Morehouse and Rogers Teach 700+ Children about the Olympics and Fencing

 

The Enthusiastic Children at Assumption School!

During school presentations over the past two days we addressed over 700 children.  Overall, we have spoken to over 3000 students at 10+ schools and programs since we’ve been back from Beijing  The schedule has been particularly packed the last week with school visits, events and now training for the upcoming season as well.   There are so many things I want to accomplish on multiple fronts and its making for some long days!

 

On Tuesday, I woke up early and had a hard work out before driving up to Danbury, Connecticut where I spoke to students at the Wooster school.  I then hoped back in my car and drove to Manhattan to join a USOC fundraising event and then met up with Jason afterwards at an event at the Time Warner building to debrief. 

 

Wednesday also began very early, this time with a drive to Peekskill, NY with Jason where the two of us gave 5 presentations at multiple schools, the town Library and then at the Peekskill Fencing Center.  With littie time ot spare, we sped back to the city to participate in an event with the Queen of Sweden before ending the night up at my friend’s birthday party at the HK Lounge.(You can read more about the events from Jason!)   

 

Jason talks to students about reaching their goals

Despite being tired from all the running around, speaking to children definitely keeps me grounded and motivated to continue to forge ahead to promote our sport.  Whenever we speak at a school, it’s really amazing and such a high to see the excitement in the student’s, not just for the Olympics, but also for fencing. 

 

As a former teacher, it’s also just a blast to walk into school buildings. (I’m in my element!) 

 

We continue to talk a lot about setting the right big goals and also about discovering your unique strengths and applying to them to help you succeed. I hope we’re making an impact!

 

I want to send an amazing thank you to the students, staff and teachers at Wooster, Peekskill Middle and Assumption School for showing us such great hospitality.  Our day in Peekskill was arranged by local fencing coach Alex Acevado who is just opening a new club facility and doing an amazing job promoting the sport locally! Thanks for everything Alex and best of luck with your club!

Coach Alex Acevado's students pose with us at the new club

 

Twas a Night of Both Merriment and Sadness: A Night at Stone Rose with Johnny Walker Blue Label

 

Despite having a fabulous view of Columbus Circle and Central Park, I must say the Time Warner Building in Manhattan has more to offer than just ambience. While Tim was off at a USOC fundraiser downtown, I had the great pleasure of attending a fabulous event  sponsored by Johnny Walker Blue Label at the Stone Rose Lounge.

The event proved to be the type of affair you would expect from Scotch whisky lovers replete with a full Johnny Walker stocked bar as well as a special station where an expert could walk you through the various steps of tasting the finest Johnny Walker has to offer. Guests even had the opportunity to take home their very own engraved, special edition bottles of Blue Label, which I imagine make great holiday gifts for the family. I mean, what says I love you like a bottle of Scotch!

Unfortunately the night ended with a bit of a downer. I managed to spill a beverage on my Blackberry, which I am sad to report is no longer with us. It lived a good life, and I guess the only consolation is that it was fortunate enough to sample some of the finest Scotch in the land before traveling on to Blackberry heaven…

Posted by Jason Rogers

NY Giants Game

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon then at a football game? With my good friends Wendy and Daria I got to check out the Giants versus Ravens game.(First time I’ve ever been to a game!) Thanks to Peter Abitante for inviting us to the game and his amazing luxury box! The Giants crushed the Ravens 30-10! Go Giants! 

Liam and Patrick McMullan, Richie Rich and the Hottest Folks in NYC Nightlife attend the Paper Magazine’s Best of NYC Night LIfe Awards

Richie Rich, Liam McMullan, Tim Morehouse and Jason Rogers

The Club Mansion located in Chelsea in New York City was the host of the Diesel sponsored NYC Paper Mag’s Fourth Annual Nightlife Awards. If you have ever  stayed up late wondering if such awards existed…well, they do!   It was a who’s who of NYC nightlife coming together to celebrate and honor the best clubs, DJs, promoters, nightlife blogs and more!!   Our friends at guest of a guest (www.guestofaguest.com) Rachelle Hruska and others invited us along, as they were nominees for the best online blog award.  Richie Rich along with Ally Hilfilger, Michael Musto and others presented awards to the hottest folks on the NYC scene for 2008.

Best of NYC NightLife Awards at Club Mansion

Some of the highlights:  The best club award went to “Santa’s Party House.” Best Bar/Lounge went to “Angels and Kings.” Samantha Ronson won an award for her Deejaying skills while DJ Skeet Skeet took home the overall award for best DJ award. A Personal high for me was getting to meet the legendary photographer Patrick McMullan (truly a huge honor), as well as spending some time with his son Liam who was celebrating the launch of his role as Page 6 Writer for the NY Post (Best of luck Liam!). I headed home at about 10:30pm since I’ve got an early day of training and a big week ahead!

Jason Rogers Meets Favorite “Mad Men” Actor John Slattery. Tim Morehouse Chats with Julianne Moore. What More Could You Ask of the Hugo Boss Prize Party at the Guggenheim Museum?

 

Actress Julianne Moore

The Guggenheim museum is a place of great art and history, but every once and a while it sheds it’s skin and becomes quite the happening party place. Let me tell you, this was some party! Tonight we had the great honor of attending the Hugo Boss Prize Party and we were able to mingle and smooze with some of the best in the industry. The Hugo Boss Prize is awarded every other year to the artist/s whose work (in any medium) is considered to be the most exemplary. The prize is a tetrahedral trophy, which all you geometry buffs know means pyramid shaped, and 100,000 dollars! (Congrats to artist Emily Jacir for winning the award!).  Why o’ why didn’t I go into art instead of fencing?!?!  The night was absolutely fabulous, as we got to meet an extremely eclectic group of people ranging from fashion CEOs, actors and everyone in between. Some notable moments included meeting the always lovely and extremely talented Julianne Moore who was so gracious to chat with us. Jason noted that he was actually star struck for the first time in awhile when we met one of his favorite actors, John Slattery, from the TV show, Mad Men. Stanley Tucci of Devil Wears Prada informed us that he actually fenced in his acting conservatory, and we both had a good laugh with the CEO of Hugo Boss after we discovered that he is from Germany, which serves as our home away from home when we lay over in Europe in between competitions. By the end of the night we were both totally exhausted but jazzed about our three hours at the Guggenheim.  On a sad personal note, that was probably the longest amount of time I have spent in the museum!  We are slowly, but surely building a grassroots fan base for ourselves and fencing!  Thank you to everyone for the awesome messages!

You can catch us today (Friday, Nov 14) on the Fox Business News Show Happy Hour at some point between 5:30-6:00pm EST.  We are also doing a photo shoot for the website Contributing Editor (http://contributingeditor.blogspot.com/) and I’m personally looking forward to the Teach For America Alumni Summit in NYC on Saturday!   

Actor John Slattery from the Show Madmen

 

Jason Rogers and Tim Morehouse Share Olympic Lessons with Students from Boystown

Tucked away in Brooklyn is a small building where remarkable work is being done with some of New York City’s most at-risk children.  Jason Rogers and I had the privilege of visiting one of the Boystown New York locations today to meet their dedicated staff of teachers and social workers.   Most importantly, we got to address the students involved in the program.  We spoke to about 40 students about our Olympic experience and how we set our goals long before we could immediately achieve them and told them the importance for them to do the same thing.   We also demonstrated some fencing for them, shared stories from the Olympics and gave them a chance to check out our Olympic medals.  As a former teacher for three years, I can think of no better way to spend my morning than talking to kids and trying to inspire them. I hope we did a good job!  They were really great and you can see how much having such a caring environment is turning their lives around and providing them hope for a bright future.

BOYSTOWN: Boys Town is a beacon of hope for America’s children and families through its life-changing youth care and health care programs across the United States.   Partnering with families, our nonprofit, nonsectarian organization provides abused, abandoned and neglected children with a safe, caring, loving environment where they gain confidence to get better and learn skills to become productive citizens.  Boys Town works with communities and schools in order to meet the growing and more diverse needs of today’s children and families.  To learn more go to www.boystownnewyork.org

Brandeis Newspaper Article on Tim Morehouse Visit to Campus

ALUMNI: Morehouse makes his return

by Mike Prada
Deputy editor, The Justice (Student Newspaper of Brandeis University) Sports | 11/4/08

Donning a black suit with a silver medal hanging around his neck, Tim Morehouse ’00 admitted he threw off many Brandesians last Friday in his first visit to his alma mater since winning a silver medal as a member of the U.S. Fencing Team at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

“All day, I’ve been walking around campus, and so many people have congratulated me on my Halloween costume,” he joked at the start of his speech. “Maybe it wasn’t the best day to walk around with my Olympic medal.” 

Read the entire article at: http://media.www.thejusticeonline.com/media/storage/paper573/news/2008/11/04/Sports/Alumni.Morehouse.Makes.His.Return-3523102.shtml

Media Credit: Hsiao-Chi Pang

Patrick McMullan Photography Showcase

Jason Rogers and I being interviewed at the event

Jason and I were really excited to attend an event showcasing the various works of the American photographer, Patrick McMullan, at the Blue and Cream clothing store on Bowery tonight. McMullan has been a staple in the New York City scene since the 1970s, and Andy Warhol was famous quoted as saying “If you don’t know Patrick McMullan, you should get out more!” The exhibit was curated and hosted by McMullan’s son, Liam McMullan (who if you remember from our last entry, attended our fencing event). The photographs were truly breathtaking; it was like looking back into great moments of our past by seeing photographs of Michael J. Fox, Madonna, Andy Warhol and many others. Though the party was happening, Jason and I had to make it an early night, as we are getting up early to speak to children from the Boystown organization about achieving their dreams and overcoming obstacles. Boystown serves severely at-risk children through its outreach programs and has been around for 90 years serving the communities all over the country in this great cause!

The crowd with some of Patrick McMullans pictures hanging on the walls in the background

Veterans Day Event in NYC

Posing with the Marines

At the historic Salmagundi Club in NYC I had the opportunity to address about 40 Marines from the USS Bataan along with Colonel Charles H. Waterhouse who was being honored for his work as the resident artist of the United States Marine corps.  The dinner was also in honor of the 233^rd birthday of the Marine Corps.  The men and women from USS Bataan were so gracious and I couldn’t think of a better thing to do then thank them for all their service to our country.  We wouldn’t have been able to do what we did on the field of play without the brave men and women who protect our country.  It always puts things in perspective to meet folks from our military especially those who have served and will be serving overseas in Iraq and other places.  During the ceremony, a cake was cut with a sword, and in an ancient ceremony; the first piece of cake was given to the oldest marine in attendance who then passed it to the youngest.  This i meant to symbolize the passing of wisdom from the old generations to the new.   Thank you to all our men and women in the armed services and to all of our veterans!

 

On another note, I found the depiction of military men in different wars very moving.  The exhibit is running through this friday, 11/14, and anyone in the NYC area that wants to stop by for the show can check out the link below for more details.

 

http://www.salmagundi.org/events/nov08/Waterhouse_Flyer.

 

New York Times Blog on “Fashion Forward” Event Mentions Tim Morehouse and Jason Rogers

The NY Times Blog on Fashion had a nice mention of us today and our attendance at the Fashion Forward event.  Written by Andy Tarradath.

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/sweet-charity-fashion-forward/#more-11488