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    A Ton of Fun and Help at Gateway’s HOOT

    This Saturday morning, will you and your kids do something fun, or do something worthwhile? The Gateway Film Center and Columbus Open Shelter hope you’ll do both with Hoot.

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    According to Chris Hamel, Gateway Film Center President, “The program was designed to provide unique, fun programming for families, but also to help feed central Ohio families who are experiencing a time of need.”

    For the price of a canned good, you can treat the wee ones to an event unlike anything else in the city.

    “The first hour has the flavor of a festival, and offers lobby activities such as craft stations,” he says.

    The lobby fun is thanks to partner Piccadilly, a play café located in Bexley. According to Hamel, they provide, “balloon artists, face painting, cookie decoration and seasonal activities.”

    Faces painted and bellies full, families are then ready for the main event.

    “At 11:00, the families move into the auditorium for a one hour presentation of music, dancing, and great cartoons and shorts.”

    With kids of his own, Hamel understands the entertainment needs of youngsters. “Anyone who has watched movies with children knows it can be challenging,” he says. “One of the many great things about Hoot is that the format changes constantly throughout the program. The films and the live music are broken into approximately 10 minute segments so children and adults alike are experiencing something new every few minutes, and local kids’ rock band The Shazzbots keep it fun and light for all to enjoy.”

    You can catch Hoot beginning at 10am on the last Saturday of every month, but August is special. On August 30, the Gateway expects to surpass the one ton mark in terms of food donations to the Columbus Open Shelter.

    “We’ve averaged, conservatively, at least 50 pounds of donations every month since we started Hoot,” says Hamel. “We just need another 50 pounds to hit 2,000 and we want area families to help us get there.”

    Kent Beittel, Executive Director and CEO of Columbus Open Shelter, is thrilled with the partnership. He describes the work of the shelter in this way.

    “The Open Shelter’s mission is to convince people who feel totally isolated – largely because they’re homeless and living on the land – that they have allies and they have support to change their lives.”

    He sees programs like Hoot as vital to that mission.

    “We work with about 200 people a day. During the course of the year, it’s about 3000 different folks. And so it’s very important to be able to respond to their basic needs, as well as long term planning needs. And that’s part of the key of the food drives.”

    Hamel is humbled to be able to help. “Kent and Mary Beittel, along with entire staff at the Open Shelter, continue to give so much to our community. They just seem like natural partners and I hope we can continue to support their mission in as many ways as possible.”

    The opportunity to push the donations over a ton is a thrill for Hamel.

    “I knew the film center would never become the place I wanted it to be if we were not constantly trying to help improve our city and help those in need,” he says. “I think the fact that we are about to donate a ton of food says as much about the people who have attended Hoot as it does about the film center.”

    Help Gateway and the Open Shelter collect more than a ton of food for Columbus’s homeless and check out the program Saturday, 8/29 at 10am at the Gateway Film Center, 1550 North High.

    A full slate of movie reviews is available on my website www.maddwolf.com.You can also follow me on Twitter @maddwolf and like me on Facebook at facebook.com/MaddWolfColumbus .

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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