Strengthening The Community
One Child At A Time
Orchards Children's Services is a leader among Michigan's child
welfare agencies, providing specialized care in addition to
recreational and educational services for children in Oakland,
Wayne and Macomb counties.
Orchards provides the highest quality services designed to
strengthen family stability, build supportive communities and
address current and emerging family needs.
Orchards offers the most appropriate and prompt permanency
plan for those children separated from their families, as well as
support for reunification or acceptance into a new family.
• Foster Care Services
• At-Home Respite Services
• Adoption Services
• Managed Care Services
• Outpatient Clinical Services • Community Services
Elmo, the red Muppet sitting on the fence, will entertain his fans along with the rest of his Sesame Street Live cohorts in Let's
Play School.
Orchards Children's Services
Oakland County
30215 Southfield Rd.
Southfield, MI 48076
(810) 433-8600
Wayne County
Macomb County
7700 Second Avenue
42140 Van Dyke Road
Detroit, MI 48202 Sterling Heights, MI 48134
(313) 874-9506
(810) 997-3886
Spine Tingling
Ghost Story
"Guaranteed to
chill the blood!"
7-Year Hit
in London's
West End!
"A real thrill
of horror"
London
Sunday Times
THE WOMAN
THE DETRO IT JEWISH NEWS
So you couldn't locate a Tickle Me Elmo for the kids. The giggling red
Muppet will be here in person in a Sesame Street Live production.
LESLIE JOSEPH SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
London Evening
Standard
BLACK
by Stephen Mallatratt
For tickets call
Meadow Brook
Box Office
(810) 377-3300
Ticketmaster
(810) 645-6666
Hudson's
Harmony House and
Blockbuster Music
Heeere's Elmo !
Meadow
Brook
Theatre
Oakland University's
Professional Theatre
Supported
by the
mc'
aca
miclugan
council
for a r
and
cultural
affairs
I
f standing out in the sleet
and snow for your chance
at a giggling red Muppet
wasn't your bag, take
heart. He's back.
Tickle Me Elmo, this season's
undisputed hottest-selling toy,
turned even the kindhearted
and genteel into crazed lunatics
in their quest for the perfect hol-
iday gift.
With lines at some stores
wrapping around the street cor-
ner and an "each man for him-
self' attitude in the toy aisle that
_ made running with the bulls in
Pamplona look like a Sunday
stroll, the folks at Tyco, the mak-
er of the popular Sesame Street
character doll, are chuckling all
the way to the bank.
"I think the adults rather
than the kids made Elmo the big
item that it was," said an assis-
tant manager at Kmart in
Bloomfield Hills. "The novelty of
having something from Sesame
Street that laughs and is a little
bit active was very appealing."
The moppy red-haired doll
that laughs when you squeeze
its belly and comes up with pithy
one-liners such as, "Oh boy, that
tickles," retails for around $25.
But for many people, money was
not the problem.
At the height of the Elmo ma-
nia, radio and television stations
around the country took to auc-
tioning off the toy for charity,
with bids reaching as high as
$3,000 in Minneapolis. Online
scalpers offered Elmo dolls for
as much as $200 on the Inter-
net. And enterprising consumers
who had shopped early ran ad-
vertisements in local newspa-
pers seeking the highest bid.
The media had a lot to do with
Elmo's climb to celebrity status,
said Michelle Hagen at Target
Northland in Southfield. "They
really revved up the hype," she
"Oh boy,
that
tickles!"
said.
"Right before Thanksgiving,
I'd never heard of it," she said.
But after everyone from Rosie
O'Donnell to Peter Jennings
gave it a plug, Elmo became a
mega superstar.
"Elmo is just so cute," said
Kelli Lewis, 15, of Bloomfield
Hills, an ardent Elmo fan. "A lot
of people like Elmo," she said.
"He's the cutest character on
the TV show. When other
people saw how much people
wanted [Elmo], they wanted one
too."
Lewis, who works at FAO
Schwarz in Troy, said they start-
ed turning people away at the
end of November when it was
clear the demand for Elmo was
far-outpacing the supply.
With names on some waiting
lists still running into the hun-
dreds at the holidays, many par-
ents -had to forgo their dreams
of seeing their little ones shout
with glee at the sight of their fa-
vorite TV Muppet.
But the folks at Olympia En-
tertainment and Sesame Street
Live, either seizing a golden op-
portunity or profiting from in-
credibly good timing, are
bringing Elmo and his cohorts
to town. The Fox Theatre will
host Elmo and the rest of the
Sesame Street gang, live, in the
90-minute musical stage pro-
duction of Let's Play School.
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to be tickled. LI
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