 Welcome to Think Tech on Spectrum OC16, Hawaii's weekly newscast on things that matter to tech and to Hawaii. In our show this time, we'll see what one of our old friends, Seymour Kazimerski, the host of Seymour's World on Think Tech, is doing for Christmas. Seymour likes kids, and he likes helping kids who are ill. He brings musicians into the hospitals to make them smile, especially at Christmas. So naturally, we're calling this show Seymour's Christmas. As the longtime host of Seymour's World, Seymour cares deeply about disadvantaged children. He has been hosting his show for more than four years, and he often refers to the Make Them Smile program. In fact, one of the recurrent threads in Seymour's shows and commentaries has been his charitable work to bring music to entertain kids at hospitals. He calls the program Make Them Smile. As a result, Seymour is well acquainted with these kids and their families and the staff and musicians who are involved in the Make Them Smile program. A discussion of what Seymour does is especially poignant at Christmas. So this year, we want to celebrate Seymour's Christmas and his good works. Here's a talk show Seymour recently did in our studio where he explained what he does for Christmas, why he does it, and how the children and the musicians respond. In this show, we'll meet some of the musicians who help him by playing for the kids in Seymour's Make Them Smile program in the hospitals. Hi, welcome to Seymour's World on Think Tech Hawaii. This is our holiday show. Can you tell? I'm wearing a, you know, I'm wearing a Santa's hat because I don't have a Hanukkah hat. If there was such a thing, I would wear a Hanukkah hat half the show and a Christmas hat the other half of the show. We're dedicating this show to our Make Them Smile program. Why? Because I think our Make Them Smile program really is the epitome of giving back to our community. And I have to give 100% credit if I could give more I would to our entertainers, to our musicians. These people, the men, the women who go to the hospitals and play for these kids for an hour, for two hours, you have to understand that they're working while they do this. And yet they do it every week, sometimes every month, sometimes twice or three times a week or twice or three times a month. And that is dedication. That is a dedication that we cannot put money on. We can't pay for what these guys are doing. And one of the groups that has been with me almost from the beginning are the Kailua Bay Buddies. That was so wonderful. And I, you know, I'm I'm sure you guys are smiling, just watching and listening to this, but that's exactly what we do with the Make Them Smile program in the hospitals. And that's you guys are the epitome of exactly what makes our kids so happy. So that is just wonderful. Now, Daryl, the joy that you get for doing this, you share it with your family. We've met your kids and your family. And they obviously believe that what you're doing is so important for them as well. Well, the thing is, you know, we've been so blessed. I mean, as far as like Kailua Bay, but my family just, and to be able to do this. And I've always been told that, you know, you have a talent to share it because that's how you grow your talent, always that way. You know, if you have something that you can share with people, share it. I mean, and yes, this is my work, but I have the opportunity to share it and, you know, give back. That's fabulous. And Mark, how about you? You're working at the Bishop Museum, I believe. I work at the Bishop Museum at full-time there, full-time job doing. And then you have full-time work. I love my jobs. I care about, I love playing music. I love taking care of Hawaii's heritage. It's an awesome, it's an awesome thing to do. And yeah, you know, doing this, playing music for these children, being in the hospital, there is no way to explain when you're playing and you're seeing all, you're seeing all the electronic stuff they're, they're connected to and you watch their heart rates level out. You can see the effect that music has on children while you're doing it. It's mind-boggling. In the second half of our show, we're even luckier because we have one of our first musicians, entertainers, who started with Make Him Smile four years ago, Aaron Grimingo. Welcome. Thank you. Absolutely beautiful. When you, when you sing to the kids, Aaron, and when you, when you make that direct connection to them, what is the communication like with these kids? Absolutely. It's very much. And I think when I, I think the time that I go and see these kids, it's, you know, they either come off of a long treatment or maybe they're just starting to get into it, right? So you can tell right away that they're either nervous about something or they're anxious about something. And really, it's just a matter of saying, Hey, listen, I'm not here to talk about medicine. I'm not here to talk about what's wrong with you. I'm just here to know and what is it that you want that we can make you just smile for just a few minutes, right? So it's really about connecting with the children in a way that allows them to feel comfortable, to feel safe, to feel that, Hey, you know what, doesn't have to be all seriousness. It can be lightly, it can be. So a lot of times that humor is at my own expense, which is fine. But I'm used to that with my wife. But really, it's just a matter of just exposing yourself and making yourself feel vulnerable so that they can connect to that. And from there, you know, asking for requests, asking for something that they want to hear, that makes a lot of sense to me because they get to connect with it a lot faster. They get to kind of understand it. And even though I might be struggling through it or not understand how to play the song, I've seen you do that. And the kids laugh so hard because you're trying so hard. I think that's great. You can't lose, right? Whether you sound good or whether you sound bad, I think they're going to love it. Is it a win-win situation for you? Do you really feel that by going there, you're getting something back for it as well? Absolutely. And that's something, no matter how busy I get, no matter how successful I would consider myself in life, this is something I'm always going to make time for. I think if I can do this forever, it would be a great thing. And thanks to people like you and thanks to people like the Kailua Bay Buddies and all the musicians that are helping, I think this is something that can be completely sustainable. I think it's something that we can continue for a very long time and absolutely a win-win. When I first started four years ago, like I said, you get to meet the kids, you get to meet the staff, you get to meet everybody that's involved. And something in my heart, just when you think of life and everything that's happening in life, that's the one thing in my life that I never have to worry about saying, you know what, maybe I should better this part of my life or whatnot. It's always something to me that fills the glass. Aaron, you have such a gift. It's not just a gift of music that you have, it's a connection that you have with the children that's so important. I find that you're one of the rare people that I know. And of course, we have 43, no, we have 48 musicians now. All of you have this gift and it's not just because you're good musicians. It's because you can connect to their heart. You can make that direct line that goes from them to you and then they remember you the next time that you come to the hospital and you play for them again. And I just think that that's, I wish I had that. Seymour and I also had a short conversation in the studio where he expressed his views about Christmas and Hanukkah too. I don't want to talk about Trump. I don't want to talk about sexual problems that we have in the world. I want to talk about what we can do to make the world a better place. And the reality is, you know, I'm very involved in the hospitals with our children. So that's what we really want to talk about. Yes. And I have a question for you, Seymour. Go ahead. You've been involved in the hospitals with the children, make them smile and so forth for years. As long as I know you, you've been ardent. You've been dedicated. You've been focused on this for as long as I know you. It's really remarkable and wonderful. There are not many people who do it the way you do. So my question is why? You know, that is a very good question, Jay. I've always believed that you have to give back. And my mother was a musician and I'm a musician. And when I see what we do for these kids, when I see what we do for their parents to give them a few minutes away from the pain and the suffering that they have, it's an amazing feeling that I get. People say that you do more for the kids when you play for them. I have to tell you, it gives me such an amazing feeling that I have given them a few minutes of that peace and quiet, that few minutes of joy to hear some music. You know, we've played for over 9,000 kids over the last four years. 9,000 kids that we've given stuffed animals to, and we've given them wristbands and these little buttons that we give to the kids. And it's a pleasure. It gives me more to do that than to make money, believe it or not, in my business world. I think what we do is maybe something that most people don't see because they have parties in their offices, parties in their homes. What are kids going to do in the hospital? What are their parents going to do with the other kids, with the other members of their family? Well, what we try to do is give them that party in their hospital. In every one of our locations, we're having Christmas parties. And we have in one location a Capulani Children's Hospital. We have 17 musicians going around to all the different floors next Wednesday. 17. These guys are going and they're going to play for these kids and we're going to be singing Christmas carols. And I do interest for some Hanukkah songs in there too, but Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs. And it's just what we have to do to begin the process of their healing. And we all know that music is part of the healing process. So for me, being able to do it during this season is probably more important than throughout the rest of the year. We have to continue that. We have to follow through on it. And my sense of it from this discussion is that you do follow through. Christmas for you, for make them smile, for those kids in those hospitals is all year long, isn't it? Yeah, we do it all year. We do 28 performances a month. And it's something we continuously do. I have to give more credit to the musicians and credit to the doctors and credit to the patients. I do a very small piece of this, Jay. I do the organization. I do the facilitating and all that kind of stuff. But I mean, these guys who go out and play, yesterday we were at Schreiner's Hospital. And here they were in pain and they were coming out of their rooms in their wheelchairs. And all of a sudden, look at that face that you see on the monitor right now. It's absolutely amazing. We brought a smile to that child's face. It was something you can't pay for. No money in the world. I don't care what people say, this is a gift from God that we can do what we do for these kids. The God for everyone. Everything that we're doing in this life has to be balanced. It has to be balanced between what we can do for ourselves and our family and what we can do for others. We must at any time that we can help somebody cross the street. We must help somebody with a free meal somewhere. We must help anybody that needs assistance. That should be part of our daily lives. It should be what we do for everybody. I want to wish you all a very, very Merry Christmas. A happy Hanukkah. I wish everybody that is watching this show. I hope that you can do something for somebody else, because one day it's going to come back to you. In the meantime, Ian Davidson, our operations manager, and some of our on-the-street hosts, walked around downtown and around City Hall to see the Christmas decorations and talked with people on the street and get their thoughts about helping the disadvantaged at Christmas. Good afternoon. We are here at Honolulu Halle getting ready for Christmas. Santa Claus gets here. This is a tree made out of reclaimed pallet wood. We just went around, gathered pallets and turned it into a tree. The ornaments are made out of paper, just a plain sheet of paper and cut and folded and glittered. Snowflakes are made out of paper as well. And if you look at the snowflakes, they're not just usual paper snowflakes, they're animals. So if you look at the snowflakes, you can see animal shapes. We are going to show all the different animals, and flora and fauna that belong in Ahukua'a, so from the mountain to the ocean. Conservation of the native Hawaiian plants and animals. We incorporated our firefighter zoo animals that we're going to be putting in here and their Christmas tree accidentally caught on fire. So the sprinkler is going to be spraying some water on it. We're with the Department of Transportation Services and our tree is going to be M&M team this year. Seymour is a kind and generous person who has dedicated much of his life to helping others. Here are some remarks he made on what it's about for him at Christmas and through the year. Clearly, there's a lot we can learn from Seymour. Hi. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, winter solstice, we all have a very special feeling in December. I just want to give you my thoughts about what is truly important. Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people and to remember what other people have done for you? To ignore what the world owes you and to think what you owe the world. To put your rights in the background and your duties in the middle distance and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground. To see that your fellow men are just as real as you are and to try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy. To own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life but what you are going to give to life. To close your book of complaints against those who have harmed you and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness. Are you willing to do these things? If yes, you have joined the Seymour's World Club of Giving and helping others. Let us make this season one of kindness and love that you'll endure. In this season of hope, let's help those who need it most, the homeless, the hungry, the sick and shut in. In this season of plenty, let's reach out to those who struggle to find work or provide for their families. In this season of generosity, let's give thanks and honor to our troops and our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much for us. Yes, gratitude, appreciation and the feeling of being blessed are thoughts that come to mind when I think of what is really important during the holiday season. My prayer for you is that you will be blessed and may your days be filled with peace and happiness. Happy holidays to you and your family. Now that you've found out about Seymour's Christmas and for that matter Seymour's Hanukkah, why don't you visit his Make Him Smile website and learn more. And now let's check out our ThinkTech schedule of events going forward. ThinkTech broadcasts its talk shows live on the internet from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Then we broadcast our earlier shows all night long and on the weekends and some people listen to them all night long and on the weekends. If you missed a show or if you want to replay or share any of our shows, they're all archived on demand on thinktecawaii.com and YouTube. For our audio stream, go to thinktecawaii.com slash audio and repost all our shows as podcasts on iTunes. Visit thinktecawaii.com for our weekly calendar and live stream and YouTube links or, better yet, sign up on our email list and get our daily email advisories. ThinkTech has a high-tech green screen studio at Pioneer Plaza. 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