So cool going to be starting his limited engagement september 22 through october 16. He was a winner on dancing with the stars. He was. This guy is fantastic. He can dance. Theyre pulling massive heat. The stars theyve been getting, sick. A fresh off dancing with the stars champ, boom. Antonio lauren. Joey lawrence. His problem is that he was having is wherever he goes, he gets noticed and theyve told him eat as much as you like. [ laughter ] and people will stap caring. Coming up today on the morning blend, helping veterans around the country. The local center that works to help others. To circus performing. First, its a party for a cause you can find this and so much more. Aid for aids at nevadas 30th annual black and white party. Proceeds help reduce hiv infection and increase awareness. Here to get this Party Started is the executive director, antioco carrillo, as well as the owner of back bar usa. Good morning. Good morning. We have one more gentleman to introduce. Behind the bar. Yes. I can come over here. Come over. You know youre going to wind up here anyway. So welcome in 30 years since the party was started. You were two when this started. Yes. [ laughter ] this is amazing. All right. You know i just moved here. So tell me about the party. This is our annual black and white party. This is the second largest fundraiser of the year for us, community to come and celebrate in a different way at the same time as the party, all of our programs that we have where we provide services for people with hiv aids. A for aids of nevada has been in existence since 1984. And we have all the services that are required for people to stay healthy and adhere to medical regiments and all of those things. Thank goodness over all those years, luckily advances have be m oh, my goodness. Now, its still oh, my goodness, but its manageable now. Its absolutely manageable, and so the more manageable it gets, the more need for us to do fundraisers exist, obviously because we want to be able to support the people that have been dealing with this for a very long time. With hiv aids. And as we know, we have tons of sponsors and friends that come every year. Come in to support this event, right . From the alcohol vendors to the food and then we just saw some amazing pictures of people in costume and entertainment. So break that down. I would like to pass it on to tim. Tim is from back bar usa. Hi, how are you . Working around the bar. Hi. Its great having you. Explain how back bar usa and afan are connected. So i actually member of the board of directors about ten years ago. And then i started my company about eight years ago. Weve always been a part of it and always helping with alcohol. Were an alcohol marketing company. And over the years do you a very good job. Over the years weve grown and one of my clients is the resorts. This year we were able to get it at aria. Same, blossom, i can name them all. We have 12 liquor vendors and liquor sponsors. Can we talk about the cocktails . Yes. What will be special this year . I know there is always a signature drink or two. Every year used to be a sampling. Now were growing with everybody has a signature bar. Theyre going to make amazing cocktails at every bar. The difference is every bar is themed to go along with each restaurant. Youre going to walk into different rooms, different spaces, all over the top theme, black, white. Its gonna be pretty crazy. All the drinks themselves will be over the top. Were going to show you how to make a simple refreshing, delicious cocktail with don julio. Very easy to make. Let me see how its made. Agave nector. Three quarter ounces of fresh ounces of watermelon which is perfect for those hot summer vegas days. Yeah. And, of course you told me it was going to cool off in september. And 1 1 2 ounces of don julio tequila blanco. Were going to give it a nice shake. Oh, yeah, the shake. I like the shake. This is one of several. Oh, yeah dont forget to smile. You look for the smile, thats the firs i want to learn how to do that shake. This cock cocktail is going to be featuring at the party and another drink. For those attendees willing to participate, again, its a great event. Is this the first cheers . It is. Yeah last. Welcome to vegas. Cheers to afan and to the black and white party 30th anniversary. Oh, that is fresh. Theyre selling out pretty quickly. When does it take place . This saturday at 8 00 p. M. At aria. It might go til 8 a. M at least. Its an all nighter, guys. Its great having you. Thank you so much. Thank you very afans party is this saturday in the pinion ballroom at aria. Vip resex starts at 7 00 p. M. And general admission is an hour later. To get your tickets head to the web site on your screen or call the number listed. Drinking on the tv show early in the morning. That will get you going. Still to come, a return to civilian life. The group helping the brave men and women that served our country. Youre watching the morning Centurylink Prism tv has all your favorite channels, tons of live sports, and more all in crystalclear hd. Watch when and where you want with advanced features like our wireless settop box, whole home dvr, and prism on the go. And choose from a variety of great packages. And get started with the prism essential tv bundle. Youll get tv plus up to 40 megs of centurylink internet all for only 75 a month. This deal sounds great, especially if you love sports. Get prism essential tv and up to 40 megs of internet for only 75 a month. Score or, if you love great movies. [ southern accent ] hey, clementine, go on and get prism essential tv with up to 40 megs of internet for only 75 a month. Hyah [ whip cracks ] [ normal voice ] call. Get started with prism essential tv plus up to 40 megs of internet speed. Just 75 a month for a year with autopay. Speed may not be available in your area. Only from centurylink. [ music ] this morning were putting the fun in functional for back to school shopping. From the requirements to the desired list. And Consumer Tech journalist Jennifer Jolly joins us now with the combo the things youll want. Good morning, jen. Good morning, j. J. It is so great to be back again. It is. Fun to see you again. I heard you have a great phone to show us. I do. And im going to start with my favorite f word, free. Thats right. T mobile is giving away free smart phones. Theyre giving away the samsung you get a plan with six gigs of data for more or months. For families it includes streaming video offering, binge on. I love that. So you can stream all you want without it ever counting against your high speed data fees. We parents who have kids that tend to binge a little on the watching things from their phone, which most of us do, we love that. No sticker shock surprises. Another thing that i really love. Im super hard to impress. I see tons of technology. This is one of the first really new innovative things ive seen with phones in a long time. This is motorolas new droidz with moto mooeds. You can blast power right from your smart phone. These are almost like smart phone cases. You snap them right onto the phone and then they transform the movie projector is my absolute favorite, or hightech boom box with sound boost. Yeah. It is so, so, so cool. I have not seen anything like that before. And i love it. That movie projector is amazing. On the required list, get some extra protection for your kids devices no matter what. I like this software from a. V. G. It goes really far in Antivirus Protection and its a lot better with your computer. And not only detects and removes viruses to prevent things like Identity Theft and fraud, but it also blocks malicious links as your child surfs the web. And pretty much every parent that ive ever talked with has had that happen to them and their kids. Cool gadget, think about a computer. Think about how big. Even the smallest laptops are now, imagine putting a tiny Walking Around with it. Thats what this intel compute stick is. It can turn any tv or monitor into a high speed super full powered pc. You know, thats gonna be perfect for college kids trying to save space in cramped dorms. You plug into an hdmi port, download the remote keyboard or app and instant pc. A problem solving bit of technology that i have here on the table is this archerc 9. This creates high spidery liable wifi with super powerful wireless ac technology. Its a dual band router with ac 1900 speed that lets you game and watch 4 k movies, send emails to, bottom line, youll have wifi in every room of your house where you need it most. Dumped off wifi and you have no idea what happened. You can find out more about everything ive talked about here at hunknews. Com wow. Hey, jen, this all is super fascinating and very hightech. What about for those kids who might be more artistic . Is there anything for those kind of folks . I am so glad that you asked me about that because disney and nintendo collaborated with this right here. Its the Disney Art Academy for nintendo 3ds. Kids love nintendo. And this really collaborates together and gives them step by step instructions on how to draw some of their favorite disney and pixar characters. Elsa from frozen, mickey mouse. I love this. And it works across the 3ds family of systems. Thats super cool. Its so creative. My kids can be their own animater. Absolutely. Thats so cool. Can finally draw mickey mouse. Thank you so much for joining us. Always great to see you. Get the essentials and the ones you really want. For more information, head to the web site on your screen. As you may know, its often a difficult process four our veterans to transition from military to civilian life. Our next guests are working hard to change that. Here with more is vet jim lytner and executive sechiari. How are you . Great having you. Great to be here. Lets talk about this center and the need for it. The v. A. Doesnt provide the services that the center provides, correct . No. This is privately funded, although bits and piece of this has been done all over the country. Nobody has put it together under one roof. It would be a very big roof. Its a big roof. We support veterans and the families. If a veteran is going to heal, they have to have the entire support. So we focus on the families as well. Absolutely. Lets talk about some of the programs that are available to the veterans and their families. What is offered . It includes obviously Suicide Awareness and prevention. Very important. Also well be doing pro and postdeployment briefing. Programs for children in terms of antibullying and martial arts and we even have a womans Veterans Center because their unique needs are not being addressed because we have that road for female veterans. Thats one thing were really also focusing on is helping, aiding our female veterans. Those walls have been knocked down and now there needs to be something more. Absolutely. How is your Service Different than other organizations . Well, were like a one start shop. Basically when they come to the center, they start the journey with us in termination of with them overa lifetime. So how we achieve that is we track their progress, their success, their outcomes to make sure that we can help them any given time because the priorities change after two or three years when they come back for assistance. Thats one of the things. And additionally, we really also focus on helping the families. When were working with that veteran, were also making sure were including the family members in the whole process cause there is different dynamics that go on with each veteran we assist. When you have these come, and you here it so often where that transition, its almost like whiplash. Its such a difference and making the stuff that you did during military life, making it translate to civilian life. Whats the sun primary setback you see for our military men and women transitioning back to civilian life . One of the things, because theyre going through a cultural change, the community doesnt quite understand what that change means. And how do they fit in in the community and how do they adapt and just getting the community to just really understand and listen whats going on in their personal life so that we can better serve them and assist them in our community. Absolutely. You both had nonprofits you decided to collaborate. How did this all happen . We have been working together for about two years trying to help different veterans groups and their families and found out very quickly that we had to have a roof over our head. Today have a place to go. We tried to put a group together about a develop a site, wanted to hold monthly meetings but it didnt work. Its so sc ttered. This is centralized. This is the place that the vfw, vva, american legion, all of the Different Service organizations can go and meet and pull the wagon the same way. Were looking at a picture right now. Where is this located . Right across from the casino on discovery park. Awesome. And the web site is right there you have an event happening at the end of the month. Tell us about that. Were doing a First Responder program to its a town hall, be live at the center doing a live broadcast. With military, police, and emt Fire Department to teach the public what the split second decisions have to be made with these people and the problems they go through. Its easy to criticize. But when we see a shooting, what are all the details that go if you hesitate, you die. So we want to educate and try to improve whats going on out there. It really is an incredible center. Youre telling me its 15,000 square feet. But you have how many programs . When we are in full swing, well have 24 programs and services under one roof. That makes 15,000 look a little smaller. This is a collaborative platform with all the community partners, whether theyre nonprofit, government agencies. We have the v. A. Hospital bringing in some of their classes into the center cause veterans and family members to go to for specific ongoing assistance and classes. Its phenomenal seeing the fruits of your labor. Thank you so much for joining us and we look forward to it. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Upgrade a veteran life. If you want more information, head to the web site or call the number on your screen in north las vegas. Up next on the morning blend, its a circus of an events. Fundraiser that helps valley kids in the unique way. Are you on facebook or tw you can like or follow us. Vegasmorningblend. Com. Im Catherine Cortez masto and i approve this message. Its a simple question. In washington, has congressman joe heck been standing up for you . Heck voted ten times to defund planned parenthood. He even tried to shut down the federal government in order to eliminate funding for planned parenthood. And hecks against a womans right to choose and supports overturning roe v wade which would allow states to criminalize abortion. Hes not for nevada. Social cirkish is an after School Program that uses the circus arts to positively impact underserved youth here in the 19 students will perform in a showcase demonstrating juggling, tumbling and aerial skills. Thats right. Flying in to tell us, board member, Robert Rueter and carly sheridan. How are you . Great. This is the social cirkish. What is the social cirkish . Social cirkish is an after School Program and it really focuses on developing social and physical gains within youth. So cirkish. Yeah. We do that through the circus arts because that teaches collaboration. It teaches dependence on each other. Creating a positive peer pressure to make sure that behavioral improvements may be made within these students to make sure they can stay part of that program. Theyre students hold them accountable to those things. Teaching them such fun skills. Who doesnt want to know how to juggle throughout life . Exercising, which is fantastic. Were getting them to exercise and have fun and build pyramidst require has huge amount of team work, collaboration, and safety and focus. So they do all these things without realizing that theyre achieving them and that theyre becoming stronger doing it. Hopefully not watching right now. Dont tell them theyre doing more than having fun. Carly, its injure second year. Youre the coach and director of the showcase. Tell us what this year showcase will be l our biggest challenge was making sure we can offer the audience something new every year. So i think we really stepped up our game this year. Weve got things called the chinese pull, which is a giant pole that the kids climb. Weve got a massive aerial cube, three kids on a cube. Things in the air. Trampoline, juggling. These are real skills. Yeah, they are. These kids get together and commit for nine weeks of serious training and they understand that theyre part of something amazing and really professional them commit and be on stage and be happy and excited about life. Absolutely. This is real. This is the big thing. Whats the normal program . Were in five sites across the valley. We work with everything from Elementary School students to middle school to even have a program where we work with youth offenders in their 20s. So really a wide range of people and skills and so that happens usually three sessions throughout the year during the fall, spring and then a small summer session for those are in our showcase. Runs ten to 12 weeks. Then each site does their own show and tell showcase for their parents, friends and family. From that we choose kind of our all star team and build a social showcase. Those are the cream of the crop. You mentioned that last year you had no idea how many people would turn out for the event. But tell me how many people do you expect this year . Im hoping more. Yeah, absolutely. In the hundreds. Were really excited. Looking forward to it. 600 people showed up. A wonderful house at unlv. So its a Perfect Place to showcase the kids and receive a large amount of guests. Hopefully we get more. Whats success for social cirkish . Its good you bring that up. Its important to note that were having fun. Were teaching circus skills. The intention is not to create performers. Of course, when the kids are introduced, sure, it could happen. But for us improvement in behavior. Its being able to look someone in the eye. Being able to communicate needs clearly. Being able to ask for help and ultimately public speaking skills, being able to look someone in the eyes and shake their hands in a job interview. Its that confidence thats going to make the real difference in these kids lives. Also really excited about, like, positive attendance patterns. We know some of these kids have a hard time going to school or theyre not going to school and is gonna help insure they have a successful future