New website

Please visit my new website at http://www.tomstroup.com... thanks, tom Stars Earn Stripes NBC

NAP TIME

PIANO IN THE KITCHEN

We just finished renovating a school and we headed back for the last day to give some drinks to the volunteers who are finishing up the final clean up of the school. As i park the car i hear music coming from the KITCHEN. This is what i found. Chip taught himself to play the piano and does not know how to read music........tom

Water Delivery

This is another example of American ingenuity....tom

The Contrast of Arts

water Delivery

Another hard day on the set. We are working very hard and it is very rewarding. The schools are in dire need of help and the communities are pitching in to effect change. Wait until you see the stories....tom

Denise Cramsey, Executive Producer of School Pride

For those of you that don't know this is Denise Cramsey the Executive producer of School Pride. When you watch the video you will see why we all care so much about this "vision". She shares her dream with us to help communities help themselves. The more we do at these schools the more we realize it is not about the school as much as it is about the people who live in the community. The school is the heart beat of the community. It is an honor to be a part of this....tom

THE ATTIC

There is a lot of effort by everyone to make this happen, but one of the top dogs in the construction end is our man "T-BONE". He pulls long hours and is always on the move. He also played pro football for the NY Jets, but he doesn't talk about it much. This is a video of T-bone and i lowering a 1930's chandelier to the floor 30 feet below. The attic was so cool. It was like going back in time because if you think about attics never change. It was very cool. It took us about 15 minutes to lower the chandelier to the ground.......tom

This is our film crew about 40 feet up on a boom filming us putting in some paneling in an auditorium. Remember, every time you see a host doing something risky, the film crew is right there with them, but they have a 35 pound camera in their hands....tom

WATER BREAK

We are so busy that we only have a couple of seconds for a water break......tom

THE BIRD

My nephew Shawn and his fiance Andrea just bought a beautiful home in downtown Windermere. It is a 1920' bungalow and they are doing some home improvements before they move in.

They kept hearing a noise in the fireplace chimney, but we all thought it was rats so we left it alone. After three days we could not stand the suspense any longer and we opened the damper and found two baby birds.

One of the birds had already expired, but the other was still alive. My son Jarred being the life saver that he is ( he's a paramedic) decided to try and save the bird. He put it in a box, dug up a worm and the bird ate it like it was candy. This is video to prove i am not making this stuff up just for acceptance (yuk, yuk)......Tom

FROG JAIL

We spent a lot of time re-building our old 1920's home. We put in a hand built water feature with a fountain, natural plantings and no chemicals. Well apparently the frogs (and other animals) feel like we did a good job. Snakes, birds, dogs, squirrels, possum, raccoons, and yes frogs love to visit the "pond". Apparently after a rain the frogs send out a twitter to meet at the "pond". They emit a very high pitch "croak". We sleep with our windows open all year long and after many sleepless nights i had to start capturing the frogs and releasing them in the morning. Anyone with a similar problem please note that you must relocate them far, far away or they will come back. This night i only incarcerated 2 violators, but i have had as many as 13 in one night. I would never hurt the frogs so the attached video shows you my very effective solution....tom

Of course a visit home is not complete without a stop at my local starbucks and a cup of "joe" with the boys. Actually none of us drink coffee, we are tea men and we are proud.....tom

Baby Benjamin and the pool

Our neighbors and good friends, Ben and Michelle Snyder celebrated Ben's birthday and father's day today so we got to watch their son Benjamin. He is a GREAT kid and a pleasure to watch. He reminds people how good life can be. We played in a homemade pool and i guess he got tired because this is me "burping" him. He was asleep before the first "pat"....i like to call the pool photo "old school baby sitting". A great day..Tom

YOGA FOR TWO

Back home for a few days. Of course Dawn and i went to Biram's Yoga as soon as we could. We have been going to this particular studio for several years. The owner is Melissa McMurray and she is one of the original "pioneers" of Bikram's yoga.

My brother in law Mohamed first introduced us to this practice. Now my sister Debora is an instructor and we are loyal fans.

If you want to check out Melissa's studio, and i recommend you do, her brand new studio is located at:

3218-B EAST COLONIAL DRIVE ORLADO, FL. 32803 PHONE: 407.896.2530......Tom

This is our last school on our Summer tour. We made the announcement to a middle school in East LA. I was told that the main building of this school is over 100 years old.

This school is in desperate need of a "facelift". The kids are awesome and the teachers are great. We just need to give the school the look it deserves.

We believe we will get huge community support because

a lot of the families who live in the area have had numerous generations attend this school.

It is going to look incredible when we are done. Another note worth mentioning is that it is very common in this school (as in many schools) for the teachers to spend some of their own money to paint and buy material for their rooms....God bless teachers....tom

This shot was taken at LACES (Los Angeles center for enriched studies) high school. This high school was one of the first "magnet" schools in California. They have a very challenging schedule and the students travel from many hours away on public buses.

When i asked one of the students why she traveled 4 hours a day to get to school, she told me that the teachers made her feel like she was important.....There were over 1200 students at this school and they all seemed very happy. Everyone on the crew said they felt a "good" feeling on the campus.

The students were very polite and open. The students have a very good academic standing and they all are very motivated to go on to college. We will have a good time and expect to have great stories of success in the fall.I believe these students will inspire many other students across America...From left to right: Jacob, Whitley, Dr. Kim (the principal), Susie, Cheryl Hines and me.....tom

SKYPING

For those of you who are not world travelers like me (ha ha) this is how Dawn and i "talk" to each other at night. It is called "skyping". We can look at each other while we talk, it is awesome because i fell like i at least get to see her......I am in the little screen on the bottom.I will be home on the 17th for 10 days and then back to work for another eight weeks.

Their will probably be some voice over work that i will need to do and then the big debut....September 17th 8pm on NBC........c u soon....tom

YOGA AND COFFEE

I drove past the NBC studio offices for the first time today on my way to breakfast.

I always said i was going to start drinking coffee when i retired. I decided to give it a test run today and i ordered some Italian brew.

It really tasted good so i had two cups (that's how i roll). Then i decided to go to an early Bikram yoga class.

For those of you that don't know Bikram is over 100 degrees and lasts 90 minutes.

I was extremely "dizzy" for the entire class. So just for the record, 1oo degree yoga and two cups of Italian coffee does not mix......Lesson learned.

I think i will stick to green tea for a while....tom

BEHIND THE SCENES

I just got my apple computer and i am learning to use my I video. This is a scene where i am supposed to break the glass and sound the fire alarm to get all of the students to come outside. Once outside we are standing on the bed of a big truck and we announce to them that their school has been selected for a re build. Apparently the glass is plexi glass and it is UNBREAKABLE. We had to replace it with real glass and re shoot. This shot took 3 takes.......I told you this was hard work.....tom