Our Visit with David Arquette in a Plexiglas Box in NYC!

On Tuesday, Tom Kiefaber and Gayle Grove from The Senator took me with them up to New York City to visit their friend, actor David Arquette. David was sitting in a plexiglas box on top of the marquee of Madison Square Garden, to raise awareness about hunger for Feeding America, as part of the Snickers Bar Hunger campaign.



Tom and Gayle had known David for a while. He visited The Senator when he was promoting his film "The Tripper," and they've been in touch with him since then. When we found out he would be sitting in the box to raise awareness about hunger, we initially thought maybe he could bring the box on the road and sit on top of The Senator's marquee. We all liked his cause, because The Senator has collected tons of food over the years for a local food pantry.

I knew that Gayle had been in touch with David about this, so I was sitting in The Senator's lobby one day and I happened to be thinking about how cool it would be if we could go visit David Arquette in the box. In a weird kind of synchronicity, just as I was thinking that, Tom walked into the lobby and almost immediately got a call from David, who then invited us up to visit.

We took the MegaBus from White Marsh to NYC. A double-decker bus with wireless that costs less than $20 to take you into Manhattan! I'll be doing that again!

We took The Senator's mascot, Squid on the Go, with us. Squid was discovered by a volunteer, Colin Harris, who noticed that if you put your hand between the knobs on the popcorn bins just right, it looks like a squid with two eyes. Several of us had said that when The Senator is closed (as is likely after the auction), we'll miss squid. Another volunteer, Marty Kahl, invented Squid on the Go, so we'll always be able to take a piece of The Senator with us. Strange things happen at night when you're sitting behind the concession stand at a historic theatre. Anyway, David Arquette met Squid and became the first Celebrity Squid!

It was a bit noisy in the box, so much of the video I recorded was not very audible. I did manage to get a few of the fun clips into the video above, though.

David asked us about the upcoming auction of The Senator, and later spoke on the phone to Laura Vozzella at the Sun, to whom he noted "Just the fact that it's going to auction is really sad, that they weren't allowed to turn it into a nonprofit."

Later, I asked David about his work with Feeding America, which he's been supporting for a few years now. He said 36 million people in this country are considered "food insecure." They don't know where their next meal is coming from.

David Arquette: Feeding America from a Plexiglas Box

David Arquette spent today sitting in a Plexiglas box atop the marquee of Madison Square Garden in New York City. No, really. And he'll be there tomorrow, too. David is there to raise awareness of hunger in America for Feeding America. His stay in the box is being sponsored by Snickers, which is also raising money through a Facebook page.

David told me today that he first got involved with Feeding America when he began working on a program to provide school lunches for needy kids throughout the summer. He's been working with them ever since.

I went up to New York today to visit with David in the box, thanks to his friendship with the folks at The Senator Theatre here in Baltimore. David visited The Senator at some point and made friends with manager Gayle Grove and owner Tom Kiefaber. They've been keeping in touch with him ever since, and David has blogged about the need to preserve The Senator for future generations. So, David invited Tom and Gayle up to visit him in the box, and I tagged along as their videographer.

Although it was noisy in the box with all the traffic and the fan trying to move the air and dispel the heat on a New York summer day, I think I got some great video. I'm on the bus on the way home now, so I hope to be able to post that soon. David and Gayle even did the running man dance, which is a Gayle Grove tradition everywhere she goes.

Thanks to David Arquette for letting us visit, and especially for supporting such a great cause. Please go to the Snickers page on Facebook and join the cause.

UPDATE: Some of the photos...