THE FUNNIES

by Pam House
Thanksgiving day 2004, my father, oldest brother & myself were at La Casa Garcia Restaurant (We Give Thanks Inc.) in Anaheim helping with serving and cleaning up of meals for homeless & low income families. Not enough room, this year The Arrowhead Pond Of Anaheim donated their facility and there was somewhere around 15,000 fed. And everywhere you looked, the donations of Jay's Catering (and their people) from Garden Grove was fantastic. I had asked if clowns were needed & we were accepted with open arms. New member diamond Lil' , Twinkles D' Klown, Snikkers & Lu-C-Luv of the Joy Klowns were there from 10am until 5pm. We walked the long line; each at different areas, worked the tables as people ate, had the volunteers laughing and the joy on the peoples faces seeing the clowns was worth being there. They had a live band & Twinkles D' Klown decided to get up and dance. I got in front of the band, started to dance and kept motioning for the people to come up and join me. Some did come up and dance and finally a downs syndrome girl got up to dance and then a partially retarded boy came aboard. Because a clown was asking people to dance, these two did not feel threatened and came up to dance within minutes of each other. At the end of each song, Twinkles D' Klown pointed at them and clapped, had them bow and the crowd would clap and give them recognition. Long story short, I finally was getting tired but they two kept dancing and having fun. I did not want to break their momentum, as they were dancing because a clown had wanted people to come up and dance. The two finally stopped dancing 2 ½ hours later. I also stopped with very tired toes but a huge heart just knowing I gave them the courage to dance. Lu-C-Luv is also a Registered Nurse so she, in clown, stayed in the emergency care tent in the afternoon for hours. My oldest brother & my sis came in the afternoon and helped. Everyone got a meal for helping. Next year, I'd like to have many, many clowns volunteering. And the rest of your family can be there too, assisting in feeding, clean up, or other jobs. The reward everyone gets inside is worth being there. Think about it. You and your family will not regret it. My family has decided to make this our Thanksgiving family tradition. You have one year to think about it.

I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving because I did (see article). This is the busy holiday season. Remember, everybody everywhere feels better when they smile. So use your special talents to raise a laugh, with style. And. . ."What do you get when you cross a doctor with a comedian? A surgeon who has their patients in stitches." And Sherry Newberg brought up not exchanging gifts at our holiday party because of me being State Red Nose Relief Chairman. She wanted to sponsor a family and it was voted on and we are doing that (see article). Some of the members; Butterscotch, Snikkers, Diamond Lil' and Twinkles D' Klown went & helped the Volunteer Clowns Of Orange County separate (the 1st day) & packed (the 2nd day) items for the holidays (1,300 bags of "stuff") to be given to shelters, Matthews Kidz, & various other needy organizations. It is a very worthwhile annual activity. Join in and/or donate items next year. Are you ready for 2006? Remember to have a safe & sane holiday season!

Hi Hello from your Clowns of America International Regional Vice President AND Vice President of your Funny Business Club! Happy Holidays to everyone!
At the last meeting, although we had planned to talk about what the members who attended the WRCA convention learned, there wasn't many of us there to talk so I thought I would show the club the COAI board meeting's DVD that was put together by the Director of Education, Merilyn Barrett. She did a very nice job of taking pictures of the board demonstrating each others idea of the newest make up competition, Lite Auguste, to be implemented at the next COAI convention in Kenner, Louisiana in the Spring. Everyone enjoyed the DVD and some wanted to learn more. Because of the interest, I will be demonstrating my style of Lite Auguste after our January meeting. I'm looking forward to seeing you all at the Holiday party!
Butterscotch

Candy Will
COAI SW Regional VP

This year our own Jackie Mc Doniel (Sweetheart) offered her house for our holiday party! She is in Garden Grove right off the Garden Grove (22) freeway (see map for directions). It is still the 2nd Monday of the month on December 12th. Arrive between 6:30pm & 7pm. Our club will provide the turkey & ham & the paper goods. The rest is potluck. Here is what we have so far as follows: (1) Salads: Rose "Sugar Plum" Shaffer, Connie "Angel" Houlihan & Wendy Olson (2) hors d'oeuvres: Lillian "Diamond Lil"Loring olives, cheese & pickles, Paulette "Pom Pom" Rosen (3) deserts: Rose "Sugar Plum" Shaffer, Candy "Butterscotch" Will, Becky "Poka Dotz" Lucia
(4) Drinks (non-alcoholic): Pam "Twinkles D' Klown" House - punch
(5) Bread &/or rolls: Bob "Snikkers" House - dinner rolls. It is pot luck so anything else you may think of that you would want to/prefer to bring, feel free to do so. It is a party so if you want to be creative - go to it! And please bring your gift (s) for the family we are sponsoring. And any games or ideas that you want to bring to the party - feel free to do so. Your club is only as good as you make it! President Pam! Happy holidays to everyone! Shop wisely and drive safely

WITH MORE & MORE DISASTERS HAPPENING AROUND THE WORLD, RED NOSE RELIEF IS NEEDED MORE THAN EVER.

Our club sponsoring the family for the holidays, helping out with the homeless and low income on thanksgiving day & packing bags to give out to the shelters, low income and such during the holiday's are things that red nose relief will be doing all over the country. As the New Year starts, i have plans for those who want to follow. I have been talking to the Red Cross in my area. They have disaster courses that anyone can take and I feel that the Red Nose Relief Clowns should have them. The more trained we are during disasters, then we not only know what to do but we can then slip in comic clown relief while helping out disaster wise. And the hurricane areas still need funds and we have to think of more "creative" ways to do that. People are tapped out or are just tired of giving money to any more disasters. The more that we know about disasters and how to help, we can be a "huge" force statewide when we have a disaster. And we also will then be able to go and help elsewhere when there is a disaster as we will not only be trained, but we will be clowns that also can give comic relief in which I will be training clowns when Red Nose Relief gets their training program together. And in every city there are the homeless and many cities have shelters. I have a friend who is on the homeless board in her council district with the Long Beach City Council. I am checking into what Red Nose Relief Clowns can do in these areas in their cities. Also. Bring your ideas to me, as more heads are better than one. Red Nose Relief needs to work as a team to be the most successful. PAM HOUSE - STATE COORDINATOR, RED NOSE RELIEF.