Year: 2010

Hollywood oddities wanted for museum renovation

Orlando, Fla. – (October 4, 2010) – Happen to have a bust of Brad Pitt made from bottle caps? How about a killer statue of Tom Cruise made from crayons? If you do, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! wants to hear from you.

The company is actively looking to acquire items for its Hollywood Odditorium, which will undergo an extensive renovation this winter.

Items of particular interest include three-dimensional sculptural creations. Top targets would include creations of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Jessica Alba, along with the Hollywood staples Bogart, Brando and Hepburn.

“We know there are some great creations out there, sometimes they’re just difficult to find,” said Edward Meyer, Ripley’s VP of Exhibits and Archives. “We’re in an expansion mode and in search of artists who have a flair for the unusual.”

In addition to artwork, Ripley’s is also looking for Hollywood collections or film-related artifacts.

Any new acquisitions will join a star-studded lineup of exhibits headed for Ripley’s Hollywood Odditorium, including a collection of items owned by Marilyn Monroe (worth more than $1 million), a life size portrait of John Wayne made from colorful laundry lint, a giant portrait of James Dean made from playing dice, a cane owned by Charlie Chaplin, the derbies worn by Laurel and Hardy, a 12-foot long mural of forty-one Hollywood celebrities made from license plates and Fred Astaire made from film.

Anyone with an item they think would be worthy of going on display at Ripley’s Hollywood Odditorium should contact Edward Meyer at meyer@ripleys.com.

Contact:

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

Office – 407-339-0879

Cell – 407-637-6000

frank@wellonscommunications.com

About Ripley Entertainment

Ripley Entertainment Inc. (www.ripleys.com), keepers of the venerable Ripley’s Believe It or Not! brand, is a global leader in location-based entertainment, entertaining more than 13 million annually at its 80-plus attractions in 11 countries.  In addition to its 31 Believe It or Not! Odditoriums, the Orlando, Florida-based company has publishing, licensing and broadcast divisions, best-selling books and the popular syndicated cartoon strip, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, that still runs daily in 42 countries. Ripley Entertainment is a Jim Pattison Company, the third-largest privately held company in Canada.

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm.

Child ID, Halloween safety info part of October 26-27 event

Nashville, Tenn. – (October 1, 2010) – Remington College-Nashville Campus will be providing complimentary “Toothprint” services along with Halloween safety and dental hygiene tips on Tuesday, October 26 and Wednesday, October 27. The event will be held as part of National Dental Hygiene Month.

From 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, students from the Dental Hygiene School will provide Toothprint services for children. The Toothprint is a special child identification device that records both bite characteristics and DNA information. Parents receive a wafer with the information imprinted on it.

The Toothprint procedure takes only a few minutes and children as young as 3-4 years of age are usually able to provide an acceptable imprint. More information is available at http://www.toothprints.net/toothprints.html.

Since the event is taking place during the week of Halloween, students and instructors will also provide children and parents with tips for having a safe Halloween and maintaining healthy teeth.

“This event will provide parents with important child identification, health and safety information, as well as remind people of all the valuable services that dental hygienists provide,” said Larry Collins, Remington College-Nashville Campus President.

Parents interested bringing children in for Toothprint procedures are asked to reserve a space by calling the school in advance at 615-493-9398. Walk ins will be accommodated as long as supplies last.

The Remington College dental hygiene school offers several low-cost services for the public, including oral prophylaxis, topical fluoride treatments, x-rays, scaling and root planning and dental sealants.

The school is on the Remington College-Nashville Campus, located at 441 Donelson Pike, Suite 150 in Nashville.

For more information, call 615-493-9398.

About Remington College: Remington College is a common name used by all 20 campuses of a group of affiliated companies of privately-owned, post-secondary educational institutions based in Heathrow, Florida. Through its campuses, Remington College offers diplomas, bachelor’s and associate’s degrees in a variety of fields, including: cosmetology; nursing; healthcare; criminal justice; business; electronics; information technology; and more.  Course offerings vary by campus. Remington College and its predecessor companies have been part of the higher education community since 1985. For more information, please visit http://www.remingtoncollege.edu/. For the latest news about Remington College, visit http://today.remingtoncollege.edu/.

Media contact:

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

407-339-0879 office

407-637-6000 cell

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm.

Earn a bachelor’s or associate’s degree

Heathrow, Fla. – (September 15, 2010) – Remington College’s online programs are now enrolling students for the October 25 class start date.

The accredited online college offers students the ability to pursue a degree from home while learning from faculty with real-world experience.

Remington College’s online programs may offer students the flexibility needed to help manage family, work and other priorities along with their education and career goals.1

Associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs are offered that can help students learn skills from classes in business, accounting, management, marketing, criminal justice and paralegal.

Online bachelor’s degrees:

• Business Administration with concentrations in accounting, general business, human resources, management and marketing
• Criminal Justice
• Organizational Management

Online associate’s degrees:

• Criminal Justice
• Paralegal

Students enrolled in Remington College’s online programs have password-protected, secure online accounts. Students can log on at anytime from any internet connection and access a variety of information, including:

• Course syllabi
• Lectures that can be viewed any number of times
• Assignments and due dates
• School calendars
• Tutorials
• Policy/procedure information

Assignments are submitted and tests taken online. Discussion forums are available for students to communicate with instructors, and Remington College staff members also

e-mail and phone students regularly to provide even more personal attention.

Classes are taught by instructors who bring years of real-world experience into the virtual classroom.

The course structure offers a flexible learning experience compared to traditional classes, as students take one course at a time and breaks are scheduled in between courses.

“Our online degree programs offer the flexibility and convenience that many people need to complete their education goals,” said Dale Leatherwood, President of Remington College’s online programs. “Our mission is to bring quality education and personalized service to online learning.”

Remington College Career Services offers online students help with employment applications, résumé writing and preparing for job interviews.1

Remington College is a branch of the Remington College-Tampa Campus and is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges.

For more information, contact a Remington College Admissions Representative at (800) 448-6405 or visit Remington College’s online programs at http://www.RemingtonCollegeOnline.edu.

About Remington College: Remington College is a common name used by all 20 campuses of a group of affiliated companies of privately-owned, post-secondary educational institutions based in Heathrow, Florida. Through its campuses, Remington College offers diplomas, bachelor’s and associate’s degrees in a variety of fields, including: cosmetology; nursing; healthcare; criminal justice; business; electronics; information technology; and more.  Course offerings vary by campus. Remington College and its predecessor companies have been part of the higher education community since 1985. For more information, please visit http://www.remingtoncollege.edu/. For the latest news about Remington College, visit http://today.remingtoncollege.edu/

1 Employment upon graduation not guaranteed.

Remington College’s online programs are not currently available to residents of AR, IA, KS, MN, MT, or TN.  Residents of CO may enroll in online bachelor’s degree programs only.

Media contact:

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

407-339-0879 office

407-637-6000 cell

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando Public Relations firm.

Bone marrow drives part of Remington College 3 Lives campaign

Heathrow, Fla. – (October 1, 2010) – Remington College will hold bone marrow drives on all its campuses during the month of November.

Remington College, a career school that offers associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, has 20 campuses throughout the United States, including an online campus. Its mission is to provide career-focused education through a variety of programs, including nursing, cosmetology, business office management and criminal justice.

The bone marrow drives are part of Remington College Reaches Out, a series of community initiatives and charitable efforts to mark the college’s 25^th anniversary.

Health care is a priority at Remington College. The school has several programs aimed at educating students interested in careers in the health care field, and holds events aimed at helping the overall health of its campus communities.

“Becoming a bone marrow donor is easy, quick and very important,” said Dr. Mike Lanouette, Vice President and Chief Academic Officer for Remington College. “Bone marrow transplants save lives – and we hope to play an important role in getting more people signed up as potential donors.”

A listing of the participating campuses and dates are available at www.3Lives.com.

For more information, call 1-800-448-6405.

About Remington College: Remington College is a common name used by all 20 campuses of a group of affiliated companies of privately-owned, post-secondary educational institutions based in Heathrow, Florida. Through its campuses, Remington College offers diplomas, bachelor’s and associate’s degrees in a variety of fields, including: cosmetology; nursing; healthcare; criminal justice; business; electronics; information technology; and more.  Course offerings vary by campus. Remington College and its predecessor companies have been part of the higher education community since 1985. For more information, please visit http://www.remingtoncollege.edu/. For the latest news about Remington College, visit http://today.remingtoncollege.edu/

Media contact:

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

407-339-0879 office

407-637-6000 cell

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm.

 

Greetings –

The doctor is in and so are these unbelievable medical mishaps that are featured in the new book from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! called Enter If You Dare! The book is an annual collection of unusual, unbelievable and amazing stories from around the world.  

Some of the book’s amazing medical stories include:

• Man of Steal – pg. 26: Builder Hu Zhuyin had a lucky escape after impaling himself on a crowbar 1 in. (2.5 cm) thick when he slipped while climbing scaffolding in Qingdao, China.  The solid steel crowbar sliced through his chest, missing his aorta by just ½ in. (1 cm).  Before medics could operate, firefighters had to cut through the bar so that Hu could lie flat on the operating table.
• Sumo Cyst – pg. 27: A Chinese woman thought she was pregnant with her first child, only to find that she was instead carrying an ovarian cyst weighing 7 lb, 11 oz. (3.5.kg).  Surgeons at a hospital in Haikou successfully removed the cyst – the largest ovarian cyst found in over 20 years.
• Swallowed Scissors – pg. 27: A man in Putian, China, accidentally swallowed a pair of scissors 3 ½ in. (9 cm) long and 1 ½ in (4 cm) wide.  Mr. Lin was using the scissors as a toothpick but when he suddenly laughed, they slipped down into his throat.  He tried unsuccessfully to cough them back up and the scissors eventually had to be removed by surgery.
• Tears of Blood – pg. 27: Teenager Calvino Inman of Rockwood, Tennessee, has a medical condition that leads to him crying tears of blood.  The bleeding, which can last for up to an hour, occurs at least three times a day.
• Second Baby – pg. 27: Julia Grovenburg of Fort Smith, Arkansas, stunned doctors by conceiving for a second time while already pregnant. When Mrs. Grovenburg went for her first ultrasound scan, she thought she was about eight weeks pregnant – and she was, with a baby boy. However, she was also almost 11 weeks pregnant with a baby girl, who was developing next to her younger brother in their mother’s womb. The non-twins are thought to represent an extremely rare case of superfetation.
• New Skull – pg. 26: A man whose skull was partially removed after an accident over 50 years ago has stunned doctors by growing  a new one – something that is thought to have happened only once before.  Gordon Moore of Northumberland, England, had worn a metal plate for half a century after being involved in a car crash, but when surgeons removed the plate in 2009 to treat an infection, they were amazed to find he had grown a completely new skull underneath.
• Maggot Infestation – pg. 27: After suffering from constant nosebleeds for five days, a 70-year-old woman had 40 maggots removed from her nose by doctors at a hospital in Sion, India. A housefly had entered her nose and laid eggs inside it. When the eggs hatched, the larvae started feeding on her flesh, causing her nose to bleed.
• Stretched Leg – pg. 27: In an attempt to be taken more seriously at work, Hajnal Ban, a politician from Logan, Queensland, Australia, paid a Russian surgeon $30,000 to break her legs and stretch them so that she would be 5 ft 4 in tall, three inches taller than her original height.

Please let me know if you would like to pursue any stories in the book or a story on the book itself.  Images are available, as well as interviews with people from Ripley’s or people featured in the book.

The book cover, as well as several pages and individual images, can be downloaded at http://www.ripleybooks.com/newsroom.

 

Regards,

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

407-339-0879 office

407-637-6000 cell

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

 

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm

Public can take part in paranormal investigations on October 15 & 16

 

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (Sept. 20, 2010)   –   The Ghost Hunters are on the case again! 

Members of the hit TV show on the Syfy Network will return to Ripley’s Castle Warden — but this time for TWO NIGHTS of paranormal investigations on Friday, October 15 and Saturday, October 16. 

Originally scheduled as back-to-back investigations at two different Ripley’s museums (St. Augustine and Orlando), the event has been changed to remain in the nation’s oldest city (and possibly one of its most haunted) for both nights in October.

Dustin Pari, a member of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) and one of the personalities featured on Ghost Hunters International will lead these exclusive late night forays both evenings.

“St. Augustine is a special place for us,” said Pari, who was joined last October by fellow TV stars Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango for a similar investigation at the castle.  “Robert Ripley collected a lot of unusual artifacts in his lifetime, and we believe that paranormal activity can often be associated with specific items, so spending two nights in a row in the museum could make things very interesting,” Pari added.

The St. Augustine landmark, built in the 1880’s and home of the original Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum since 1950, has long been regarded as one of the most haunted properties in the Southeastern United States. Numerous guests and employees have reported hearing voices and seeing apparitions inside the building over the years. Some even claim to have smelled smoke from a 1940’s fire that killed two women when the building served as the Hotel Castle Warden.

The investigations will not be televised, but a limited number of tickets are available for the public to join Dustin for one or both investigations for approximately five hours each evening inside the castle.  

Ripley’s is not involved in any event ticketing.  All information can be found www.idealeventmanage.com.  Guest tickets from the originally scheduled dates will be honored, but arrangements must be made by ticket holders through Ideal Events Management in advance of the new dates

Contact:

Ralf Ingwersen

Ripley’s Ghost Train

904-824-1606

Ingwersen@ripleys.com

 

About Ripley Entertainment

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! St. Augustine is part of the Ripley Entertainment Inc. (www.ripleys.com) family of worldwide attractions, the global leader in location-based entertainment.  More than 13 million people visit its 80-plus attractions in 11 countries each year.  In addition to its 31 Believe It or Not! Odditoriums, the Orlando, Florida-based company has publishing, licensing and broadcast divisions that oversee projects including the syndicated Believe It or Not! television show, best-selling books and the popular syndicated cartoon strip, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, that still runs daily in 42 countries. Ripley Entertainment is a Jim Pattison Company, the third-largest privately held company in Canada.

 

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm.

 

Greetings –

It’s a walk down the aisle—or more like walk on the wild side. Bizarre weddings are chronicled in a new book from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, called Enter If You Dare! The book is an annual collection of unusual, unbelievable and amazing stories from around the world. 

Some of its wacky wedding stories include:

• Wooly Wedding – pg. 28: Shepherdess Louise Fairburn from Lincolnshire, England, got married in a wedding dress made of wool from one of her own flock. Husband Ian wore a woolen waistcoat made from the same sheep. The dress took 120 hours to make. Louise, who even carried a Bo Peep-style crook on her big day, loves her sheep so much that they were featured in her wedding photos.

• Bride to Bee – pg. 158: When Li Wenhua and Yan Hongxia, workers at Nanhu forestry commission in China, decided to tie the knot, they made sure they invited some of their coworkers—in the form of tens of thousands of honeybees. The swarm formed living-insect material for an alternative pair of wedding outfits. The number of people stung at the wedding is unknown.

• Zero Gravity – pg. 29: A couple from New York proved they were head over heels in love during their wedding by getting married in zero gravity. Science fiction fans Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan paid more than $15,000 to have their wedding at Kennedy Space Center in a converted Boeing 727 jet airplane which, in the course of a special 90-minute flight, undertakes spectacular roller-coaster-style dives, which simulates the weightlessness experienced by astronauts on space walks. As they floated on air, the couple exchanged rings made from precious metal fragments of a meteorite that crashed to Earth 30,000 years ago.

• Bear Witness – pg. 75: When naturalist Casey Anderson married actress Missi Pyle in Montana, his best man was Brutus, a half-ton grizzly bear. Brutus also joined the 85 guests at the reception, where he helped himself to some wedding cake. 

• Paper Dress – pg. 201: A woman got married in China wearing a dress made entirely out of paper. Designer Zhu Zhu took two and a half months to make the cotton paper dress for the bride, her best friend Sha Sha.

• Long Train – pg. 214: For her wedding to Zhao Peng in China, Lin Rong wore a dress with a train that stretched more than 1.3 miles behind her. The gown, which cost nearly $6,000 and took guests over three hours to roll out, was the groom’s idea. As an added romantic gesture, it had 9,999 red silk roses pinned to it. 

• Shrek Wedding – pg. 232: Living up to his name, Keith Green married Christine England dressed up as the movie character Shrek. He and his bride—who was dressed as the ogre princess Fiona—spent three hours having their faces and hands painted green.

• Wedding Toast – pg. 235: Opening their presents following their wedding in England, Claire and Stuart Linley were amazed to discover that they had been given no fewer than 24 toasters. They kept one and returned the other 23.

• Thrifty Bride – pg. 240: Heather Saint, a 20-year-old bride, beat the recession in 2008 by buying her wedding dress on the Internet auction site eBay for just five pence (8 cents).

• Bamboo Balance – pg. 243: Three couples got married on the Xiangjiang River in China while balancing on bamboo poles that measured 8 inches in diameter. The couples, who wore traditional wedding attire, are all members of the local bamboo rafting club and chose to get married on the water to demonstrate their skill at the sport. 

Please let me know if you would like to pursue any stories in the book or a story on the book itself. Images are available, as well as interviews with people from Ripley’s or people featured in the book.

The book cover, as well as several pages and individual images, can be downloaded at http://www.ripleybooks.com/newsroom.  

 

Regards,

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications 

407-637-6000 cell

407-339-0879 office

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

 

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm

 

Greetings –

Is your workout routine getting stale? Pep it up with one of these incredible fitness stories in the new book from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! called Enter If You Dare! The book is an annual collection of unusual, unbelievable and amazing stories from around the world. 

Some of the book’s unusual fitness stories:

• Human Weights – pg. 235: In January 2009, a fitness gym in London, England, set up weight-lifting machines using people as weights. The five differently sized human weights – ranging from a 66-lb man to one weighing 340 lb –not only helped gym goers visualize the weight they were lifting, but also shouted words of encouragement.
• Keeping Active – pg. 232: Xie Long from Chongqing, China, kept fit for 30 years using two old mortars as dumbbells – until a friend noticed the weapons were still live. Police defused the mortars, which could have exploded at any time.
• Mountain Bike – pg. 140: Extreme yoga artist Khiv Raj Gurjar from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India, balances in extraordinary positions on his bicycle just inches from the edge of rocky outcrops 300 ft high. Khiv, who has been practicing and studying yoga since the age of 13, decided to combine both his loves – cycling and yoga – to create this striking discipline in 2006.
• Canada Ride – pg. 141: Riding about 185 miles a day, Corneliu Dobrin of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, cycled 4,475 miles across Canada in just 24 days in July 2009.
• Stiletto Sprint – pg. 83: At a race in Nanning, Guangxi Province, China, all the runners wear high heels – both men and women! Male runners must wear shoes with heels at least 3-in high, while women have to run in 4-in (10-cm) stilettos because they are more used to wearing high heels.
• Iron Man – pg. 159: Japanese athlete Keizo Yamada, known as the “Iron Man,” ran three marathons in 2009 – at 81 years of age. He completed the Tokyo marathon in 5 hours 34 minutes 50 seconds and kept fit by jogging 12 miles every day.
• Arctic Marathon – pg. 159: Wearing only shorts and a pair of sandals, Dutchman Wim Hof completed a 2009 marathon in sub-zero temperatures 200 mi north of the Arctic Circle. His body was exposed to temperatures of 13°F as he finished the 26-mi trek in 5 hours 25 minutes.
• Around Britain – pg. 159: Starting and finishing in London, English comedian Eddie Izzard ran 1,105 miles around Britain from July 26 to September 15, 2009 –  the equivalent of running 43 marathons in 51 days.
• Michigan Swim – pg. 159: By completing a 26-hour, 34-mile swim across Lake Michigan in 2009, Paula Stephanson of Belleville, Ontario, Canada, became only the second person to swim across all five Great Lakes. Her first Great lake swim was across Lake Ontario in 1996 at age 17.
• Knuckle Buster – pg. 161: Mick Gooch must have the strongest finger in the world. The martial arts expert from Kent, England, is capable of 17 one-armed, single-fingered push-ups on the head of a nail.
• Plane Crazy – pg. 161: In perhaps the greatest feat of strength ever, Rev. Kevin Fast from Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, successfully pulled a giant Globemaster airplane weighing 416,000 lb – the weight of more than 50 African elephants – for 29 ft across the runway at an airbase in Trenton, Canada, in 2009.

Please let me know if you would like to pursue any stories in the book or a story on the book itself.  Images are available, as well as interviews with people from Ripley’s or people featured in the book.

The book cover, as well as several pages and individual images, can be downloaded at http://www.ripleybooks.com/newsroom.

 

Regards,

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

407-339-0879 office

407-637-6000 cell

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

 

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm

Greetings –

Sometimes it’s the places we visit that inspire us—other times it’s the travelers.

Such worldwide adventurers and their unbelievable travels are chronicled in the new book from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, called Enter If You Dare! The book is an annual collection of unusual, unbelievable and amazing stories from around the world. 

Some of the bizarre and amazing travel stories include:

• To conquer his phobia of flying, Mark Malkoff of New York spent an entire month on an airplane. Traveling up to 12 flights a day, he touched down at 38 U.S. airports, spent 267 hours in the air and covered a distance of 111,972 miles. P. 130
• Eco-friendly Tom Fewins and Lara Lockwood traveled more than 44,000 miles around the world in 297 days – without once boarding an airplane. They made their way through 19 countries using boats, 6 bicycles, 2 mopeds and 1 elephant. They say they each generated less than 6,600 lb of carbon dioxide on their journey, one-third of the amount they would have generated if they would have traveled by airplane. P. 134
• Ed Stafford is walking the length of the Amazon River (a distance that could span up to 6,000 miles). P. 46
• Although paralyzed from the neck down, 37-year-old Hilary Lister sailed solo around the U.K.  – a distance of  1,500 miles. She operated the 20-ft racing yacht by blowing though
  straws connected to a computer. P. 129
• Alysa Binder and Dan Wiesel founded the Florida-based Pet Airways, an airline service that caters solely to pets. No owners allowed – not even in the cargo hold. P. 127
• Flight Rap: U.S. flight attendant David Holmes got so bored with reading out the safety instructions that he raps them. P. 130

Please let me know if you would like to pursue any stories in the book or a story on the book itself.  Images are available, as well as interviews with people from Ripley’s or people featured in the book.  

The book cover, as well as several pages and individual images, can be downloaded at http://www.ripleybooks.com/newsroom.

Regards,

Frank Wolff

Wellons Communications

407-339-0879

407-637-6000 cell

Frank@wellonscommunications.com

 

Posted by Wellons Communications, an Orlando public relations firm