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The Night Shift Premieres at International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival

David Perry

Media Contact: David Perry / cell (415) 767-1067 / news@davidperry.com

The Night Shift Premieres at International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival

“Dystopian Nightmare” by San Francisco Filmmaker Adam Gold
Premieres April 8, 9 & 10 in Phoenix

27 March 2017 – San Francisco / Phoenix: What is a person willing to do to survive? Many timely themes of work and social issues play out in the nightmare future world of Adam Gold’s short live-action film, The Night Shift. The Night Shift has been selected to screen at the prestigious International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival (http://www.horrorscifi.com/films/) in Phoenix, Arizona the weekend of April 7TH. The film will screen as part of the Sci-Fi Shorts A program on Saturday, April 8th at 3:50pm, Sunday, April 9th at 2:05pm, and Tuesday, April 11th at 12:30pm. All IHSFF screenings will take place at the Harkins Scottsdale 101, 7000 E. Mayo Blvd. Phoenix, Arizona.

“Does everyone have a price?” Gold asks. “The Night Shift, asks the question what is a person willing to do for a paycheck? Better yet, what is a desperate person willing to do for a small paycheck?”

In his film, Gold’s corporate entity, Child Care and Control, appears to be helping with the “over-population epidemic”: but at what cost? A San Francisco native and SFSU Cinema graduate, Gold wrote the screenplay and directed the live-action short film during his time at San Francisco State University.

The film follows a new trainee, Peter Lowry (Hunter Ridenour) during his first day of work on the night crew of Child Care and Control. He must decide whether he can follow the process or whether his daily tasks are beyond his capabilities.

The film has screened at two local festivals in recent months: SF Indiefest’s Another Hole in the Head last October http://sfindie.com/festivals/another-hole-in-the-head-film-festival/ and more recently, at the I Hella Love Shorts Festival in Oakland in early March http://ihellaloveshorts.com/index.html — IHSFF will be the film’s first screening outside of the Bay Area.

The International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival  is a  501(c)3 non-profit organization under the Phoenix Film Foundation and is a sibling of the Phoenix Film Festival, Phoenix Film Society, IFP/Phoenix, the Arizona Student Film Festival and the Phoenix Critics Circle. Our mission is to support and develop the artistic appreciation, educational opportunities and growth of independent film within Arizona.

Media Advisory – Disability Advocates Decry Cuts

Rainbow Honor Walk

Media Advisory / Request for Onsite Coverage:

WEDNESDAY, March 22 – 11am (PST)

Disability Advocates Decry Cuts
Call on Congress to Preserve Gains for Disabled Americans!

Media Contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc. / (415) 676-7007/ news@davidperry.com

WHEN: Wednesday, March 22: 11am

WHERE: The Independent Living Resource Center SF
825 Howard Street, San Francisco

WHAT: Disability advocates and allies from around the Bay Area will rally at 825 Howard Street in San Francisco in order to press upon Congress the importance of preserving access to community life for thousands of Bay Area residents. Advocates will focus on preserving Community First Choice Option (CFCO), an optional Federal funding incentive that provides additional funding for community-based services for all people with disabilities, as well as other vital medical care and other long term services and supports needed by people with disabilities.

Congressional Republicans are moving legislation that eliminates CFCO by 2020 as part of a strategy to introduce block grants and cut Medicaid. Members of the Disability Community will express to Representative Pelosi, Senator Feinstein and Senator Harris their concerns that the GOP is using CFCO and block grants to play partisan politics without consideration for the many people with disabilities whose lives are hanging in the balance.

The concern is that eliminating CFCO restores the Medicaid bias toward institutionalization that the Disability Community has long fought to reverse. The right to live in the community was first recognized in Federal law in the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead v. LC case. The years since have seen the growth of centers for independent living as Disability Rights organizations have made community integration one of their primary concerns.

BAY AREA ADVOCATES DECRY MASSIVE CUTS

Rainbow Honor Walk

media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc. (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

BAY AREA ADVOCATES DECRY MASSIVE CUTS

— Independent Living Centers Call on Congress to Preserve Hard Fought Gains for Disabled Americans –

News Conference at 11am, Wednesday March 22 at ILRCSF

21 March 2017 – San Francisco, CA: The Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco (ILRCSF), the Marin Center for Independent Living, the Silicon Valley Center for Independent Living and disability advocates throughout the Bay Area joined advocates nationwide today in calling on Congress to reverse its draconian cuts to community based Medicaid services as part of its repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Tomorrow / Wednesday March 22 at 11am, the three groups will hold a news conference at the ILRCSF offices (825 Howard Street, SF) to raise awareness and announce advocacy plans.

“The proposed cuts will turn back the clock on hard fought access to community based living and the significant community and societal contributions made everyday by the disabled community in America,” said ILRCSF Executive Director Jessie Lorenz.

Congressional Republicans are moving legislation that will eliminate vital healthcare services and force thousands of Bay Area residents with disabilities out of the community and behind closed doors to institutional facilities. The proposed legislation eliminates the Community First Choice Option (CFCO) by 2020 as part of a strategy to cut Medicaid funding for disabled individuals. CFCO, which was introduced as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is the only current Medicaid program aimed at ensuring disabled people’s right to live in the community. By providing enhanced Federal funds to states that have adopted the program, CFCO gives Medicaid beneficiaries greater access to home- and community-based services, enabling them to live in their communities rather than in expensive nursing facilities or institutional settings that rob them of their civil rights and fundamental liberties. CFCO saves states millions of taxpayer dollars and grant disabled citizens the freedom to decide where they want to live.

In the states that have implemented it, CFCO has become a vital tool in moving disabled people out of nursing facilities and other institutions and into their own homes. Members of the Disability Community have expressed concerns that GOP is using CFCO and block grants to play partisan politics without consideration for the many people with disabilities whose lives are hanging in the balance.

“This community contributes so much and has come too far in the past 25 years, to be set aside without regard by the Republicans in Congress,” said Sheri Burns, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Center for Independent Living. “Quite simply, the proposed bill (the AHCA) is a death sentence for millions of Americans and is unacceptable.”

"Our country is aging and as a consequence, aging into disability.  Removing healthcare for older adults and people with disabilities will result in higher costs and greater incidence of hospitalization,” said Eli Gelardin, Executive Director of the Marin Center for Independent Living. “There are opportunities to improve our nations healthcare system and ensure that individuals maintain coverage while lowering costs but the American Healthcare Act is not one of them. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have spoken out against it and the CBO has determined that millions of will lose coverage.  We must do better."

The concern is that in capping or block granting Medicaid congressional Republicans are setting limits on how many disabled people can transition from institutions into the community, and eliminating CFCO restores the Medicaid bias toward institutionalization that the Disability Community has long fought to reverse.

The right to live in the community was first recognized in Federal law in the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead v. LC case. The years since have seen the growth of centers for independent living as Disability Rights organizations have made community integration one of their primary concerns.

ILRCSF, staffed almost entirely by people with disabilities, offers support, advocacy, and information regarding the rights of people with disabilities to individuals, educational institutions, and the small business community. Programs at ILRCSF include everything from peer counseling and help with assistive technologies, to economic empowerment workshops and accessible housing advocacy. In recent years, the agency has expanded outreach to include a program geared towards youth empowerment and has now become home to a number of peer support groups including a Veterans’ Art Guild, in which military veterans living with service-related disabilities work on creative projects ranging from photography and sculpture to creative writing.

For more information visit www.ilrcsf.com, www.svilc.org, and marincil.org.

Blue Willow Systems Innovators To Speak at Leading Age Peak Leadership Summit

Blue Willow Systems

media contact: David Perry / (415) 767-1067 / news@davidperry.com

Blue Willow Systems Innovators To Speak at Leading Age Peak Leadership Summit

March 19 – 22 in Washington, DC

Revolutionary Automatic Fall Detection and Automatic Alerts
are Key to Blue Willow’s Innovative Wearable Technology for Elders

17 March 2017 – San Mateo, CA: When the nation’s top-tiered executives in senior living converge on Washington, DC March 19 – 22 for the Leading Age Peak Conference, the San Mateo-based Blue Willow Systems of (www.bluewillowsystems.com) will be there to bring “high touch” values to “high tech” solutions for an aging population and the organizations that serve their residential needs.

“We know Blue Willow Systems can save lives. The difference between automatic fall detection and having to push a button or pull a string on the wall, can be the difference between life or death,” said Richard Heaton, CEO of Blue Willow Systems “The Leading Age Peak Conference is the premier forum for top-tiered executives in senior living to connect and share strategies, best practices and innovative technologies. We are honored and pleased to have been invited to partner in the Leading Age PEAK Zone by Cornell Communications and Matrix Care.”

“Community caregivers have much more mobility and flexibility when technology partners with traditional care models,” said Maggi Broggel Blue Willow Vice President of Clinical Services & Risk, noting that the company has already started to install the Blue Willow System in care facilities in both the US and Canada. “The upcoming generation of caregivers has grown up around technology and expects a very sophisticated level of technology to support them in their job. Blue Willow Systems’ platform helps communities attract and retain top talent while providing a higher level of care for their residents.”

Heaton and Broggel, will speak, respectively, in the Summit’s ”Tech Zone” (http://www.leadingage.org/zone-4) on Monday, March 20 at 10:30am and Tuesday, March 21 at 10:30am. Their topics are:

Are You Looking Beyond What is Familiar?
Featuring, Richard Heaton
Monday, March 20: 10:30am
Computer Brain-Learning using neural networks or Artificial Intelligence is now available to detect critical care needs, like falls, to more effectively respond and care for residents. Join Blue Willow Systems CEO Richard Heaton for a discussion about the next wave of AI and computer brain learning devices.

 

Selecting Technology that Will Help Differentiate Your Services
Featuring, Maggi Broggel VP of Clinical Services & Risk
Tuesday, March 21, 10:30am
New technologies are adding value to community-based care, allowing operators to differentiate their services and gain market advantages to increase occupancy and revenue. Join Blue Willow Systems, Vice President of Clinical Marketing & Risk, Maggi Broggel, RN for a discussion about how to communicate the value new technologies to families, residents, and referral sources as new sources of revenue and move beyond cost-based thinking to revenue generation.

“Being able to give peace of mind to residents and family members while also providing communities the best safety tool is a game changer,” said Fara Gold, Blue Willow Systems Vice President of Business Development. Gold will be onsite during the entire Peak Leading Age Conference to do one-on-one demonstrations. “Blue Willow Systems’ innovative resident safety platform provides assisted living communities with the technology to exceed care expectations is really our competitive advantage.”

Debuted last fall at the prestigious NIC Conference in Washington, DC, Blue Willow is already causing a buzz in the senior living and health care space. In a recent issue of Forbes Magazine (9/28/16), the discussion is around three industries that will be transformed by intelligent technology, including health care. Blue Willow is poised for that revolution. Blue Willow System is a “unique patent pending end-to-end resident and staff safety solution with specially designed wearable devices, access points, and a SaaS-delivered cloud platform that enables automatic fall detection monitoring, reporting, real-time visuals of location, and alerts.” (Laurie Orlov, Aging in Place Technology Watch). Blue Willow “has cracked the  detection and elopement problem. Blue Willow Systems has figured out how to take advantage of technology and capabilities.  They have created the system you have been looking for.” (Steve Moran, Senior Housing Forum)

“Blue Willow Systems and the conveners of the Peak Leadership Summit share a vital mission,” said Vikram Devdas, Founder and inventor of Blue Willow Systems. “We both are devoted to the betterment of assisted living.”

Devdas founded the company after the tragic loss of his father due to an undetected fall. As he learned more about the issue, the highly-regarded computer engineer and successful entrepreneur, found that undetected falls account for a significant proportion of the hospitalizations of seniors in senior care communities. However, he was surprised to learn that new technologies weren’t being used to solve the problem, and decided to change this. The result, Blue Willow Systems, is an innovative fall detection and alert system designed to allow seniors’ facilities to automatically monitor the health and location of their residents using a variety of wearable and non-wearable sensor devices.

“Previous technologies required the wearer to pull a string,” Devdas continues. “What if your mother has a stroke and is incapacitated, or your grandfather has a heart attack and is unable to move? The features of automatic fall detection and geo-location sensing in the Blue Willow device make previous technologies obsolete. Our patented technology is the future of senior and disability care delivered now: safely, securely and via the cloud.”

Blue Willow Systems is a revolutionary SaaS resident safety platform automatically detecting falls, with wander management, calculating real-time resident and staff activity, aggregating events, interpreting, and analyzing information while providing sophisticated incident and trend reports allowing operators to deliver better care, reduce overhead and manage staff workflow in the most efficient way to provide accurate evidence of events compatible with electronic health records resulting in increased revenue, staff effectiveness, resident and family satisfaction which may decrease insurance and litigation expense.

Spring into Summer with a San Mateo City and County Fair parade

San Mateo County Fair

Media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc. (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com
Rebecca Zito, City of San Mateo (650) 522-7005 / rzito@cityofsanmateo.org

The City of San Mateo and the San Mateo County Fair

Spring into Summer with a San Mateo City and County Fair parade, kicking off the San Mateo County Fair: Saturday, June 10th, 2017 at 10am

Mile-Long Parade Extravaganza of Floats, Bands and Festivities
Sponsored by the City of San Mateo and San Mateo County Fair

May 10th is the deadline to apply for parade participation
www.sanmateocountyfair.com
hashtag: # SMCF2017 #SanMateoCoFair

13 March 2017 – San Mateo, CA: Everyone loves a parade. On Saturday, June 10th at 10am, one of the largest and most family-friendly events on the West Coast will occur– The City of San Mateo (www.cityofsanmateo.org) and the San Mateo County Fair (www.sanmateocountyfair.com) – will kick-off a mile-long procession of bands, floats and balloons.

“This parade is a long-standing dream, and it’s a wonderful and timely opportunity to bring our community together, to celebrate our amazing diversity, showcase our cultural richness and share our pride in San Mateo,” said Maureen Freschet, City Councilwoman of San Mateo.

“We are proud to celebrate our City and County!” said Dana Stoehr, CEO of the San Mateo County Events Center and Fair. “The San Mateo County Fair celebrates the best of our city and county. What better way to welcome in our Fair partners, participants and attendees than with a grand opening day celebration such as this.”

With the theme of “Spring into Summer” the parade will start on Franklin Parkway and culminate at the entrance to the Fair. Over 10,000 people are expected to attend along the one-mile route. Those interested in taking part in the procession are invited to go online to register at https://sanmateocountyfair.com/entertainment/special-events/fair-parade for the parade entry form, rules and guidelines for participation. Registration is free for community groups and nonprofits; $ 250 for business / commercial entities.

May 10th is the deadline to apply for parade participation.

“It will be a day of fun and festivities for our San Mateo families and children that will hopefully become a tradition that our residents will look forward to,” said Councilwoman Freschet, noting that they were expecting a varied collection of marching bands, floats, drill teams, dance teams, equestrians, comical groups and more.

The San Mateo County Fair — “Where Tradition Meets Innovation” — is The Peninsula’s premier, community event for family fun and entertainment: June 10-18, 2017/ Visit www.sanmateocountyfair.com often for regular updates, contest rules, schedules, promotions, and information.