As we approach the Christmas Holidays, and time with family and friends becomes especially important, we also approach a somewhat sad day in our little Mobile Ed family of school show performers. One of our own is leaving us. Sigh.

Mobile Ed likes to hire the very best school show performers that can be found. We don’t just hire anyone who walks in off the street. In fact, we receive employment inquiries from performers all over the country on an almost daily basis. Some are very experienced while others have no experience at all but are looking to make the jump from some other field. We have had teachers, actors, writers, accountants and pharmacists. You name it! But we only get serious with the ones we think will make the very best presenters for you, our client schools. After all, we are not just giving them a job, we are inviting them into our family. So we tend to be very picky. You can understand.

Once they are hired, we go to great lengths to make sure they are well trained and suited to all the challenges they may face traveling across this great country and performing the best school assemblies in the country.

Having invested that kind of time and effort in a performer, we like to keep them around. So we treat them very well! For example, we have rules about what we can and cannot ask them to do. We won’t place them in a situation where they are leaving a school in Peoria at 330 PM on a Monday afternoon expected to be ready to start setting up at a school in Cincinnati on Tuesday at 7 AM.

As a result, our performers tend to stick around. Sometimes for years and years. We have one performer who has been working for us, on the road, every year for more than twenty-four years. And several others who have been here nearly as long. It isn't just a job. It can be a career. And it is a family.

So it is sad, when one of our family leaves.

Over the years we have had to say goodbye to several Mobile Ed family members, and some in a very final manner.

Joe French may be remembered fondly by many of our schools. Joe spent many years with Mobile Ed, taking on the role of Thomas Edison and others in thousands of school assembly performances every year. Joe had a long career as a professional actor and stage director before joining our team, and continued performing with us long past his 70th birthday. Joe was a saint of a human being. He passed on a few years ago and is still missed today.

We have lost several good friends from our office staff as well over the years. Long time California agent, and good friend, James Nine passed on a couple of years back and is missed. Though he and I enjoyed many a good, friendly argument about politics :-),
He was a true gentleman and is missed.The sweet and wonderful Pat Eichenhorn shared an office with me for many years, and was a dear friend. We lost her to cancer several years ago. All are missed and remembered.

The list of retired and passed on performers and agents from our past grows longer with every year. They say the saddest part of getting older is watching as you lose your friends. In business for thirty three years, Mobile Ed has been around long enough to lose a great many. Sigh.

But in this case, we are simply bidding farewell to a friend and colleague who has opted to retire.

Michael Carrell will be known to many of you, and happily so! Mike first came to us in the summer of 1992 (can you remember that far back?)

In the intervening years he has done school shows for us all over the country. From seasons on the west coast to seasons on the east coast, and everywhere in between, Mike has brought his humor and good natured personality into schools with several different shows. For many East Coast schools he was the “guy with the light show”. He carried our Amazing World of Light school assembly for several years. Other schools will remember him with our Sky Dome Planetarium. Recently he has dazzled schools with his presentation of The Earth Dome. And during his entire career with Mobile Ed, Mike has happily entertained and educated kids across the country with Lights Camera Action, our television production program. He will be a hard man to replace.

Mike has had some health issues lately, and though they are on the mend, the rigors of travel are simply growing too difficult. He will retire to a simpler and calmer life in Northern Michigan. As that is not terribly far from our offices in Redford, Michigan we dearly hope that Mike will not make himself a stranger. The welcoming door is always open to family here at Mobile Ed.

For those who would like to see Mike and enjoy his great performances one more time, there is still that chance, but not for too much longer. Mike is still performing through the end of January and there are still some dates available (in some states) for this charming and funny fellow to bring some sunshine into your school. Give us a call and see if there is still a day for Mr. Carrell to come and see you!

In the meantime, all of us here at Mobile Ed would like to wish Mike all the best, and to issue to him a fervent thanks for all the hard work and blood, sweat, and tears he has put into this job over these many years. Thanks for the memories, Mike!  ... you will be missed! 

Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN