Latest news with #ChuckE.Cheese
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chuck E. Cheese Partners with The Toy Foundation™ to Celebrate International Day of Play
Family entertainment leader to offer free active play all day at participating locations June 11 Adventure Zone Active Play at Chuck E. Cheese IRVING, Texas, June 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chuck E. Cheese, the world's leading family entertainment fun center, is celebrating the power of play by partnering with The Toy Foundation™, which delivers play to millions of children when they need it most, for International Day of Play on June 11 with free active play all day and fundraisers. The partnership comes as the United Nations marks the second annual International Day of Play, established in 2024 to champion and protect every child's right to play as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. On June 11, participating Chuck E. Cheese fun centers in the U.S., Canada, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Trinidad & Tobago will offer free active play all day for all children under 56 inches tall in its new Adventure Zones, which include Trampoline Zones and Superhero Playground attractions, where available, with coupon found at Throughout the month of June, more than 400 Chuck E. Cheese locations across the U.S. and Canada will support The Toy Foundation's mission to deliver brand-new toys and play opportunities to children in need through a two-part fundraising campaign: A national fundraiser, June 9-12: Chuck E. Cheese will donate 20% of sales from guests who mention The Toy Foundation at the checkout in-store. A Round it Up campaign June 1-30: Guests will have the option to round up their purchase by donating $1, $3 or $5 in-store or online. 'At Chuck E. Cheese, we've built our legacy on creating fun, memorable play experiences for families for nearly 50 years,' said David McKillips, President and CEO of Chuck E. Cheese. 'Our partnership with The Toy Foundation™ extends our mission beyond our Fun Centers, and into communities where the power of play can truly transform lives. We believe Chuck E. Cheese is how the world celebrates childhood, and every child deserves the opportunity to play, learn and grow in a safe, supportive environment.' Proceeds from the fundraisers will help expand the reach and impact of The Toy Foundation™, which brings toys, games and play opportunities to children in hospitals, underserved communities and in crisis situations following natural or humanitarian disasters around the world. 'By partnering with Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate International Day of Play, The Toy Foundation™ can bring the power of play to even more children in need,' said Pamela Mastrota, executive director of The Toy Foundation. 'Their commitment to joyful play experiences aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver the vital benefits of play to children facing life's most difficult circumstances.' For more information about Chuck E. Cheese's partnership with The Toy Foundation™ and International Day of Play activities, visit About Chuck E. Cheese Chuck E. Cheese is the place where half a million happy birthdays are celebrated every year, with a mission to create positive, lifelong memories for families through fun, food and play. For over 47 years, Chuck E. Cheese has been the place Where A Kid Can Be A Kid®, and it continues to set the standard for family entertainment through interactive experiences, exciting arcade games and its beloved Chuck E. Cheese character. Committed to providing a fun, safe and inclusive environment, Chuck E. Cheese helps protect families through industry-leading programs such as Kid Check®. As a strong advocate for its local communities, Chuck E. Cheese has donated more than $24 million to schools and nonprofits through its fundraising programs. The Company and its franchisees operate a system of nearly 600 Chuck E. Cheese fun centers in 45 U.S. states and 17 foreign countries and territories. In PMQ's Pizza Power Report 2025, Chuck E. Cheese was named one of the top 10 pizza chains in the U.S. For more information, visit The Toy Foundation™ (TTF) is the philanthropic arm of The Toy Association and the toy industry. Its mission is to serve children in need by providing joy and comfort through the experience of toys and play. TTF delivers the benefits of play to children through strategic grantmaking, toy donations, and impactful programs like The Toy Chest and Play Fund. Through industry-wide engagement and strategic partnerships, TTF serves as a unifying force for collective philanthropy to benefit all children in need. For more information, visit Media Contact:Chuck E. CheeseKendra ByrdKendra@ 817-329-3257 The Toy FoundationKristin Morency Goldmankmorency@ 646.454.5582 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time Out
28-05-2025
- Business
- Time Out
This popular ice cream chain is closing 500 of its stores
Thrifty Ice Cream, a historic ice cream brand out of Los Angeles, will be closing 500 stores, as reported by The Street. The company launched in 1940 out of a West Hollywood factory, and then started serving it to patrons out of a Thrifty Drug Store in downtown Los Angeles. Over its 85 years of serving small batch ice cream, it's earned many accolades, countless prestigious awards and even shoutouts from Hollywood celebrities. Thrifty is known for being served out of a square-topped scooper, so the cone you are presented isn't the traditional round shape but instead hockey puck shaped (but still with the frill like the flounce of a skirt at the bottom). While waiting for your prescription at more than 500 West Coast Rite Aid pharmacies, you could get a scoop. Better yet, you could bring a container home or buy a branded cake cup from more than 2,300 grocery stores and chain stores across the U.S. But that may be about to change. Why is Thrifty closing down 500 stores? Like many retailers, Rite Aid (where the scoop shops are) is facing bankruptcy. Many drugstore chains have been underperforming and closing locations, including CVS and Walgreens, in the wake of the pandemic. When a Rite Aid with a Thrifty counter closes, the ice cream service goes down as well. Is there any hope? It's possible that the ice cream brand could be purchased along with Rite Aid assets and be revived. What are some of the unusual flavors Thrifty makes? In late October 2024, Thrifty launched a Chuck E. Cheese birthday cake flavor in collaboration with the party giant. Other wild flavors include Siracha Swirl and bacon and cheddar. Why the square scoop? Unknown, but a Food & Wine cookware tester raved about it. As someone who used to scoop for Ben & Jerry's in Vermont and ruined my wrist for a summer, this branded device looks amazing because you push it down straight into the ice cream, using your body weight, rather than trying to skim sideways. It kind of resembles a law office stapler designed to get through enormous briefs. Which celebrity loves Thrifty Ice Cream? Kourtney Kardashian Barker. Two of her favorite flavors are rainbow sherbet and butter pecan. At her fabulous Camp Poosh before Coachella, she had a little Thrifty stand on the grounds.
Buzz Feed
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
25 Nostalgic Places That No Longer Exist
It's true what they say — you can never really go home. And not just because as we get older, it's harder to recapture the joyful feelings of our youth, sometimes there's literally not a place to go back to. Recently, Reddit user MonkeysDaddy2012 prompted the Ask Reddit community with this question: Where's a place you've been that no longer exists? The answers had me digging deep into my nostalgia wells, and unlocked more than a few forgotten mems. "DZ Discovery Zone, where I can be a kid ON MY OWN. I had several birthday parties there." "Does anyone remember the little cafeteria they had inside of K-Marts? I remember going shopping with my Mom while my siblings were at school, and we stopped there for lunch a couple of times. Then they remodeled and put in a counter to buy popcorn and an Icee." "I worked at KB Toys when Razor scooters first came out. They were insanely popular, and people would fight for them. Pretty sure I was wearing JNCO jeans to work at the time, really dating myself with that comment. I remember getting to know some of the Barbie Doll, Matchbox, and Star Wars figurine collectors after a while, too. Lots of good memories." "The Wendy's salad bar. As a teen, I ate this almost every week." "Action Park in New Jersey. An 'amusement park' so dangerous they made a documentary about it!" "Waldenbooks. I used to love going there to get the monthly Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club books. Afterwards, I'd walk to Thrifty to get my triple scoop chocolate ice cream." "Ponderosa and its mirror image, Bonanza! Wouldn't touch 'em with a 9-ft fork now, but boy did I love a buffet with pudding on it as a child." "I loved the old-school Radio Shack. Not the one that was trying to compete with modern electronics stores, but when they were like an electronics hardware store. So many interesting components that I had no clue what they were used for." "Candlestick Park! Coldest I have ever been was at a daytime Giants game in June. I was wearing a ski parka that was too warm to actually ski in, and it was so miserable we had to leave before the game was over. So many great memories of Candlestick." "Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World!" "I loved me some Showbiz Pizza! I hated Chuck E. Cheese. When I was a kid, the Showbiz in town was supposed to close temporarily for a remodel or something and never reopened. It then opened as a Chuck E. Cheese. I will be 46 in a couple of weeks and still don't like Chuck E. Cheese!" "Circuit City! Where service is (was) state of the art!" "Flintstone's Bedrock City. Only went once as a little. Seemed cool." "Sears. I used to wander off and sit on the John Deere riding mower and pretend to drive until my Mother spotted me." "Tower Records was the coolest place in the world. The kids need to know." "Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour. Still traumatized from the full marching band for my childhood birthday parties." "I grew up in Nashville. Our family had season tickets to Opryland for years and years — so many out-of-town relatives and friends came to stay with us and go there. It was a fun place, with shows, food, rides, all kinds of entertainment, and it was beautiful, too — trees, flowers, all sorts of landscaped splendor. And it really celebrated Nashville's musical heritage. I got married and we moved away from Nashville for my husband's job, so we were gone for several years. Imagine my horror when I heard that they had torn down Opryland, only to replace it with a big, ugly outlet mall in the middle of a big, ugly parking lot. Kind of emblematic of America as a whole: music shows, games, rides, scenery, all sorts of family fun, replaced by shopping." "I went to CBGB many times, even played there back when I was in a band. Still such a shame that it's gone." "I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so on Friday nights, the drive-in movie theater was the place to be. Our parents would all put lawn chairs in the back of their trucks or out next to the cars, and us kids would run around and hit the snack shack for pizzas and popcorn." "Ben Franklin Five and Dimes. RIP musty smelling aisles of wonder :(" "Leapin' Lizards. An indoor amusement center in the Chicago suburbs. Man, I miss the '90s :(" "The old Yankee Stadium. They should have kept the original. The history that place had was so significant, and it was one of the few original baseball stadiums still standing. It should have been restored and preserved." "Astroworld in Houston, TX. Went there when I was a kid the last summer it was open." "Fry's Electronics! Loved that they all had different themes." And finally, every '90s kid's favorite weekend pastime: "My fam would go to Blockbuster on Friday and pick out some movies for the evening, or for the week for us kids. We rented so much in my later years, we'd go in during the day, watch our picks with dinner, and then my parents would get bored and go back to the store around 10 pm to rent more, haha. They were always getting freebies, too. Also buying used DVDs and Blu-rays. It's how I got some of my more obscure titles." Were any long-lost memories unlocked for you? Or were any of your favorite former go-tos not mentioned in this list? Let me know in the comments!
USA Today
15-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
The 2025 NFL schedule is out, and these are its 5 worst games – which you'll still watch
The 2025 NFL schedule is out, and these are its 5 worst games – which you'll still watch Show Caption Hide Caption Will Anderson Jr. talks about going into year three in the NFL Texans DB Will Anderson Jr. talks about his expectations for the 2025 season. Sports Seriously Bad football is like bad pizza, right? Sure, comfort food has various degrees of excellence – or lack thereof – but at the end of the day, you're probably still going to reach for it. Wednesday night's complete revelation of the 2025 NFL schedule is similarly metaphoric to savoring something you bought on the Lower East Side … or wolfing down Chuck E. Cheese because the options are limited at that birthday party of 4-year-olds you're helping to chaperone. So while we'll breathlessly anticipated games like Ravens-Bills, Lions-Commanders or the Super Bowl 59 rematch between the Chiefs and Eagles, we're here to list the five least appetizing games on the 2025 scheduled in this space – ranked bad to worst – even though we still suspect you'll grab a slice anyway: How does the matchup kicking off the league's 106th season make the list? Weeelll, it's the end of summer. No more vacation. School is back in session. The weather is going to turn. The Cowboy Carter Tour will be over while the Cowboys embark on what will surely be a 30th consecutive tour around the league that won't conclude on Super Sunday. Stick to football? Fine. Few matchups are as overanalyzed and overburdened – in terms of their actual importance – as the first of the regular season's 272 games. And when you add 'America's Team' to the mix? If the Eagles win comfortably, the narrative will be that a team which largely dominated during the 2024 playoffs will be on its way to a successful Super Bowl defense. Any other outcome? Then the Eagles aren't as good as we thought … and the Cowboys are back in a big way and under the radar no longer … plus, hey, maybe rookie head coach Brian Schottenheimer can become the first to get Jerry Jones a ring since Barry Switzer three decades ago. You can see where this is going, hot takes just running amok for days until the rest of the league's teams get out of the gate. Yes, it will be fun to have the NFL back and to ring in its return with one of the league's better rivalries and two of its most high-profile teams. But just a little bit of dread is baked in here, too. Why do I include this game, which is appropriately buried at 1 p.m. ET on a Sunday? On its surface, it shapes up as one of the season's more lopsided pairings, the home team chasing a third consecutive division title (and more) while the visitor seemingly remains in its decades-long quarterback – and holistic – purgatory. (Detroit rates seventh in my most recent power rankings, 22 spots ahead of Cleveland.) Yet this game will roughly mark the 16th anniversary of the Lions' 38-37 defeat of the Browns at Ford Field in 2009, when then-rookie QB Matthew Stafford – playing through a dislocated non-throwing shoulder – outdueled Brady Quinn and Co. (seriously) by throwing the game-winning touchdown pass on the final play in one of the best Alcoa Fantastic Finishes nobody saw or remembers. (And make no mistake, Cleveland and Detroit were typically putrid in 2009, combining for seven victories.) It's precisely why all manner of pizza gets consumed. And who knows, maybe Jared Goff vs. Shedeur Sanders – perhaps – is, um … "legendary?" Maybe? 3. Houston Texans at Seattle Seahawks, Oct. 20, 2025 They should be fine teams, each coming off a 10-win campaign and both stocked with some of the league's compelling, younger players. But not only is this game in the dreaded 10 p.m. ET time slot that will regrettably return twice to Monday night this season, you'll also have to hope the WiFi doesn't blink – this contest is exclusive to ESPN+ – or you could miss the next time Sam Darnold or C.J. Stroud is sacked. 2. Atlanta Falcons vs. Indianapolis Colts, Nov. 9, 2025 If I want to watch this – if – I have to get up by 9:30 a.m. ET to view the first regular-season game ever staged in Berlin? Didn't the NFL foist Daniel Jones off on the Germans last year? (Yes. Yes it did.) Perhaps it's an unexpected barnburner between teams that could be playoff dark horses. Maybe Atlanta RB Bijan Robinson is even anchoring my fantasy lineup. And perhaps it's a battle of franchises that have typically been also-rans for the past decade in a game where the ball could quite realistically hit the ground half the time it's put into the air. Sorry, Deutschland. If you're potentially feeling grateful after Thanksgiving weekend, you'll doubtless be over it by Monday night. Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won't be walking through that door – well maybe TB12 and BB will (game's in Foxborough, so never say never) – in what could very likely be a showdown between three-win teams with Drake Maye and Jaxson Dart, who might well be making his prime-time debut by that point of the season, at the controls. High degree of skepticism for a tasty meal here … even if leftovers sometimes taste better. All NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY's 4th and Monday newsletter.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gary Sinise Opens Up About Leaving Hollywood and Losing His Son to Cancer: 'I Just Want to Be Around Family' (Exclusive)
Forrest Gump and CSI: NY actor Gary Sinise paused his acting career in 2019 after his wife and son were diagnosed with cancer His wife Moira survived breast cancer, but their son Mac died in January 2024 from a rare bone cancer Sinise, who moved to Tennessee in 2023, opens up to PEOPLE about grieving, and how he's remembering Mac by releasing music his son composed Gary Sinise is standing in a bright green grove outside his rural Nashville-area home, grinning as he talks about the starring role that's become his favorite: 'Papa' to his five grandchildren, ages 1 to 8. 'It's just the most wonderful thing,' the actor says. Earlier in the day, Sinise, 70, handled the school run, but it's not uncommon to spot the Oscar-nominated actor hanging out with the grandkids at Chuck E. Cheese or a local trampoline park. 'He spoils them rotten,' says Sinise's daughter Sophie, 36, of her and her sister Ella's children, who always find two things at Papa's house: ice cream ('They know they'll get fed a lot of it when they come,' he admits) and hugs. 'Being able to love on them and love on our daughters, that's helped me a lot.' That love kept him afloat after he walked away from his Hollywood career in 2019 to care for his son Mac when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. In the year since losing Mac, who died in January 2024 at 33, the actor has found comfort in his close-knit family and his Tennessee home, and a new purpose in keeping Mac's memory alive. 'Mac left us things that are beautiful,' says Sinise. 'I want people to know who he was.' An actor in demand since starring in Forrest Gump and Apollo 13 in the early '90s (he's appeared in more than 50 feature films and TV shows, including all nine seasons of CSI: NY), Sinise saw his world turn upside down in the summer of 2018. That's when his wife of nearly 44 years, Moira, 71, whom he met when he co-founded Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the two were aspiring actors, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. And just as the couple were navigating her care, they learned that Mac, then 27, the second of their three kids, had a tumor on his lower backbone. 'It looked like a monster grabbing my son's spine,' Sinise recalls of the MRI scan showing Mac had a bone cancer known as chordoma, which affects only 300 people in the U.S. per year. Suddenly, the actor was grappling with how to help them both: 'It was a one-two punch.' After eight chemo treatments and 35 radiation treatments, Moira was declared cancer-free, but Mac's condition worsened. Doctors removed his tumor, but he was among the minority of chordoma patients whose cancer returns. During breaks on-set while shooting films and the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, Sinise called doctors and researched the disease. 'Dad dove into the storm,' says his daughter Ella, 32. 'Whatever's going on in his life, he goes full on. He did amazing, but it was hard to watch because it was traumatizing. It's really a testimony to his character — he doesn't let adversity slow him down." In 2020, Mac was in the hospital for six of the first eight months of the year. 'That's when I stopped acting,' Sinise says. 'I started putting everything I had into trying to find a miracle for Mac.' He became his son's 'air traffic controller': 'I didn't want Mac to be thinking of the next treatment or to worry. So I thought about cancer all the time. You're trying to take the pain away. A few times I felt like I couldn't do enough, or I didn't know what to do. Then you say a little prayer, get back up and go back into the fight.' Sinise has seen other families go through similar battles through his work supporting veterans and first responders and their families through the Gary Sinise Foundation, which he established in 2011: 'I've wrapped my arms around lots of kids who have lost a mom or a dad. I've been around people that have persevered through difficult things. It's given me strength. There's no question God prepared me well for dealing with our loss.' Even after tumors paralyzed Mac from the chest down and restricted the full use of his arms, the family leaned on their deep Catholic faith and didn't lose hope. 'Hope keeps you in the fight,' Sinise says. 'You could see tumors on his body. You knew the drugs weren't working. But I wasn't thinking we were going to lose him.' Moira, whose mobility is also limited due to chronic back issues, encouraged Mac, a musician and composer who'd graduated from the University of Southern California music school, to teach himself harmonica, one of the few instruments he could still play. Mac, who worked at the foundation writing music for promotional videos, had been a drummer since Sinise bought him a starter drum set when he was nine, sometimes sitting in with Sinise's Lt. Dan Band (named for Sinise's Forrest Gump role as a wounded Vietman vet). With the harmonica, Mac learned to play the folk tune "Oh Shenandoah." And, says his sister Sophie: 'As his body grew weaker and weaker, his faith grew stronger. He carried on in his body and his soul and his spirit with so much bravery and strength." In 2023, Mac reconnected with a USC friend, composer Oliver Schnee, who helped him revive and arrange some of his long-dormant compositions. By Mac's 33rd birthday in November, Gary's foundation and family had moved from L.A. to Tennessee—attractive because of its proximity to military bases and lower cost of living (with no acting income, 'I wanted to spend less,' Sinise says). Mac spent his birthday recording his music in Nashville for an album, which became Resurrection & Revival. But the next month, on Dec. 30, he was back in the hospital, a St. Augustine prayer book at his side. Mac died Jan. 5, 2024, surrounded by family. 'He kept wanting to stay. He didn't want to go. But I know Mac was at peace at the end. He dealt with it with grace and courage,' Sinise says. A tragedy like that 'can destroy you or it can make you come together. We pulled together quite a lot," Sinise says. Sophie says her parents grew even closer. "She's my dad's number one supporter,' Sophie says of their mom, Moira. 'And she was Mac's prayer warrior.' In the months after Mac's death, Sinise found more music on his laptop and recruited friends to record a second album. Sinise released both, with proceeds from Resurrection & Revival: Parts 1 and 2 going toward the Gary Sinise Foundation, which was Mac's request. Sinise hopes to one day see the albums performed by a live orchestra. And he's got his sights on animating another of Mac's compositions. 'I want people to hear his music. I want people to share it. I'm on a mission.' He knows it's his way of coping with grief: 'I thought the other day, 'What happens when all these projects are done?' Well, I'm going to drag them on as long as I can.' As for acting, Sinise isn't sure when — or if — he'll make a return. 'Something may come along and it'll be right, but it's harder to leave home now,' he says. 'I just want to be around family. Since losing Mac, I hold my daughters a lot tighter. You think about the things that are really important.' Read the original article on People
