National Military Appreciation Month Tribute Screening of 'Witt's Daughter' & Event to Support The Troops

Beverly Hills, CA (PRWEB) May 30, 2009

Members of the entertainment industry, representatives of the military, veteran's advocacy groups, and the local community will gather at the Fine Arts Theatre to raise funds and awareness to support the troops and to view a National Military Appreciation Month tribute screening of "Witt's Daughter" a poignant and uplifting film that tackles some of the issues confronting military personnel and their families as they return from lengthy deployments and the harsh realities of combat.

"Witt's Daughter" tells the bittersweet story of Walter Stringfield, a young man freshly discharged from the Korean War who comes home to his wife and child without warning and expects everything to be as he left it. However he discovers that in his absence, his three-year-old daughter has no memory of him and sees him as an unwelcome stranger.

Filmmaker, Carole Holliday and the Fine Arts Theatre have teamed up with veteran advocacy and support groups such as Operation Gratitude, The Soldier's Project, and The National Veterans Foundation to utilize the screening as a non-political platform to generate awareness about the challenges that military members and their families face after they return home from combat deployments. $ 2.00 from each ticket will be donated to Operation Gratitude, A non-profit organization that sends care packages and letters to the service men and women overseas. "It's an honor to be an official selection in film festivals, but after being chosen for three successive ones because of "Witt's Daughter's" military setting, I started thinking about the real service members and what could I do to encourage them. I'm honored the film can benefit Operation Gratitude, and am excited about the events that have sprung up around the idea of paying tribute to the troops and shining a light on the needs of homecoming service members", said Carole Holliday.

Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Custer, an Army Green Beret who commanded a Special Forces Battalion in Afghanistan, and who will be one of the featured speakers at the event, said, "I know first hand how these packages can boost the morale of the troops. My Soldiers and I received similar packages in Afghanistan. The idea that people at home are thinking about you - taking the time to put a package together and personally write a letter - it makes a huge difference. It's not so much about what's in the package as much as what the package itself represents."

Following the screening will be a Q & A session moderated by Lex McMahon, a prior service Marine who served multiple combat deployments in Somalia, with representatives from: Operation Gratitude, The Soldier's Project, The National Veteran's Foundation, Members of the Cast and Crew of Witt's Daughter, and Marine Gunnery Sgt. Cesar Espinoza and his wife Lindsey. "This a great event as it raises funds and awareness for an important cause, the support of our troops and their families, and shines the spotlight on a community working together to do the right thing," said Lex McMahon

The Fine Arts Theatre's Special Programs Manager, Pam Koller said, "The Fine Arts Theatre is a historic landmark and has been playing a vital role in the showcasing of important films and facilitating a communal conversation about the subject matter of these films since 1937. Carole's film, "Witt's Daughter", represents a unique opportunity to bring representatives of the entertainment industry, military personnel and their families, veterans advocacy groups, and the community together to discuss the issues facing our troops who sacrifice so much for us and finding solutions to help them."

Event schedule

6:30 Doors open - Operation Gratitude letter writing to the troops drive
7:30 Music with slide show presentation of troops overseas
7:50 Presentation of Colors & National Anthem
7:55 Opening Comments - Lt. Col. Marcus Custer
8:00 Raffle & trailers for upcoming events
8:15 Comments from filmmaker, Carole Holliday
8:20 "Definition of Gratitude" video - 7 minutes
8:30 "Witt's Daughter" - 50 minutes
9:20 Q & A with filmmaker, cast & crew of film, military service member & spouse, and veteran's advocacy groups
10:00 Hansen's Bakery reception (punch & cake)

For more information visit http://crowdedmetrofilms.com/ or http://www.thefineartstheatre.com.

About Witt's Daughter

"Witt's Daughter" has recently been showcased at the following prestigious film festivals: Hollywood Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Film Festival Favorites, GI Film Festival, and the Beverly Hills High Def Film Festival. Additionally, "Witt's Daughter" recently won Best Narrative Short Film at the GI Film Festival. Ms Holliday is humbled and happy with the reception her first film has received. She muses she didn't initially intend on making a war film. "I wanted to create a character piece about conflict between a stubborn father and his tiny headstrong daughter. The issue of war was context, but not the reason for making the film." Carole started the project at a time when the United States was well into the war in Iraq and read some of the stories of events there to get a feeling for her main character. "What the soldiers went through was touching. It gave me tremendous empathy for my flawed hero, so that even if he made stubborn choices, he was still sort of justifiable."

About the Fine Arts Theatre

The Fine Arts Theatre is located in Beverly Hills, California. The theatre has a rich cinematic history, dating back to 1937. Fully restored with beautiful classic Hollywood appeal. The Fine Arts Theatre offers a wide selection of programming, from its Fangoria Midnite Madness Series, Family Matinees, to Film Festival Favorites.

The Fine Arts Theatre and the nearby 43 seat Wilshire Screening Room and Art Gallery, the Nation's highest ranked and most popular screening rooms are both available for rental. Rates start at $ 200 per hour. Featuring 35mm, Digital Cinema 2D and 3D, with 5.1 and 7.1 sound. Video formats from HDCAM-SR and D5 down through DVD.

The Fine Arts Theatre is located at 8556 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (310) 360-0455.

About Operation Gratitude

Operation Gratitude seeks to lift morale and put smiles on faces by sending care packages addressed to individual Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines deployed overseas. Operation Gratitude care packages contain food, hygiene products, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation, all wrapped with good wishes of love and support. Through Collection Drives, Letter Writing Campaigns and Donations of funds for shipping expenses, Operation Gratitude provides civilians anywhere in America a way to express their respect and appreciation to the men and women of the U.S. Military in an active, hands-on manner. Operation Gratitude is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, volunteer corporation, funded entirely by private donations. For safety and security, the assembling of all packages occurs at the Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, California. To learn more, please visit http://www.opgratitude.com.

About The Soldiers Project

A group of licensed mental health professionals who offer free psychological treatment to military service members (active duty, National Guard, Reserves and veterans) who have served or who expect to serve in OEF and/or OIF. We also provide treatment to members of their families and other loved ones. Treatment is conducted in our private offices. Our therapists are all volunteers and our services are entirely confidential. We do not report to any governmental agency. To learn more, please visit http://www.thesoldiersproject.org.

About The National Veterans Foundation

To Serve the crisis management, information and referral needs of all U.S. Veterans and their families through: Management and operation of the nation's only toll-free helpline for all veterans and their families. To learn more, please visit http://www.nvf.org.

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StudentListings.com, The Student Textbook Marketplace, expands to support all U.S. Colleges and Unversities.

(PRWEB) November 3, 2003

For immediate release

San Diego, CA - November 3, 2003 - studentListings.com expands their textbook marketplace to support all national colleges and universities. This provides a wider market for students to buy and sell their books, increasing the likelihood that a "match" will be found. Students have the option to choose their shipping options when they list a book: available for pickup on campus and/or through the mail. In this way, the only search results displayed are textbooks either available for pickup at your selected college or available elsewhere through the mail. This makes vastly reduces the effort required to determine if the desired textbook your looking for is available for purchase. The site's unique streamlined design eliminates the need to search through traditional classified ads, or being forced to always pay shipping, regardless if the person is located in your area, which occurs in some national systems.

About studentListings.com

Founded in 2001 by two students from the University of California at San Diego, studentListings.com has provided students with a more economical solution to selling their used textbooks than their campus bookstore offers them.

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Mind Commerce Announces Availability of Stimulus Grant Support Package

Denver, CO (PRWEB) June 11, 2009

Mind Commerce LLC and WMX Systems announced today the release of the first in a series of Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) Grant Application Support Packages. The BTOP was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment (Stimulus) Act of 2009 (ARRA 2009) to expand broadband internet access in unserved, underserved or rural markets of the US supporting education, healthcare, public safety and job creation. The program provides almost $ 4 billion for service providers, state and municipal governments and non-profits to build broadband networks. This is arguably the largest infusion of funding, public or private, for telecommunications in the US since the telecom boom of the late 1990's.

The 380-page package offers exceptional value to anyone seeking to write a BTOP grant application. The BTOP grant application, per the ARRA 2009, shall consist of a) a business plan b) an engineering plan and c) a cost estimate. Washington insiders point to a need for grant applicants to provide specific details as to what broadband technology will be deployed, how it will serve the unserved or underserved community, and what measurable outcomes will be produced with the grant funding. Grant applicants can expect a good deal of scrutiny before and after the any grant and should be adequately prepared.

The Mind Commerce BTOP Grant Application Support Package is not a specific engineering plan or cost estimate. Instead, it provides the following highly valuable documents and representative WiMAX application scenarios:

1.

ECS Refining Works with US Electronics Recycling Leaders to Support Critical Legislation for Safe, Domestic Electronics Waste Recycling

Santa Clara, CA (PRWEB) November 02, 2011

ECS Refining, the industry leader in electronic recycling and end-of-life services, is proud to announce its work with the Coalition for American Electronics Recycling. The Coalition is supporting proposed federal legislation to restrict the export of toxic electronic waste (e-waste), as well as help spur expansion of the domestic recycling industry. The result of this legislation will ensure our e-waste is not sent to third world countries, as well as create of tens of thousands of new domestic jobs.

ECS Refining is an active founding member of this important organization. The U.S. lacks a robust domestic e-waste recycling industry and the quality jobs that come with it because our laws promote unrestricted, unfair and unethical trade in toxic electronic scrap, said Jim Taggart, Chief Executive Officer of ECS Refining. E-waste exports not only poison the environment and people in developing countries across Asia and Africa, they limit the ability of responsible recyclers to expand our businesses and build our workforce in the U.S.

The Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, introduced in June, would restrict toxic e-waste exports to developing countries that lack adequate safeguards for the environment and workers. The House bill is co-sponsored by Gene Green (D-TX), Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Steve LaTourette (R-OH). In the Senate, similar legislation is co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

The Coalition for American Electronics Recycling includes 29 U.S. companies involved in all aspects of the domestic electronics recycling and disposition industry, with 74 recycling operations in 34 states. The legislation is also supported by major electronics manufacturers and retailers, including Hewlett Packard, Dell, Apple, Samsung and Best Buy, as well as the Electronics Takeback Coalition, an environmental organization.

The U.S. generated more than 3.1 million tons of e-waste in 2009, according to U.S. EPA statistics. Electronic scrap contains high concentrations of toxic materials such as lead and cadmium and is classified as hazardous by the U.S. EPA and many states. However, a large percentage of e-waste collected for recycling is actually exported to developing countries that lack environmental and worker safeguards.

We need to stop exporting American jobs along with toxic e-waste, said Robert Houghton, President of Redemtech. For each job in exporting electronics, we can create seven good-paying jobs in our domestic recycling industry. However, domestic recyclers are at a substantial financial disadvantage to overseas recyclers with few restrictions on worker and environmental safety. By creating a level playing field, this legislation will unleash investment and job creation in our industry.

The legislation promotes business expansion and job growth through free trade of tested, working electronics and parts; separated and properly labeled commodities recovered from electronics, such as copper, steel and aluminum; and manufacturer warranty returns for repair within the original supply chain.

While taking action against unregulated export of hazardous materials, this legislation promotes free trade in value-added products that are critical to global success and creating jobs here in America, said Wendy Neu, Executive Vice President of Hugo Neu Corporation. By promoting responsible recycling, the proposed legislation will position U.S. companies as leaders in global markets.

Current government policies are distorting the marketplace and preventing U.S. companies from meeting market demand for responsible, domestic recycling services. With growing awareness of the environmental risks, a majority of large U.S. companies and many consumers are asking for no export e-waste services. However, due to unregulated exports, few qualified facilities exist in the U.S., said Neil Peters-Michaud, Chief Executive Officer of Cascade Asset Management. The Responsible Electronics Recycling Act will enable American recyclers to rationalize investments in plant and personnel necessary to provide the services people and businesses want.

The Coalition is actively working with both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which have jurisdiction over the bills as well as other Congressional offices who would benefit from the job creation from this legislation.

About ECS Refining

ECS Refining is a national electronic waste recycling and end-of-life services company with locations in Santa Clara, Stockton, and Gardena, California; Medford, Oregon; and Mesquite and Terrell, Texas. For over 30 years, ECS has provided recovery and refining, asset management, and resale services to attain maximum recovery value for clients, while maintaining environmentally sustainable results. We provide recycling solutions for a wide variety of electronic, industrial and hazardous materials, and are committed to applying smart and planet-friendly solutions for our customers. For more information about our operations, and the latest news from ECS Refining, visit http://www.ecsrefining.com.

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