New Year's Eve bash planned to benefit Shriners hospitals | Menifee | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

New Year's Eve bash planned to benefit Shriners hospitals | Menifee | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

New Year's Eve bash planned to benefit Shriners hospitals | Riverside County | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

New Year's Eve bash planned to benefit Shriners hospitals | Riverside County | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

Big Elf makes toys for Shriners Hospital for Children-Salt Lake

Making toys the way elves would
Sandy couple find joy in building, donating old-fashioned toys to hospitalized kids.

By Katie Drake, The Salt Lake Tribune(for more pictures and compleat story go to
http://www.sltrib.com/southvalley/ci_14053389


Grant Chapman shows off some of the toys he has created in his basement work shop. Each year,...

While holiday shoppers are frantically picking up last minute gifts, Grant Chapman has already started on next year's Christmas toys.

For more than 20 years, Chapman and his wife Ruby have donated hand-crafted toys to the children at Shriners Hospital, hoping to brighten their holidays despite their medical challenges.

Chapman has devoted an entire wing of his Sandy home to the project and spends hundreds of hours creating new patterns for trains, Hummers and race cars.

This year's donation was a personal best of 140 cars and nine six-car trains. The couple also makes wooden blocks and sometimes doll cradles, complete with a teddy bear, for little girls.

The toys can have a huge effect on a child, said Shriners child-life specialist Carolyn Duerden.

"Children in general love a toy or something that makes them feel good, especially when they are away from home," Duerden said.

She began placing the Chapman's toys under the clinic Christmas tree on Monday, and they were an immediate hit. Many of the Shriners children do not have many toys, Duerden said. Hand-crafted toys are even more special as donations to the hospital are down this year.

Chapman is glad to have found a good use for his woodworking hobby. The octogenarian "can't stand to be idle" and has to be making something useful. He also hates waste, and uses scrap materials to create his toys.

Wood is the biggest cost, but Chapman spends only about $150 each year on the toys, thanks to wood donations from West Truss Inc. The company gives him free rein in its lumber yard, where he is welcome to any piece of wood less than two feet long.

"It's awesome for us, because we're not throwing it away," said Chet Jensen, the company's design manager.

Chapman always gives samples of his work to the children of West Truss employees, Jensen said, as a way of saying thank you.

The couple is hoping to top their record next year, and have already completed some cars. Ruby has painted hundreds of headlights and wheels while Chapman refines his designs to create more realistic cars and trains to brighten the holidays of children stuck in the hospital.

kdrake@sltrib.com

The East-West Shrine Game: Resource for the NFL

When the 2010 East-West Shrine Game teams take the field at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando on Jan. 23, it will be the final event in the players’ week-long “interview with the NFL.”

For the players, an invitation to the East-West Shrine Game is a chance to showcase their abilities to play in a professional-level game before representatives of all 32 NFL teams. The professional level of the event is reinforced by the presence of an NFL-affiliated coaching staff, NFL officials and rules, ESPN network television coverage and even official NFL footballs…“Just Like on Sunday.”

“The East-West Shrine Game is an interview, an audition. This is a very, very important game to NFL scouts, who have a chance to see the players up close,” said Doug Williams, director of pro personnel for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and a member of the East-West Shrine Game Hall of Fame. Williams is just one of many NFL greats who played in the East-West Shrine Game; the list includes Brett Favre, Tom Brady, John Elway and 62 NFL Hall of Famers.

“Coming from a small school, the Game was a stage for me; an opportunity to show what I could do,” said Williams, who played in the 1977 East-West Shrine Game and was a first-round draft pick for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1979.

The East-West Shrine Game provides that same opportunity today. The 2008 Game’s Offensive MVP, Josh Johnson, is now a quarterback for the Buccaneers.

For the NFL, the East-West Shrine Game is a resource.

“All-star games are vital to our clubs,” said Ron Hill, vice president of football operations for the NFL. “Scouts get a week to look at and visit with the players and see how they react in a different setting.”

All 32 teams will have at least three to five scouts at the Game; several general managers and head coaches will also be on hand.

“All the GMs should be there, unless their teams are still playing,” said Hill. “I’m looking forward to being there for the practices. It’s important. If this game was on the moon, the NFL would be there.

“The quality of the players invited is very, very high. The game is very important to the NFL and to the players – it’s another chance for them to show their ability and an opportunity for our scouts and coaches to spend time with them and see what we need to see,” said Hill.

What they see is a lot of potential.

In April 2009, 90 percent of players from the 84th East-West Shrine Game – played on Jan. 17, 2009 – were either drafted or signed as free agents by NFL clubs.

The League provides significant support to the Game, including assistance assembling the coaching staff. Both the East and West teams will have one head coach and eight assistants with NFL affiliation.

Agents are aware of the benefits of the Game for their clients, as well.

“The East-West Shrine Game is unique; it’s surrounded by a cause and has a particular identity,” said Keenan Davis, president of 75 South Management Group and former NFL executive. “And, it has a premier relationship with the NFL that makes it a little larger than life. We have a player in the game – I’m ecstatic. The game is a platform for him to demonstrate he has the mental and physical abilities to excel at the next level.”

The cause behind the Game is important to everyone involved, as well.

“Every year, we hear from the players and the coaches that the highlight of the week is going to the hospital to be with the kids,” said Hill. “We’re absolutely excited that the Game supports Shriners Hospitals for Children; we’re pleased to be part of it and to help make it a success.”

Shriners Hospitals for Children is an international health care system of 22 hospitals dedicated to providing pediatric specialty care, innovative research and outstanding teaching programs. Children up to age 18 with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment, without financial obligation to patients or their families. The organization depends on the generosity of donors and funds raised by special events, such as the East-West Shrine Game.

For more information about the East-West Shrine Game, visit www.shrinegame.com.

http://support.shrinershospitals.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Semi_trailer_Advertising_story

http://support.shrinershospitals.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Semi_trailer_Advertising_story

Bright Shriners

by Kati Garner,

A Christmas tree of lights brightens the front entrance to Sacramento's Shriners Hospital for Children during the holidays.

Shriners Hospitals for Children is an international health care system providing high quality pediatric specialty care to thousands of kids each year. All care is provided with no financial obligation to the patient or their family. Their mission is made possible solely through the generosity of donors.

There are many ways to give from direct gifts to planned gifts. All gifts, big or small, make a differenc

Engineer-Physician Shriners Team help Change the World

DUBLIN – It is up to design engineers to change the world, says Steve Robbins, CEO of Level 5 Communications and executive editor of Desktop Engineering Magazine.

So the magazine launched its Change the World Challenge, soliciting innovative ideas from design engineers across the world to change the world for the better.

Robbins said the contest recognizes the design engineers behind the products, who often get little recognition.

What Robbins found interesting about the designs submitted by mechanical CAD companies was how people had solved problems because they had tools today that allowed them to do 3-D modeling and 3-D design more easily.

For instance, 3-D scanning technology is already helping children who have cleft lip and palate, and could help millions more.

An engineer-physician team at Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield, Mass., won first place in the rapid technology category for a less invasive, breakthrough procedure in treating cleft and lip palate.

Through 3-D scanning, the child's palate can be scanned and an exact model created. A series of corrective appliances can then be created using a rapid-prototyping machine to help reduce cleft width before surgery without inhibiting upper-jaw growth.

The comparative ease of the procedure means children suffering from cleft lip or palate in Third World countries may be more likely to receive treatment.

For story by By GRETYL MACALASTER, Union Leader Correspondent go to www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Designers%2C+change+the+world&articleId=ff204ca6-e9d5-4f27-a215-2de723de1767