REICH COMMUNICATIONS

Happy Thanksgiving...

 

...from Maine

What We Do: ABC 7 tie-in with Drive Safe Chicago Contest

 

Client the National Road Safety Foundation has been doing a contest we developed for them ten years ago to get teens engaged in driver safety messaging.  The Drive Safe Chicago PSA Contest invites teens in the midwest to submit ideas for a TV public service announcement.  We pick three finalists, work with them to have their ideas professionally produced and then the public votes for their favorite on the Chicago Auto Show's Facebook page. The winner is announced at the Auto Show and their PSA gets played on video screens throughout the Auto Show.  It also airs nationally on the syndicated show Teen Kids News.

This year we got WLS-TV ABC 7 to partner, and here's a live promo (scroll down to bottom, under Passenger Empowerment PSA Contest) they did Friday to encourage young people to enter.   And... more to come on Channel 7.

 

 

 

 

What We Do: Youth Traffic Safety Summit

 

In San Antonio for the Youth Traffic Safety Summit, sponsored in part by the National Road Safety Foundation. 

Youth leaders are gathering here to learn about new programs on safe driving to bring back to their schools.  We'll also hear from them with ideas to help make our roads safer.

It's being organized by Teens in the Driver Seat, from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. 

 

 

Jazz Birthday .. Arturo Sandoval

 

Happy birthday to a great trumpet player  -- Arturo Sandoval.

Dizzy Gillespie called him the 2nd best trumpet player in the world.  It was Dizzy who helped Arturo defect from his native Cuba, where he was initially discouraged from playing jazz and from playing outside the country.  He was discovered by Dizzy, who had been his longtime hero, and eventually permitted to play and tour with the UN International Jazz Band, led by Dizzy. While on tour in 1990, he defected to the U.S. and became a U.S. citizen in 1998. He's won 10 Grammy Awards.

His story is beautifully told and features his music in a 2000 HBO movie "For Love or Country," starring Andy Garcia as Arturo. 

You can watch on YouTube by clicking here.

Feliz cumpleanos, Maestro Arturo.

 

Dia de los Muertos

Since we're in Mexico, we're learning a  bit about Dia de los Muertos, which begins Nov 1 and runs for 2 days.

It's an old Aztec tradition, dating back hundreds, or probably thousands, of years. 

It's a time when Mexican families celebrate the lives of those no longer with us.  It's not a sad time, but a time filled with happy memories of loved ones.  Many families build an alter -- an ofera -- with photos and things their loved ones liked, including food they enjoyed.  Some families go to the gravesite and have a picnic while they tell stories of loved ones they remember.

Nov. 1 is for los ninos -- children who are gone. Nov. 2 is a day to remember and honor adults.

La Catrina -- the skeleton wearing a big hat -- has become a symbol of Dia de Los Meurtos, and people dress up to resemble it.  Actually, la catrina was first envisioned by an artist in the early 1900s and then Diego Rivera made it more popular when he included it in one of his murals, which remains today on a wall in Mexico City.

We'll be going to celebrations tonight and tomorrow.