I wish I could make it up there :’(
That would be amazing… you are a talented man. I still tear up at that video you made!
You know, this one…
(Everybody go watch it!)
Hey guys!
Putting together an Eli Hops skill toy team for promoting the event. Planning on shows in malls and hopefully on TV. Looking for all skill levels and all skill toys in northern MA and southern NH. Message me if you are interested! We need performers and teachers. You can be one or both.
Thanks guys!
Dave
This is another one of those times where I wish I lived up there.
You would be a sweet addition to the team! Maybe someday! Who knows where the winds of time may take us? Not I, my friend.
I’d be happy enough to spread the word about it down south my friend 
List of Eli Hops participant websites:
Performers:
John Higby - The Yo-Yo Guy is the 2008 World Yo-Yo Champion and Guinness World Record holder. He has performed his unique high energy comedy show in 22 countries and has been featured on David Letterman, Time Warp on the Discovery Channel, and even has his own TOPPS trading card!
www.yoyoshow.com
Brett “Ooch” Ouchcunis - A professional entertainer, motivator, dancer and DJ rolled into one, compact package. He has been dancing for about 21 years now and specializes in step and yo-yo dancing. Brett danced all the way through high school, competing in major dance competitions around the country and then graduated from UMass, Amherst with a degree in Communication in 1998. Directly out of college he got picked up by Yomega Corporation, a yo-yo company based out of Fall River, MA. and became a touring yo-yo professional.
www.oochworld.com
Fiske and Herrera - A nationally recognized and acclaimed, award winning local folk duo with 3 albums and radio airplay. I have never met anyone who doesn’t like this group!
www.fiskeandherrera.com
Vendors-
YoYoExpert.com - The best selection of yo-yos and tops on the internet! Run by yo-yo superstar André Boulay! (He might even be there!)
www.YoYoExpert.com
Yomega Yo-yo - Amazingly fun yo-yos and skill toys!
www.yomega.com
MadHat Music - Breathtaking custom made instruments! They sound even BETTER than they look!
www.facebook.com/pages/Madhat-Music/201555503194985?ref=ts
Swagger String - Probably the best yo-yo string on the planet. Period. Seriously.
www.facebook.com/pages/Swagger-YoYo-String/106758962734378?ref=ts
Josh’s Toys and Games - An awesome toy store! The best brick and mortar toy store in New England!
www.facebook.com/joshtoys?ref=ts&sk=wall
Avon - High quality cosmetics!
www.youravon.com/kaitken
Lil Lola Rose - handmade jewelry and trinkets made from unusual items, like SILVERWARE! This stuff is really really neat! http://www.etsy.com/shop/taliaz
Eli Bailin - 1990’s yo-yo legend and inventor of the Eli Hop trick. He runs an annual half marathon to raise money and awareness to protect the environment in Newburyport, MA. This year his run is on October 23rd and he’s gonna pass out info on it at Eli Hops and he may bring a surprise or two!
www.newburyporthalfmarathon.com
Without websites-
Lexi the Potter - Cool hand made pottery (she’s making yo-yo shaped jars!) More cool stuff too!
Plectics Yo-yo - Drool worthy custom hand made, one of a kind, competition grade yo-yos!
Nick Kessler - Yoyo enthusiast and recyclist inventor! Nick hand makes amazing yo-yo holders out of well-loved yo-yo string! Classy, inventive, and saving the Earth all while holding your yo-yo in style!
So, today is the big day! I started this crazy journey back in October of '10 and it has been a crazy ride.
This whole thing started out as a crazy idea I shared with some of my yo-yo buddies on a forum. It grew from me thinking about doing a one man show for special needs kids into a huge fair/expo/variety show to raise money and teach awareness at the simplest and most primal of levels- the level of fun!
I wont lie, I am nervous. I am anxious, but moreover I am excited! This thing is going to be a blast and I hope that’s all of you will come and share that with me!
Thanks to the Lovers, the Dreamers, and You! ~the Muppet Movie
Sunday, August 14th from 11am to 2pm
What do you get when you put André Boulay, Eli Bailin, Daniel Deitz, Jeff Coons, and Brett “Ooch” Ouchcunis all in the same room? The very first Eli Hops Fundraising Event!
It went amazingly! Ooch’s show was hilarious and the kids and adults ate it up! There were so many kids there from all developmental stages all buying yo-yos and getting lessons from volunteers and pros alike!
At one point during the event, for maybe 15 seconds, all I could hear was the whirring of lots of bearings and in that brief period I could feel the common sense of fun and accomplishment that was filling the building. I almost cried it was such a beautiful moment.
Today lots of kids found a healthy, coordination building, brain developing and never-ending source of fun for the rest of their lives. Today kids with Autism played right along side typical kids and nobody felt different or strange. No one was left out or picked last. Everyone was on the exact same level and laughing and talking and sharing tricks and not caring about “who has/is what” and just being kids.
That’s why I started this whole nutty endeavor and man oh man was it worth it!
Huge thanks to Brett “Ooch” Ouchcunis (www.oochworld.com), Fiske and Herrera (www.fiskeandherrera.com), André Boulay and YoYoExpert.com, Lil Lila Rose Jewelry (www.etsy.com/shop/taliaz), and Nick Kessler for being there with their products and fantastic attitudes making the event so awesome!
Big thanks to John Higby (www.yoyoshow.com), Justin Ruggles, Jason Mooers, Myachi Handsacks (www.Myachi.com), Josh’s Toys and Games and Eli Bailin (www.newburyporthalfmarathon.com) for all the awesome donations making our Raffles and snack table a roaring success!
Thanks to the volunteers and the pros who showed up and helped everyone learn and have a blast while doing it! You guys are so cool!
I also want to say a super extra special thank you from the bottom of my heart to Bri my wife (www.yourhandsinmine.wordpress.com) for supporting me, believing in me, pushing me, and loving me throughout this whole process. This event would not have happened if it wasn’t for your help and encouragement (and baked goods) and I love you with every fiber of my being, forever! And EVER!
Now I start planning for next year!
Who wants in?
Dave Herrera
Eli Hops founder
“Play for Hope”
Hello everyone!
I promised a big update on the first of the month and here it is! The Eli Hops Foundation is holding bi-monthly raffles! Here is a chance for you to win some sweet swag all in the name of a good cause!
All the prizes are graciously donated by various toy/skill toy companies, local crafters, and businesses that want to be a part of the Eli Hops cause.
“How does it work” you ask? Well here is the really fun part! This is also the simultaneous release of the new Eli Hops Foundation Blog! Details on how to purchase raffle tickets will be found on the blog, as well as detailed information about the prizes up for grabs every other month! We already have amazing donations from some major skill toy companies and more are on the way soon!
The first raffle will be drawn at the end of September and will be awarded in October. The raffle officially starts as soon as the new EHB (Eli Hops Blog) posts the information!
The link to the new EHB is www.EliHops.WordPress.com and the first post is already up and running! Go there now and enjoy!
Dave Herrera
Eli Hops Foundation
Hey guys, due to some legal difficulties with the term “raffle” as well as a difficulty finding a payment mechanism and attackers of those who try to do good, we have to postpone the online raffle. HOWEVER we will be offering “live” raffles at the events Eli Hops attends throughout the year.
A HUGE thank you to Yomega for a massive donation of prizes for raffling. Keep an eye here and on the new blog (www.elihops.WordPress.com) for where and when you can see us and win win win!
Its official people! Eli Hops 2012 has a new beneficiary! Family and Community Connection is an amazing organization that not only funds but hosts a massive array of community programming for special needs children as well as the entire community. They are also the hosts of the local special needs and community “playgroups”. These integrated class rooms are educational pre-cursors to school for many special needs kids.
These groups are one of the only places that special needs kids can learn to not only cope but thrive in a social, eschool-like setting! Its these playgroups who will be benefitting from EH 2012. We will help them buy supplies, new toys, and more! Please comment or message us for more info about FCC or thief parent organization Community Action Inc.!
Okay people, here it is!
The moment we have all been waiting for!
After talks and deliberations and waiting… oh so endless waiting…. we finally have the DATE for the next ELI HOPS EVENT! Saturday, July 28th, 2012 we will be holding the event for Family & Community Connections at 346 Broadway in Haverhill MA! Keep your eyes here for new updates! WOOOOO! As always if you want to be involved or donate, message us here!
FCC - http://www.communityactioninc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=4&Itemid=9
Duncan, Yomega, YoyoExpert.com, Ooch, Dan Deitz, Eli Bailin, Erik Bjork, Matt Warren, Amy Adams, Little Flower Farms, and more…
A brand new yoyo competition in New England…
Family fun and activities for all ages…
What do all of these have in common?
THE ELI HOPS EVENT 2012!!!
July 28th, 2012 - 346 Broadway Haverhill, MA 01830 - Doors open at 11am!
I hope I can come for this one!
I hope you can compete!!
I wished I lived nearby. I’d roll up with my truck full of audio and lighting gear, set up a professional sound system, some lights and help bring the whole event to a new level. For free.
But I don’t live nearby, so I can’t.
If you bring this event to Sacramento, California, you better look me up and bring me onboard because the offer stands.
The plan is to go National before or by 2016. At that point I am hoping for multiple “regional” events… a northeast, a south east, Midwest, South, and a west coast event. Sacramento sounds a great place to start to me! Thanks man! I will hold you to this!
Big update!
We have had a venue UPGRADE!!
The facilities used by FCC, the group we are fundraising for this year, were just not enough to contain the awesomeness that is Eli Hops. So we have moved the events to the AMVETS Function Hall in Haverhill! Same city, same time, same date, MORE AWESOME!
So we will have surplus-space for the Vendors, extra-area for the performers, and plenty of parking for our competition!
I am just bouncy with excitement!
This is a cell pic I snapped quick of the hall innards…
Sign ups for the competition start in June! !
ALSO…
Everyone be excited and hold a standing ovation in front of your computers and smartphones for the newest Eli Hops member of the Board of Directors, Kristin Bjork! Many of you have traded with her here and all of you love her!
And wait, there’s more…
Her son, the amazing wünderkind Erik, was just signed to YoyoJam as an apprentice at only 9!
Phew! Long update!
Hey guys,
I have a bit of sad news. Because of some unavoidable circumstances the Eli Hops 2012 Event scheduled for this summer will most likely be postponed until Fall of 2012. That includes the much anticipated Eli Hops Foundation Yo-yo Contest.
However, what this does mean is that the event itself will have more retail businesses involved, and the competition will have more sponsors and even better prizes!
If you have any questions at all please PM me.
Dave Herrera
Founder of the Eli Hops Foundation