minute segment will showcase new projects, bloopers, sponsor promo video shoots, and educational messages to help bring more awareness to First Lady Obama’s Let’s Move! (childhood obesity) national campaign. VuMee has over 100 celebrities and brands with a cumulative fanbase of over 150 Million to help us rally support for our cause and merchandise.

Let’s Move! Fun Food Facts Q&A J. Alexander was even gracious enough to play our Let’s Move! Fun Food Facts Q&A game on camera. Just for getting 2 out of 3 answers correct, he received a free Play Pretty book and a warm ‘Thank You’ applause from his 6 new VuMee fans.

Play Pretty, Play Pals Project And as a bonus, J watched as Chef JJ surprised Khail with her own Play Pretty, Play Plays Project character t-shirt. All of our Broadway Stars have cartoon characters drawn in their likeness to promote our anti-bullying campaign. Khail was very happy to represent our first printed t-shirt.