Today, we celebrated Go Green with Big Blue on Black Friday!

Today was the 7th annual Go Green with Big Blue on Black Friday.
The Morning Thing celebrated the biggest shopping day of the year by visiting some secret destinations this morning. At each destination, we shared hints and invited listeners to find us and win a shopping tote bag filled with WNZR goodies. Our WNZR tote bags were filled with WNZR
t-shirts, flyswatters, spatulas, mugs, pan scrapers, chip clips and flashing LED glow bracelets.

Congratulations to Karen, Eric, Peggy, Emily, Jessica, Jeremiah and Jennifer.

Here is the list of our hints and secret destinations.

6am
The Mount Vernon Grand Hotel
– A new look
– Home away from home
– Rhymes with “Brand Motel”

Blubaugh Body & Frame
– Service and Repair
– Open since 1970
– Automotive Care 24/7

7am
Ohio Rental
– Tools, Parties, and Trucks
– Owned by Husband and Wife
– Let’s Talk Dirt

Mohican Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation
– Getting back on your feet
– Physical and Occupational
– Therapy for athletes

8am
Mindy’s Ohio Mattress
– Rest easy
– You could hide presents under these
– Restonic, Sealy and Stearns and Foster Mattress Brands

Enjoy these pictures!

The Morning Thing Fave 5 today is a list of our favorite ways to spend our Black Friday.
Click HERE to hear what Jenna Potts will be doing today.
Click HERE to hear about Wesley Boston’s day.
Click HERE to hear how Aubrey Bailey loves to spend Black Friday.
Click HERE to hear how Marcy Rinehart will be spending the day.

Are you ready for the big day tomorrow?

We found some crazy and fun facts about the Thanksgiving holiday!
Click HERE to read these fun facts.

Plus, we shared fun and memorable thanksgiving traditions that you and your family can start this year! Click HERE to find a new traditions for your family.

One tradition many families have is to watch a “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”. Did you know that there is another cartoon special that told the true story of Thanksgiving? Click HERE to see “This is America Charlie Brown- The Mayflower Voyagers”.

Thanksgiving is easily one of the most underrated holidays, due to its unfortunate proximity to it’s older brother, Christmas. However, despite that fact it still manages to produce its fair share of holiday stress, especially for those who are responsible for hosting the meal and making the food. So if you don’t want to have to get your dog to help you make toast and popcorn at the last minute we recommend taking a look at this list of things that you don’t want to forget to check in advance of the big day and foods that you can make early to make it easier on yourself.

Speaking of that greatest of beagles and his round-headed owner, tonight is the night to tune and catch this year’s broadcast of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The Peanuts classic will be on ABC at 8:00 tonight. If you’ve never seen it before I recommend it. It’s a fun way to be reminded what Thanksgiving is all about. And how many Thanksgiving films are there to watch anyways?

We also had a chance to chat with Kathy Bechler about the Snowflake Gala to benefit Food for the Hungry. You can listen to the entire conversation here and find out all the details about the event. You can also check out foodforthehungrycares.org for more information about not only the Gala, but other events to benefit Food for the Hungry.

It’s the final day of Operation Christmas Child’s National Collection week.

We have 2 local drop-off locations:
NewLife Community Church – 9955 State Route 95 in Fredericktown (the church is located at the corner of State Route 95 and State Route 13).
Here are the drop-off times at New Life Community Church:
Monday, November 23 — 9am – 11am

Brandon Baptist Church — 13513 Sycamore Road in Mount Vernon
Here are the drop-off times at Brandon Baptist Church:
Monday, November 23 — 9am – 11am

You can also build a shoebox online – Click HERE and get started.
You can choose from a variety of gifts and even upload your photo and a letter.

Central Ohio’s goal is to collect 20,000 shoeboxes! (Includes Knox, Marion, Morrow, Richland, Ashland and Crawford counties). Shoeboxes should be packed for either a boy or a girl in one of 3 age categories: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. A $7.00 donation is requested for each shoebox to cover shipping and other project costs. Checks should be made payable to Samaritan’s Purse with “OCC” written on the memo line.

Operation Christmas Child – Good News. Great Joy.

Click HERE  for more information about this wonderful ministry.

It is Thanksgiving week!

Today, we shared 8 mistakes that you could be making when preparing your Thanksgiving turkey. Click HERE for some great advice from the experts at Good Housekeeping.

Today, The Morning Thing hosts shared their 5 favorite foods for Thanksgiving. 
1. Click HERE to hear what Jenna Potts loves to eat on Turkey Day.
2. Click HERE to find out the favorite food from Aubrey Bailey.
3. Click HERE to hear the favorite from Wesley Boston.
4. Click HERE to hear from Marcy Rinehart
5. Our 5th favorite food for Thanksgiving HAS to be dessert.
Jenna loves strawberry pretzel salad – a family tradition. Click HERE for the recipe.
Aubrey loves pumpkin rolls .
Wesley loves his Grandma’s shortbread cookies shaped like turkeys. Marcy loves pie! Her Father-in-law makes a great pumpkin pie. Her Mom makes an amazing pecan pie.

Today, The Morning Thing also talked with Janis Seavolt, Mount Vernon City Council Member, about the Mount Vernon Grand Hotel. Janis took us on a virtual tour of this new building in downtown Mount Vernon.
Click HERE to hear the conversation.

We get it, mornings are hard. Few know better than us the struggles of getting up when your body cries for more sleep. Fortunately, God- in His infinite mercies- provided humanity with a means of waking up when we can’t do it alone: Coffee.

That’s right, the true ambrosia, the true nectar of heaven, the one readily accessible to humans for an only slightly overpriced fee can perform wonders on even the most sleep-deprived morning zombie. As it turns out though, there are more than a few things that even the veteran brewer may not be aware of when it comes to selecting, brewing, and storing that most precious of morning resources. That’s why we, The Morning Thing, decided to share a few tips and tricks from Jeremy Challender- co-director of Prufrock Coffee, head judge of the UK Barista Championship (that’s a thing?) and an authorized Specialty Coffee Association of Europe trainer (that’s a thing too?). Safe to say that this guy knows his stuff.

So if you are interested in increasing your know-how to make your mornings easier, better, and tastier you can check out all of the advice that Jeremy has right here.

Also we want to remind you that this is National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child. So if you have a shoebox ready be sure to get it to Brandon Baptist Church (13513 Sycamore Road in Mount Vernon) or NewLife Community Church (9955 State Route 95 in Fredericktown). You can get more information about the local collections for Operation Christmas Child here.

It was a busy morning on The Morning Thing!

With Thanksgiving coming up everyone is preparing to celebrate their many blessings with family and friends. Are you hosting the celebration this year? We talked about preparing your thanksgiving meal and how much food you actually need for your guests.
Click HERE for dinner prep tips!
Plus, we found 10 great Thanksgiving movies to watch after the big meal!
For the complete list click HERE!

We also had the opportunity to talk with Mike Petee about the Chautauqua Foodstock.

To hear our complete conversation with Mike click HERE!
The Chautauqua Foodstock is December 4th 7:00-9:00PM. For more information on how you can get involved in Food for the Hungry check out their website!

Plus, its national OCC collection week! There are two different drop off locations in Knox County for Operation Christmas Child show boxes.

NewLife Community Church – 9955 State Route 95 in Fredericktown (the church is located at the corner of State Route 95 and State Route 13).
Wednesday, November 18 — 5om – 7pm
Thursday, November 19 — 9am – 11am
Friday, November 20 — 9am – 11am
Saturday, November 21 — 9am – 11am
Sunday, November 22 — 2pm – 4pm
Monday, November 23 — 9am – 11am

Brandon Baptist Church — 13513 Sycamore Road in Mount Vernon
Wednesday, November 18 — 3pm – 5pm
Thursday, November 19 — 10am – 12pm
Friday, November 20 — 10am – 12pm
Saturday, November 21 — 10am – 12pm
Sunday, November 22 — 1pm – 4:30pm
Monday, November 23 — 9am – 11am

From more information on Operation Christmas Child go to their website!

In today’s day and age electronics are everywhere. They are unavoidable. We have them in our pockets. We have them in our cars. We have them in multiple rooms of our homes. Let’s face it- electronics are a big part of our life and they are here to stay. But as you might have guessed, there are some downsides to the convenience and entertainment that electronics have to offer, especially for kids. Their developing brains can really be thrown off by the effects of electronic screen time. An article that we shared from Psychology Today recommended the occasional fast in order to help them reset their systems. You can check out that article and get the list of negative effects of screen time and benefits of taking a fast here.

We also chatted with Catie Hayes about MVNU’s partnership with Food For the Hungry, Knox Needs. She shared with us all about what campus is doing and how the community can get involved. You can hear the entire conversation here.

In addition to local outreaches, we took the opportunity to share about Operation Christmas Child. After all, this is National Collection Week! It’s not too late to put together a shoebox and drop it off at one of the many collection points. You can get all kinds of information about OCC here.

And if you are interested in learning why the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year is  instead of a real word, you can find that out here. Seriously,  is not a word! It’s an emoji! I’m telling you, pretty soon we are going to revert back to communicating via hieroglyphics… And there’s only one way to react to that: 

Food for the Hungry is the annual collection of food and funds to benefit Interchurch Social Services and The Salvation Army of Knox County. The calendar is full of events and special collections planned to support the annual drive.

Join WNZR is support of this annual effort.

Click HERE to hear a conversation about this year’s campaign. Marcy Rinehart of The Morning Thing talked with Lisa Mazzari, Food For The Hungry Coordinator; Kailea Sparks, Assistant Coordinator and Joy Harris, Executive Director of Interchurch Social Services.

Click HERE to find out more about Food For The Hungry.

Find an event and get plugged in. Volunteer. Give. Participate. BE part of the solution in the fight against hunger in our community.

Food For The Hungry – working together to care for our neighbors!

ALL Knox County elementary kids are collecting donations for Food For The Hungry this week. It is an exciting time!
The Morning Thing talked about this collection today with Dr. Sonya Smith of Delta Kappa Gamma and Cindi Doolittle of Psi Iota Xi.
Parents, Grandparents and Caregivers – this is the week to bring in donations. We hope that you will take a minute to listen to the conversation and take a few minutes to talk to your kids about how important their gift is to this campaign.

Click HERE to hear the conversation.

Click HERE to find out more about the 2015 Food For The Hungry Drive.