Bits of business: Toy shop to celebrate Neighborhood Store Day
Toys are a universal language that all kids speak.
They celebrate that every day.
This Saturday they could kick off their holiday season extravaganza in step with Growing Tree Toys in downtown State College. The small shop will celebrate the sixth annual Neighborhood Store Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“This holiday season, consumers everywhere can support their communities by shopping local stores for the best holiday toys,” Growing Tree Toys Owner Kay Emigh said. “In return, those neighborhood independent toy stores support parents, grandparents and other gift-givers with expert advice on encouraging creative play among the children in their lives.”
The store will have child-friendly activities like mosaic craft projects, magnetic construction with Tegu building blocks and designing a flexible car track.
Poolside view
Everyone likes a dip in the pool.
Foxdale Village residents and staff will soon have their own for aquatic therapy.
The retirement community held a ribbon-cutting for the new feature Wednesday.
“After years of research, planning and construction, we’re extremely pleased to see this vision come to fruition,” said Rich Lysle, executive director of Foxdale Village. “Our goal was always clear — to provide our residents and staff with an aquatic resource that would deliver real health and wellness benefits, along with some fun, to their daily lives both in and out of the water.”
Foxdale Village’s Board of Trustees originally agreed to help fund the $1.5 million project with $600,000 from the unrestricted gifts fund as part of a matching-gifts campaign, and the remainder of the funding was to be contributed from the Foxdale Village reserve fund.
A fundraising campaign, Healing Waters, garnered about 200 donations and $1 million, negating the need to use reserve funds.
Public tours of the Foxdale Village Wellness Center, including the pool, are scheduled for 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 3.
Drone app goes airborne
Airnest, a new app for drones, launched in the iOS App Store Monday.
The app, developed in State College, allows users to draw a flightpath with your finger, enabling a drone to fly on autopilot and capture video or camera stills. The app also allows users to control the camera by panning and tilting the iOS, which the drone will mimic.
The app is compatible with the DJI Phantom 3 Pro and Advanced models and the DJI Inspire 1.
“We believe drones will impact virtually every industry from filmmaking to farming. But to get there, we believe it needs to be a lot simpler,” Airnest Co-Founder Ben Brautigam said. “That’s why we made an app without the confusing controls so you can get the shots you want without the hassle.”
The app has safety features, displaying no-fly zones and is also programmed not to fly above 400 feet, accordingly with Federal Aviation Commission regulations. The company also will continually update its app to maintain safety and compliance as regulations evolve.
Brand aid by professionals
The Central Pennsylvania Creative Professionals hosted Brand(Aid), a daylong work session on Nov. 7 where a group of marketing professionals and student volunteers collaborated to elevate the brand of a local nonprofit, Housing Transitions, which provides housing and supportive services to Centre County residents.
The goal of marketers from Loaded Creative, Impressions, Rowland Creative, Erickson Strategic, CL Associates, Groznik PR, Mammoth Restoration, Blue Mountain Quality Resources, Videon and Penn State was to give the nonprofit a new logo, marketing materials and strategic plan for 2016.
“They have given us an amazing gift,” Housing Transitions spokeswoman Morgan Wasikonis said in a release. “We have a strong understanding of what we do, and who we are as an organization, but trying to explain the continuum of services we provide beyond the Centre House homeless shelter has always been a challenge. Having this group guide us through a reflection on how we currently serve Centre County has been an extraordinary experience, and having so much collaboration in the project has made it even better.”
An app worth gold
AccuWeather recently launched an app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch available only for iOS users. The app includes instant access to AccuWeather’s top-trending weather video content and improved navigation and speed.
It has already started to make waves for all the right reasons.
For a third consecutive year, AccuWeather was recognized by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts with digital awards, including a 2015 Gold award for the app.
Features of the app include AccuWeather MinuteCast, a global precipitation forecast for a person’s exact location, AccuCast, a crowdsourcing feature for local weather news, severe weather alerts and notifications, forecasts for the next 72 hours and animated weather radar and maps.
This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Bits of business: Toy shop to celebrate Neighborhood Store Day."