The donated items, which include pinball machines, jukeboxes, vintage soda machines and much more, are worth an estimated $85,000 in total value making it one of the largest donations PPM has received, according to Michael Schiess, museum founder and co-director. “Richard Foos’s generous donation is extremely important for us as it fills a gap in our collection with some very rare William’s wood rails like Country Club, 4 Roses and 3D,” said Schiess.

PPM is excited about the donation because it allows them to further their goal of keeping the history and culture of pinball in the public’s eye. “What our museum is trying to do is make these items available to the public and encourage other people to do the same,” said Schiess. “Too many times items are getting bought and held by a single owner without the public getting a chance to appreciate the machines. This is an important donation in keeping the American heritage of pinball public.”

More than half of the items donated to PPM are pinball machines. These machines include: Apollo, Be Bop, 4 Horsemen, Blue Skies, Daisy May, Harbor Lites, Lovely Lucy, Magic Clock and San Francisco. “We’re going to restore some of the items and hopefully have them on display in time for our Pacific Pinball Exposition 6 in September,” said Schiess.

Learn more about PPM at: http://www.pacificpinball.org .

Foos, a Los Angeles native, co-founded Rhino Records, a record label that sold greatest hits collections of previously released recordings, in 1973. The company was later sold to Time Warner. Foos, a limitless philanthropist has always made it a point to donate his time, wealth and possessions to better the community. At Rhino, Foos gave employees paid time off to perform community service, encouraged employees to mentor disadvantaged youth and at one point donated two percent of Rhino’s pretax profits to combat AIDS, homelessness and other problems. From 1991 to 2001, the company gave an estimated $2 million to various community-based charities. In the years since, Foos has donated a substantial amount to charities that address poverty and education issues. Today, Foos sits on the board of Rock the Classroom, which offers music programs in Los Angeles inner-city elementary schools.

Pacific Pinball Museum, 1510 Webster St., Alameda, CA.

* Photo Caption: 4 Roses Pinball Machine Backglass (Williams).

News Source: Pacific Pinball Museum :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

This grant will help the Pacific Pinball Museum further its mission: “To inspire an interest in science, art and history through pinball and to preserve and promote this important part of American culture.” The museum accomplishes this through the operation of the Pacific Pinball Museum, a beautifully maintained selection of 90 fully playable pinball machines. In addition, PPM hosts the world’s largest pinball show: the Pacific Pinball Exposition once a year. PPM also furthers its mission through the creation of traveling pinball art and science exhibits that capture the amazing visuals and communicate the basics of physics and electricity used in pinball.

“Neotrope’s recognition of PPM’s dedication and focus in addition to their work with other charities and nonprofits is truly appreciated. Neotrope will be invaluable as we plan the world’s largest pinball show: our sixth annual Pacific Pinball Exposition for September 21 – 23, 2012,” said Larry Zartarian, the Museum’s Chairman of the Board.

Americans instantly recognize pinball as an American icon along with Jazz, Coca-Cola®, the jukebox and Elvis. The PPM ensures future generations can appreciate the American ingenuity and creativity that fueled an entire pinball industry for years to come. The museum is currently developing curriculum for students of all ages to learn the basic theories behind pinball mechanisms and concepts such as gravity, momentum and acceleration.

As part of this grant program, Neotrope is providing PR solutions, news dissemination (through its Send2Press® Newswire service), and search marketing for the PPM to help raise awareness of its efforts in education, community service, science, art and fundraising. The museum’s goal is to move to a permanent location that can house its collection of 900-plus machines, offer larger teaching and restoration facilities, and expand its art gallery that features local and international artists.

“Having Neotrope aboard will help drive and refine our vision to become the Smithsonian of Pinball,” said Michael Schiess, PPM Founder and Director. “Our growing team of artists, technicians, volunteers, enthusiasts and visionaries will now be able to spread the word and scope of their efforts.”

“We’re honored to be providing assistance to the Pacific Pinball Museum, in both keeping alive eight decades of pinball history, and building educational art, science and historical programs that spark interest in intellectual pursuit,” said Christopher Laird Simmons, CEO of Neotrope®.

About the Pacific Pinball Museum (PPM):
PPM unlocks the imagination of visitors with pinball back glass art that features themes such as fantasies of the future, beautiful women, sports heroics, outer space, the Wild West and many more. A key member of the museum’s collection of one-of-a-kind exhibits is the Visible Pinball, a fully functional pinball machine housed in a clear cabinet. The Visible Pin mesmerizes anyone who has ever wondered what goes on inside a machine while it’s being played and gives instructors an opportunity to point out the details of the machine’s operation while it is being used. Other exhibits discuss magnetism, momentum, statistics and the patented inventions that several ingenious Americans have devised just for pinball.

Giant (sometimes 10-foot by 10-foot) hand-painted acrylic mural reproductions of original pinball back glass art cover vast swaths of PPM’s walls. From Space Ship to Sea Ray, from Majorettes to Jungle Princess, these unique pieces of art created just for PPM are also available as an off-site exhibit or simply as an eye-popping example of the depth of skill pinball artists and designers employ while promoting individual games. Artists working at pinball companies Gottlieb, Williams and Bally unintentionally captured highlights of history while designing the art that decorate pinball games.

Christian Marche’s pointy people and Gordon Morison’s over-the-top psychedelia capture the mood of the ’60s and ’70s while the content of various pinball artists’ work often captures historic moments like the moon shot, the British rock invasion or the patriotic spirit following World War II.

PPM is popular with families, couples on their first date, school groups and local companies who hold special occasion parties there. The museum offers a party room for rent by the hour while guests enjoy the historical selection of games that range from 1878 to 2012. Parties at PPM are like having access to an entire arcade or someone’s massive game room to celebrate a personal occasion. Also among the regulars at PPM are some of the world’s highest-ranked pinball players and most experienced repair technicians.

For more information on the Pacific Pinball Museum, located at 1510 Webster Street, Alameda, CA, 94501, visit www.pacificpinball.org or write to mschiess@pacificpinball.org or call 205-9793. For more information on the Pacific Pinball Exposition, visit: http://pacificpinball.org/events/ .

About Neotrope:
Since 1983 Neotrope® has delivered services to raise organization awareness including brand identity, marketing, public relations (PR), and SEO services. Neotrope is also an entertainment publishing company involved in books, music, software, and online content portals. Neotrope also offers targeted news dissemination and press release writing through its unit, Send2Press® Newswire (Send2Press.com). The company pioneered the concept of search optimization of press release content back in 1997 (verifiable via archive-dot-org). Neotrope was an Inc. 5000 company in 2009. More information: www.Neotrope.com .

Neotrope’s annual Non-Profit PR Grants™ Program was originally launched in 2000 by company founders Christopher Simmons and the late Dr. J.L. Simmons, with the goal of providing a “better donation” for worthy U.S. charitable 501(c)3 non-profits than simply writing a small check; instead utilizing the company’s capabilities to grow awareness to media and the public, attract halo sponsors/donors, and bring together disparate resources not generally affordable to small organizations.

Additional information regarding the Neotrope 2012 PR Grants for U.S. charitable non-profits and grant recipients can be found at: http://send2press.com/non-profit/index.shtml .

News Source: Pacific Pinball Museum :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

Finally consumers have an easy way to make more socially responsible and sustainable buying decisions.

Green Earth Mall (GEM) has over 200 green shopping categories boasting over 15,000 eco-friendly items that are either all natural, organic or use green technologies that don’t damage the environment.

“The time has come to stop poisoning ourselves and the planet. And one of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to become an environmentally conscious consumer,” said Doug Gordon, founder and CEO of Green Earth Mall LLC.

Gordon cited that the growing number of global consumers adopting green lifestyles has pushed many businesses to innovate in eco friendly ways, expanding the green marketplace to offer more socially responsible, sustainable, and eco-friendly products.

“The fastest way to accelerate our new green economy is for the average consumers to use their purchasing power to encourage companies to become more green and sustainable,” he added.

“Help save the planet by using your power to buy green,” Gordon stressed, adding that, “there’s no better time to start doing it than now-in this season of giving and sharing.”

Green consumers are clearly looking for an easy way to shop green and now they can with more choices than they ever imagined possible.

More information: http://GreenEarthMall.com .

News Source: Green Earth Mall LLC :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

NewsHour has partnered with Independent Television Service (ITVS) to pull together unique perspectives on the situation in Egypt, and this discussion is one of several approaches PBS is taking to offer diverse insights into developing events in Egypt.

About Nea Community Learning Center and David Maduli:
The Nea Community Learning Center (NCLC) is a top-ranked public charter school serving grades K-12. Modeled on the highly successful Alameda Community Learning Center, Nea offers project-based, self-directed learning in an innovative, technology-rich environment. Nea is a student, teacher and parent-led school.

David Maduli, Ed.M. is a veteran public school educator who has taught in the East Bay, San Francisco and Boston for over a decade. He is an administrator and teacher of English, Humanities and Music Studio for grades 7 and 9. He holds a Master’s in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard Graduate School of Education and is an educational consultant for KQED and ITVS.

For more information about The Nea Community Learning Center or David Maduli’s participation in the PBS NewsHour discussion on Egypt, please contact Lora Lewis at 510.205.2898.

For more information about The Nea Community Learning Center, visit http://neaclc.org .

News Source: Community Learning Center Schools :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

The analysis will provide a map of pH, salinity, and oxidation/reduction potential, which will be used by the Save the Bay organization to select the optimal plants for each area. The final project results will be presented to Save the Bay in the spring of 2011, in the form of GIS constructed maps with embedded geochemical and microbiological data.

The Alameda Community Learning Center is located on San Francisco Bay, a short distance from Save the Bay’s Damon Marsh native plant restoration areas. On a field trip to help plant native plants, students learned that the salinity and pH of the soil is influenced by tidal and rainfall patterns together with the flow of water from the nearby creek. As a result, it is hard to predict which plants will do well in any specific area.

Curious about whether they could assist in the plant restoration effort by creating a map of soil conditions that could be used to guide plant selection, ACLC Science Facilitator Milt Friedman and his class partnered with Save the Bay and applied for financial support from Bio-Rad, a Hercules, CA based company, to bring the project to life.

About the ACLC, Save the Bay and Bio-Rad:
The Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC) is a top-ranked public charter school serving grades 6-12. A California Distinguished School, the ACLC offers project-based, self-directed learning in an innovative, technology-rich environment. The ACLC is a student, teacher and parent-led school.

Save The Bay’s award-winning Watershed Education Programs offer middle and high school students and teachers environmental education experiences on the Bay and in their schools. These programs provide students and teachers with an awareness of the Bay, a connection between their daily lives and a local wetland, and a sense of responsibility for the Bay through active stewardship.

Bio-Rad manufactures and supplies life science research, healthcare, analytical chemistry, and other markets with products and systems used to separate complex chemical and biological materials and to identify, analyze, and purify their components. Bio-Rad’s customers include hospitals, universities, major research institutions, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The Bio-Rad Science Grant is dedicated to promoting sustainable science projects in the classroom for years to come.

For more information about The Alameda Community Learning Center or its collaboration with Save the Bay, please contact Lora Lewis at 510.205.2898.

For more information about The Alameda Community Learning Center, visit http://alamedaclc.org .

- News RSS feed for ACLC:
http://send2pressnewswire.com/author/alameda-community-learning-center/feed .

News Source: Alameda Community Learning Center :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®.

» Plain text copy of press release (and media contact)
» PDF copy of press release (and media contact)

The MakerBot Cupcake CNC is an affordable, open source 3D printer that turns digital designs into physical objects. The Cupcake CNC starts by drawing a picture of the first layer of an object in plastic. It then raises the extruder up 1/3 of a millimeter and draws the next layer. When all the layers are complete, the user has manufactured a 3D object from an original or an open source design. MakerBot users have created everything from model cars to robot parts, engagement rings, referee whistles and chess pieces.

MakerBot launched the competition for the 3D printer over the summer, with the goal of getting more MakerBots into teachers’ hands and giving them creative tools that will inspire young people to use their imaginations and creativity. Applicants submitted proposals for how they would integrate the MakerBot into their curriculum, including a description of the learning environment, the subject they teach, and a lesson plan to be implemented if awarded the MakerBot.

Winning proposals were chosen based on clarity, innovation and curriculum integration. The ten winners will document their experiences with the MakerBot on the MakerBot Educators Google Group so other teachers can be inspired by their experiences with the technology.

About the ACLC and MakerBot Industries:
The Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC) is a top-ranked public charter school serving grades 6-12. A California Distinguished School, the ACLC offers project-based, self-directed learning in an innovative, technology-rich environment.

MakerBot Industries was founded in 2009 on hardcore open source principles, and its machines are engineered to be hacked straight out of the box. MakerBot Operators share their digital designs on Thingiverse, a digital design community where anyone can share and download 3D designs for free.

MakerBot Industries was recently named as one of the top 20 startups in NYC, and has been featured in Wired, Make: Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, IEEE Spectrum, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, the Economist and others.

For more information about The Alameda Community Learning Center, visit alamedaclc.org.

News Source: Alameda Community Learning Center :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®.

» Plain text copy of press release (and media contact)
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STORY REFERENCES: Alameda Teacher Brings 3D Innovation to Classroom, MakerBot 3D printer, Carlton Grizzle, MakerBot Cupcake CNC Deluxe Kit, public charter school serving grades 6-12, A California Distinguished School, ACLC

“We’re very pleased with the outcome of our first STAR tests,” says Paul Bentz, Executive Director of Community Learning Center Schools, which operates Nea and its sister school, the top-ranked Alameda Community Learning Center.

“The scores are an indication that our self-directed, project-based approach to learning and our great new staff are providing rich educational experiences while helping learners to master the California State Standards.”

For more information about the Nea Community Learning Center, visit http://neaclc.org .

About Nea Community Learning Center and Community Learning Center Schools:

The Nea Community Learning Center is a public charter school serving grades K-10. Now in its second year of operation, Nea offers project-based, self-directed learning in an innovative, technology-rich environment.

Nea is the second charter school to be opened by Community Learning Center Schools, Inc., a non-profit public benefit corporation dedicated to creating 21st century learning opportunities for youth.

Plain text copy of press release (and media contact)

PDF copy of press release (and media contact)


STORY REFERENCES: New Alameda Charter School Earns Top API Scores, Nea Community Learning Center, Paul Bentz, API score of 839, Alameda Unified School District, public charter school serving grades K-10

The ACLC STEM Through Engineering program will introduce engineering concepts while building on the charter school’s strong tradition of integrating the studies of science and math.

The ACLC will offer two new courses next school year. The first course, Fundamentals of Engineering, will be the teach 8th grade science standards while introducing four fields of engineering–Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Materials Science & Engineering.

The second course, Engineering Graphics, will introduce high school learners to technical drawing and graphical communication. In addition, learners will be introduced to the computer aided design program AutoCAD.

About the Alameda Community Learning Center:

The Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC) is a top-ranked public charter school serving grades 6-12. A California Distinguished School, the ACLC offers project-based, self-directed learning through the use of innovative curriculum and free access to technology. For more information about the ACLC, visit http://alamedaclc.org .

News Source: Alameda Community Learning Center :: This press release was issued by Send2Press® and is Copyright © 2010 Neotrope® News Network – all rights reserved.