A tiny nonprofit team maps out a safe, walkable Halloween Haunting while revealing how email, giveaways, and partnerships turn community moments into real support for local businesses. We share routes, vendors, volunteer strategy, candy needs, and why collaboration beats algorithms.
- Halloween Haunting route, times, safety boundaries
- Why walkable events drive restaurant visits
- Building a 15k email list with real prizes
- Bilingual outreach and community media partners
- Volunteer managers and roles for smooth logistics
- Booth benefits for downtown and outside vendors
- Candy donation drive at All India Cafe with discount
- Tease for Holiday Fair and Enchant ticket giveaway
- Dine in Downtown Arcadia campaign highlights
Donate Halloween candy at All India Cafe for 10% off lunch
Transcript
Downtown Arcadia - Halloween Hunting
Christine:
Hello and welcome to Arcadia FYI. I’m Christine Zito. I I may look a little spooky, but I’ll give you, I’ll tell you why here in in just a second. The show is focused on community here in the city of Arcadia and outside the city of Arcadia because I do like to think of us as, you know, one big happy family. As you can tell, we are one big happy family. And I want to say thank you for all the emails and the Facebook messages that have been uh sent to me. I really do appreciate it. And I do like to hear that you like the show. I even like to hear the criticism of the show. I’m not afraid of any of that stuff. But maybe right now I might be because it’s that time of year. I like to thank our sponsors, Longo Toyota Lexus in El Monte. You know, I’m gonna say, what am I gonna say? I know look at all the cars and everything that if you’re on YouTube, you can see that. Say hi to Brooke and Mike. I want to thank you so very much. Also, I like to thank Star 7 Financial with Francine Chiu. I know I’m a little biased, but she is the best um financial advisor that I think. I mean, when she gives me advice, it’s excellent advice. The Santa Anita Park. Did you like that interview with Pete last week? I know it’s so much stuff happening at the park. The Olympics coming and all the races. Oh, Enchant is coming up in a few weeks. That’s really, really cool. And the Le Méridien Hotel in Arcadia and Pasadena. Alright. You hear the music? Let’s get started with this because it’s really spooky. And if you’re watching on YouTube again, you can see the witches are in the house. I know. Because something really fun is coming up in a couple of weeks. It is the Halloween haunting in downtown Arcadia and in studio. Uh you can see MJ there. That’s MJ Fin. Uh I want to say this right, Finstrom. Finstrom. Yeah. MJ Finstrom. MJ is all you need, really. I know. MJ is great. Perfect. I know. Thank you. That was Donna. Choi, right? Donna Choi Yeah, see? Get all the, you know, I’m these are such good friends, and I should know their last names. But you ever you ever it uh try to introduce someone to uh their your mom and then you forget her name? Have you ever has it ever happened to me?
MJ Finstrom:
Well, I don’t think I know your first name. I just call you Zito.
Christine:
There have been times I’ll be like, hey, this is my mom. This is MJ. This is Donna. And I I forget her name because she’s mom. There you go. So, of course, Donna Chow. Choi, I’m sorry. See? She is the uh now your title. I want to make sure I get your title correct. You are the CEO, you are the big boss of Downtown Arcadia. I’m gonna let you keep going because I like where you’re going to be. The queen, the head witch.
Donna Choi:
Oh finally, we found the right one. Um I serve as the executive director and I produce the events that we have in downtown Arcadia.
Christine:
All four of them. I know. We’re gonna be talking about that. And MJ, she is the marketing guru with the social media, but you also help with organizing the events, right?
MJ Finstrom:
Yeah, yeah. I serve as marketing director. Also have my own business, and so uh I this is my community, so I love to be involved. Well, what’s your business? Hut dogs.
Christine:
Hut dogs. It’s a hut, not a hot. And Hut Dogs does what?
MJ Finstrom:
We help people get a little more creative with their marketing and we um get exposure for things traditional marketing, social media marketing, email marketing.
Christine:
Email marketing.
MJ Finstrom:
Yeah.
Christine:
I I am really getting into the email marketing aspect of it with my clients because it is so important. It is so important.
MJ Finstrom:
So important to downtown Arcadia. We have an email list of almost 15,000. I don’t know, excuse me. 15,000 with about a 50 to 60 percent open rate.
Christine:
Wow, this pumpkin is really getting bigger now. I like it. I like this. Okay. So let’s get into some uh some well, you know what? I don’t know if some people know you guys enough. So, Donna. Yes, were you raised here in Arcadia or were you raised in some other planet? On some other planet.
Donna Choi:
It might seem like I’m an extraterrestrial in many ways, but yes, I I’m born and raised in California. So all over, uh, born in West Covina, and my dad was in the fire service, so we moved all over. We were in San Jose. They call it Las Gatos. I say it’s Los Gatos because I’m from LA. So um, but I now I live in Los Angeles and I work here in Arcadia and I just love the community. It’s so great and interactive, and everybody’s so dynamic. It’s really good.
Christine:
Married?
Donna Choi:
Oh, yes, I am married for so many years. I think I lost count. I didn’t happily so. And two lovely little kittens. So I’m wearing long sleeves, so you don’t see all the marks. And I also have five spooky chickens in the backyard. Get some free eggs. You bring some dozens. They you know, wouldn’t that be nice? Right now, five, and I got one egg yesterday. What the ratio’s off, but thank gosh, I love them like I do my cats.
Christine:
Oh okay. So, what are all your chickens’ names? Do they have names?
Donna Choi:
Chick, chick, chick, chick. Oh, absolutely not. I’ve got Betty, named after a movie called Betty Blue, because she’s got blue legs. I’ve got olive. She’s supposed to lay olive color eggs, but no, they are brown. I’ve got um strawberry, because she’s strawberry blonde. I’ve got Sable, who’s Sable, and then I’ve got Sarla, who’s named after a city in France. Oh my goodness. Nancy. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of chicken names like that. I’ve got what are your cats’ names? Oh, well, they’re Venus and Mars because Venus is the goddess of love. She shows that love all over my arm.
Christine:
Now we know where the witchy part of you comes from.
Donna Choi:
Yes.
MJ Finstrom:
MJ.
Christine:
Yes. Married, single. Yes. I’m very married. Very married.
MJ Finstrom:
Been married for since the dawn of time.
Christine:
That’s what, what, three billion years?
MJ Finstrom:
I think so. I think I’ve been with the same guy a very long time.
Christine:
Very nice guy, too, by advanced.
MJ Finstrom:
But that’s another story. Yeah, married, and we have a kid, and we raised her in Arcadia.
Christine:
But now she now your kid is in this in is in this very horrible place. She’s a point of called.
MJ Finstrom:
How terrible.
Christine:
You guys are terrible parents.
MJ Finstrom:
It’s terrible to have to go over there. Gosh, I can’t.
Christine:
I know. So um, any dogs, cats, any chickens?
MJ Finstrom:
I do have a sweet little dog. Yes, who we adopted from actually a local rescue here. And what’s your dog’s name? Hand and paw. Um, Hazel. Hazel? Hazel, yeah. She’s so cute. She’s a cute dog.
Christine:
I I I live in a place where I can’t have any pets. Oh.
MJ Finstrom:
I’m so sad. Hamster?
Christine:
No hamster. I you know, I’m thinking about getting a couple of fish.
MJ Finstrom:
Nice.
Christine:
That you can do. That I could do. They’ll and and they’ll love me. That’s very relaxing. I know the water and all of that stuff. And you know, and then plus this year I can what what what can fish be dressed up as for Halloween?
Donna Choi:
Oh. Um, what’s the one that Ellen de Generis did? Oh, Dory.
Christine:
Dory!
Donna Choi:
Thank you.
Christine:
Dory, yeah, there you go. There you go, Dory, and you so I’m dressed as a pumpkin, if you haven’t noticed. I like it. She’s a pumpkin dressed like a witch.
Donna Choi:
So that she can be with us.
MJ Finstrom:
Oh, I like a witch hat on there and everything. Here in the season.
Christine:
My friend Jennifer. My friend Jennifer Stone was saying I look like uh uh a warlock with uh pumpkin or something like that.
Donna Choi:
We need a warlock in our witch coven.
Christine:
So but uh okay, so as we do this, I am gonna take off this hat because it’s okay. How’s my hair? Does my hair look okay? I do have to show, I do have to show my shirt. The Don Jar Show! Okay, let me put let me zip myself back up. All right, let’s get into this. The events in downtown Arcadia, I mean, they are huge. And how in the heck do you organize such events?
Donna Choi:
Donna? MJ Donna? Well, I I’ll start. I mean, I’m I’m I’m the producer of the event, but it doesn’t happen without a promoter like this. I know. MJ, you know, she talks about the email marketing. I just cannot believe how well that works.
Christine:
What I I heard it was something like 15,000.
Donna Choi:
Yeah, but uh it people really respond. You know, it I think with social media, you it’s easy to scroll past, it’s in your inbox with email, and people really respond. So I I really credit the amount of people that come to the event as all MJ. So I bow down to MJ for sure. Um, and and she’s always coming up with new promotional vehicles for us. You know, we do a lot of different things, we partner with a lot of people, all of our uh local groups that we love, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Arcadia Unified School District, is a huge partner for us. And we love partnering with everyone, and I think that really helps us to not only spread the word but keep it community.
Christine:
That’s is what’s most important is bringing people together because we are a div diverse community, and the way that you bring everything together, it’s admirable.
MJ Finstrom:
Oh, thank you for thank you for recognizing that. You know, the one thing you asked, how does it all happen? Well, it’s kind of a miracle because we have su we’re a very small skeletal crew. We do not have a large, large staff. We’re on the downtown Arcadia, people don’t realize it’s a non-profit.
Speaker 4:
Yeah.
MJ Finstrom:
And it doesn’t have a big budget for things, but we do big things. And I think that’s, you know, sometimes people think, because we’re a well-oiled machine right now, you know. We we’ve done this for a while. It’s not our first rodeo anymore, and it just gets kind of better and better each time. And sometimes the perception is, oh my god, they must have a really big, big team down there, you know. They don’t need money or they don’t need donations, but we do, we really do. And to Donna’s credit, um, she goes out and raises a lot of money. She’s a she’s a miracle maker. I mean, she makes it rain. I don’t know how she makes it rain, but she does, and she’s she’s very good at that, as well as just organizing. And there, if you’ve ever planned an event, a lot goes on behind the scenes. That’s right.
Christine:
I that’s and you know, speaking behind the scenes, how many volunteers does it take to run an event?
Donna Choi:
Well, such a good question. For if for each event we have a different amount, but and we have a lot of high school volunteers who come out. Sometimes we’ll have up to a hundred people coming out. It’s fantastic. What’s really important are the volunteer managers because you can have all the volunteers you want and they come, they don’t know what to do, and nobody’s organizing it and uh giving them assignments. So I, you know, I will really tout Diana Bacero, who uh works with us. She’s the chair of the Halloween haunting, she’s chair of the holiday fair, and she puts a you know a sign up for all of the volunteers, she manages them, and she never is stressed. She’s always so excited, and it’s really cute. Sometimes I’ll go up and I say, Hey, we need somebody to pass out stuff, and she’s like, These volunteers are really shy. They’re just they’re not at that level yet. And it’s so great because she knows exactly what they’re able to do. So the volunteer managers are really super important. And and and to MJ’s point, yeah, we’re a skeletal crew. I mean, our board of directors is 10. 10. So it’s not a lot, but with all of the people who partner with us, um, as long as we give them like really great instruction, they’re they’re pretty independent. And you know, and you know, who needs sleep before an event? I do.
Christine:
Sleep, what is that?
Donna Choi:
Right? Holidays? What is that?
Christine:
Day off? What is that?
Donna Choi:
MJ and I, you know, we’re on the phone with each other. I I I’m not gonna embarrass ourselves by telling you how early and very often very late. But um we just get, you know, we we we kind of obsess about making sure it’s right and safe and fun. Yeah.
Christine:
Well let me ask you this, now that you brought this all up and the promotion uh aspect that goes into all of this, sure. How do you okay, 15,000 people on your email list? I mean, uh businesses would probably pay for that. And some and some people do to a certain extent.
Donna Choi:
And people have tried to pay us for the list.
Christine:
Oh yeah. We d I do want to say, I have to say, I did build the website, and I can say from a personal point of view and from a business point of view, dude, they do not sell the email list.
MJ Finstrom:
So the list is not for sale.
Christine:
It’s not for sale. The people are not for sale in that way. How do you even get a list like that? And because this is as you guys are skeletal, five people on the on the board, you have a hundred volunteers, more or less, give or take, and you have this great promotion, and thousands, thousands of people come. Yes. How do you do that, MJ? Let me let me get it. Let me write this all down.
MJ Finstrom:
It’s a mix, you know. It’s it’s it’s not an either-or, it’s not black and white. It’s you know, it’s you gotta go where people where the people are, and sometimes they’re not on email, they don’t want any emails, so then you gotta sing, well, where else are they? Well, they’re driving down the street, and we always put a street banner up. Yeah um, and they’re we have flyers, just like this flyer here. Beautifully designed. So there’s some old school, new school marketing. We’ve got social media, and the nature of social media, if you want to really reach an audience on social media, it’s pay to play. Um, we might have about 3,000 people who are actually part of our community on social media, but we pay to play, so we have a little budget for that, and we end up reaching 80,000 there. But you know, it’s like a filtering out and the email list. Um, when I started, there was only 50 people on the list. Oh my good wow. Over the years, I mean it’s taken a while to build it up and and a lot of strategy. But one of our secret sauce is we are known for our big giveaways, and we have great people like Steve Re who will give great prizes. We have the Hilton, uh, Lay Meridian that also give one night stays to our events, and people want those prizes, and we have bikes that we give away. We don’t give away, you know, hey, come get a logo a cup with your logo on it. Nobody wants that stuff. You know, they’re not gonna give away your their email for that, but they will give away their email for a chance to win. And then the other thing is we also are very um mindful of providing good helpful content on our page. That’s where we have very strict policies of you know, making sure it’s helpful and you know, we’ll share something that that might be community related or from one of our partners. We really believe in the power of collaboration, especially in this community. Collaboration is really the new commerce, you know, and and when you don’t collaborate with other people and you just live in a silo, you’re missing out on so many opportunities. I mean, there’s so many uh they’re all listed here, all these wonderful organizations that love to play with us and sometimes we’ll give away uh tickets to one of their events, and then everybody wins. We’ve done that with the Chamber of Commerce, we’ve done that with the Arcadia Performing Arts Center, and then it becomes a true collaboration where now everybody’s growing their list and their outreach. And then people get to choose if they want to stay on a list or not. That’s just the way email works.
Christine:
What did you say? It’s the new the collaboration is the new commerce. I love it. That is that’s interesting. That’s a good way of it. Because you know, uh if I can say it with artificial intelligence, even you know, it’s we gotta remember it’s artificial. Sure. And sometimes it’s not very intelligent. Yeah. And the human touch is what always wins. So I love that. Yeah.
Donna Choi:
I love what always wins. So we’re talking about hot dogs for a minute, um, MJ’s company. I’ve been lucky enough to take their AI class that they’ve had. That’s I’ve only had two, and the great thing is she always talks about AI and HI, human intelligence. So artificial will never replace the human. No, it just never.
Christine:
And I do want to say this that on these flyers, you will see one side that’s English, and the other side look at this. Now, you want to talk about connection? Yeah, it’s in Mandarin. Now, now see that’s mindful.
Donna Choi:
Totally on purpose.
MJ Finstrom:
Um you did this on purpose? That’s it. The other part of that is we have people who are on different channels that just reach the Chinese population, and they because we have good relationships with them, they share it for us. And that’s the that’s the other thing. We’re creating things that people want to share and want to be involved in, and it gives them a little escape from you know, whatever else is going on in the world. We won’t get into that, but you know, I mean, it just kind of gives them an escape. What world? I don’t know. Where are we?
Donna Choi:
You know, uh two other things I wanted to add. Um, when MJ says, you know, nobody’s gonna want to have that logo pin as the big grand prize, correct. Like I’m not gonna like sign up and come and wait for a logo pin. But I was gonna if you are a if you have a booth at our event and you have a spinning wheel, people are gonna spin to get that pin. Now, if you try to hand them the pen, they’ll be like, Yeah, yeah, I don’t need it. But come spin the wheel for the pin. Oh my gosh.
MJ Finstrom:
Yeah, awards and prizes are are different. So great.
Christine:
I know it is funny. Yeah, and perception is everything.
Donna Choi:
Yeah, and um the other thing we were talking about who we partner with, and you had mentioned Enchant at uh Santa Anita. That’s coming. I’m happy to report, we are giving away a family four pack of tickets to Enchant at the holiday fair.
Christine:
Have you have you seen the promotion?
MJ Finstrom:
Ice skating ring. It’s gonna be amazing.
Christine:
I mean, it is beautiful the way they set up all the lights and stuff like that. I can’t wait to see how they transform the Santa Anita Park. So excited. Oh my god. So excited to partner with you. And you’re giving away a family four pack?
Donna Choi:
Yes, indeed. How do I get involved? The holiday fair on December 13th from 11 to 4. And you can always find more information about us at downtownarcadia.org. That is right.com.
Christine:
And we will put that all on arcadiafyi.com so people will know.
MJ Finstrom:
I’m loving it.
Christine:
And I’m back on your screen right now. Wait, there’s more. There’s more. You can get a family four-pack of tickets to Enchant at the Santa Anita Park. And uh and and and you get to shake MJ’s hand and Donna’s hand. The booths that you talked about. Okay, now these booths are are basically businesses, business booths, and uh those businesses that are in downtown Arcadia, what’s the benefit?
Donna Choi:
Oh, I’m so glad you asked. Well, first let’s talk about the booths that are there. We have a mix. We have businesses that are in the district, we have businesses that are outside the district, we have nonprofits like our friends at AUSD or Foothill Unity Center who feeds our neighbors in need. Um so we have a real mix. There’s a lot of different stuff going on. This year we’re going to have a magician. No, it’s gonna be so fun. We have neighborhood music school doing a concert. So there’s all kinds of different things going on. So if you’re not into that, go shop for jewelry. If you’re not into that, go look at a police vehicle. You’re you know, that’s for the holiday fair. Exactly right. Yeah, holiday fair. Now you’re asking what are some of the benefits if you’re in downtown Arcadia. Um, and there are many. Uh, you certainly have the support of downtown Arcadia to help you with anything you need. We’ve written letters of support to city council, we’ve done all kinds of things to help them individually. But as a business, you get four events a year. We have the Lunar New Year Festival. This uh 26, it’ll be um February 22nd, 2026. Um, we have the Patriotic Festival and Drone Show.
Christine:
Well, I was gonna ask you if you’re gonna do the four fireworks.
Donna Choi:
We don’t know which one we’re gonna do yet. It’s it’s surprise. Stay tuned. Okay. Sign up at arcadiad.com and you will be in the note. Yes. Uh we have the Halloween haunting and we have the holiday fair. Right. So we have four events a year. Um, Downtown Arcadia Businesses, and let’s talk about where that is. Okay. It’s on Huntington Drive from Santa Anita to 2nd, and on First Avenue from California to St. Joseph. Right. So you, my friend, are right smack in the middle of Dream Come True. We’re talking about pure media marketing.
Christine:
Dream come true for me. It is a dream come true.
Donna Choi:
So um, I’m so glad to hear you say that. We love having you here, and the work you do is so uh stellar. I mean, it’s great. Your podcasts are really fun. Um, so you you get four events a year, you can have a booth for free at those events. You need to bring everything that you need. Uh, we have our monthly newsletter that how many people does it go out to, everyone? I don’t know, let’s let’s guess. 15,000. And you can have an ad in our newsletter for free. And you also get listed on our website for free.
Christine:
I’m there.
Donna Choi:
And what have I left out anything, MJ? Promoter MJ.
Christine:
I know I’m trying to.
MJ Finstrom:
We do have some materials for you that outlines everything that Donna said. And I should get that up on social media so people can see that.
Speaker 4:
That’s okay.
MJ Finstrom:
But yeah, it it’s just fantastic what we offer, especially new businesses coming in, and we like to support them. And and I know you’ve taken advantage of the newsletter. We don’t it’s not every month, because sometimes we take a couple months off to um promote just what’s happening.
Christine:
That’s because you’re in Hawaii. I can’t believe that were true.
MJ Finstrom:
We would probably never have a newsletter because somebody gets to go pretty often. I take my laptop everywhere I show it.
Donna Choi:
Yes, yes.
Christine:
No, you you have every right to take a vacation.
Donna Choi:
Um we always call them working vacations. Yeah, I know.
Christine:
I’ll be leaving. I have to say, my birthday is on Halloween. That’s Halloween. My birthday’s on yeah, Halloween baby, and I do like wine, red wine, just in case if you would like uh to send me anything.
Donna Choi:
Do you like something really jammy, like a Barolo, or are you a little bit more like a Cabernet from California girl?
Christine:
I am a mi red mix, and I like deep red wine. Only because my family used to raise and and make red wine growing up.
Speaker 4:
Oh, I think that’s a good idea.
Christine:
And it was yeah, it was and it was lean more towards Zinfandel. So I have a real appreciation for deep red wine. Love it. Oh, good.
Donna Choi:
Where was that?
Christine:
It it was my parent uh, you know, right off Huntington and Popular in LA. Uh my my grandparents lived right off the that right off Huntington, and um in their backyard they would grow the grapes. And our my sisters, and they still remember it to this day, we would get into the barrels and step on those grapes. How crazy. We would step on them and they would go into the process and they would yeah, they would do all the production, put them in barrels and hide them underneath the house. No, not hide them, but put them underneath the house for about a year.
Donna Choi:
Wow.
Christine:
Then they come out and it’s super strong, and then they do some more fine tuning. Fine tuning and things like that. So that’s what they did. We did I love it. That’s why I love red wine. That’s why anytime you will see me at an event when they have booths, we’re gonna talk about the Halloween haunting here and how that’s all set up. But I’m always serving wine.
Donna Choi:
Holiday fair. We always have to get you in early so that you can serve and then you can partake.
Christine:
That’s what I do. I don’t, I have to confess, I do I do love serving, and I do I love the events. That’s why I want to volunteer early because I like to serve the wine and then go enjoy the event walking around with my wine. And you can walk around with the alcohol, but you have to stay within the event. You can’t leave, or the police will chase you. They’ve chased me many times.
MJ Finstrom:
Yes, but we don’t do wine at the Halloween haunting.
Christine:
No, no, no drinks at the Halloween haunt. Let’s talk about that for a second. So the Halloween haunting is set up, like you said, in the downtown district area. That’s right. And so, well, you explain it. I mean, I see it in my head. Cool.
Donna Choi:
Okay, so uh trick-or-treating at district businesses and at community groups on the and sponsors on the sidewalk. We also this year have moved our trunk or treat to the Citibank parking lot, which is so cool because it’s on First Avenue, uh just south of Huntington. The event takes place right here. On that’s uh you might be thinking of Chase. Citibank is a little bit further down on First Avenue. Got it. I think it’s so the event takes place on First Avenue from California to Wheeler. We do not cross Wheeler because we do not want to get near the trains with little kids in their costumes where they can’t see or whatever. So uh, and then we’re on Huntington from set Outback Steakhouse, Matt Denny’s to Denny’s and Wah Meat Market.
Christine:
Yeah, all those businesses are open serving candy. I think I was just plugging some of our businesses. I know. We’re gonna get to the businesses here. I mean, there’s so much to talk about. We’re gonna come back for the holiday fair, but okay. So now we now did you get that now from now Wheeler, which is where the post office office is at, down to what did you say, California? California. She’s I’m I’m mounting.
Donna Choi:
Yeah, I know. Yes, California.
Christine:
California, which is where the school is at. Yes. Okay. First Avenue, First Avenue uh elementary school or elementary junior high middle. Junior uh First Avenue Middle Middle School. Then you have from I like that, Outback, Matt Denny’s, to Denny’s Denny’s restaurant.
Donna Choi:
And Wall Meat Market, which is across the street. I don’t know if you guys have been in there, but boy.
Christine:
Oh, they have great meats. Amazing. It is really and it’s fresh and it’s great. I’ve I’ve actually eaten some of the the meats. Um, because I’ll be I I’ll I’ll confess, I’m really leery of type, you know, meat in where you can see it through the glass and all of that, because I get scared. Scary. But not them.
Donna Choi:
They’re it’s Halloween. It’s scary, yeah. You just don’t know when you know and they have cuts of meat that you can’t get other places. Like um, I do a lot of Korean cooking because I’m Choi. Yeah. And they have those types of things. Yeah, your husband is um gonna be Korean.
Christine:
I love Korean food, so I love the Korean barbecue, that’s my favorite.
MJ Finstrom:
Do you think that’s a good one? Well, the other thing too about this event is I’m a walker. I walk like so much. Probably people see me around town, I’m always walking. But if you think about the strategy behind all of our events, really, they’re walking events. And from a business point of view, you know, when I walk, I always tell people, you really can’t get a feel for a place until you walk it. You can drive through it, ride a bike, but when you walk it, you see all the nuances and all the businesses. So, what it does for the businesses, the community groups, even the police and fire that come out and that are that are there passing out candy, um, it gives people an opportunity to have an intimate experience with downtown Arcadia. And they’re like, Oh, like I was over at Outback the other day and they I said, Thank you for having our Halloween flyer there. Oh, we love that event because people come here and eat afterwards, all the little kids. And that is why we do it. We don’t just do it because we’re having a party. I mean, yes, we do it. I mean, it we make it as fun, it is we make it fun, but there is a reason behind that. So I think it’s important for people to remember because you know, somebody like, well, what is this group? And why are you, you know, just for fun? No, it’s to get exposure to places that don’t have that kind of exposure. You know, where else can you get 5,000 kids passing by your restaurant? Yeah. And then it’s up to the business to take advantage of that if they want to or not. But we love it when we see a line coming out of hyper coffee. We love it when uh mama downstairs at White Springs Cafe is is like packed and they’re all dressed up and celebrating. And now we have a new business, All India Cafe, who has agreed to collect candy donations because we are a nonprofit, um, for the event, which will be distributed throughout the the footprint of the event. But it’s great because it gets people in there and they’re they’re so excited to see what’s going to happen. So hopefully lots of people will walk by as they’re passing out can and go, what is this place? I’ve never even noticed it when I’m driving by, you know.
Christine:
And these are probably the only times when you’re walking that you get to actually walk into these businesses like this because they’re they open up the business. And my business is in downtown Arcadia. You would have to come upstairs. But you are more than happy if you like, because I’m gonna be there. I don’t know where I’m gonna be, but I am gonna be there. Um I probably won’t be dressed as a pumpkin. I can’t I can’t tell you, but I’m gonna be, but when I show up. All right, I’m gonna be No, I can’t. I can’t see. Oh my gosh, I wanna know. Yeah. I I will I can’t, I can’t say it yet. But uh another reason to pretend. Oh my god, I can’t say it. Because once once once you see it, you’re gonna be like, oh my okay.
MJ Finstrom:
So anyway, uh Well one thing, if you don’t know what you’re gonna be, this is gonna be a shameless plug for polka dot’s costumes. Oh they are having bagged costumes for kids 50% off. And they’ve got great stuff. I was in there and they’re they’re doing things in bulk because they are gonna go out of business, sadly. So I was like, I need a stuff for them. Yeah, I need a tutu. And she’s like, Well, I don’t know. I know I’m gonna need a tutu somewhere in life, and she has all these great tutus on her. I want to see. So instead of buying one tutu, she goes, Well, you can get a bulk rate on five tutos. And I’m like, I’ll take all five tutus, and she packs it up in this big bag, and I know that somewhere, somehow, a group is gonna be part of it. Well, you know, and that was Carrie? Yeah, the owner. Yes, yes. So but definitely go in there while you can because that is a treat. It is amazing, and they’ll be open on uh the 24th when we’re having our event with their sale.
Christine:
Yeah, I’m sad to see them. Ugh I you that they’re such a great business, great people. They have 100% they they serve this community for for years. Absolutely love. You have to go on their website. I got to build their website and learn their histories. Great job. Yeah, learn their history and how it all got started with the mother. But anyway. Yeah, we have that story on there. Yeah, it’s gonna be great. But I was gonna say, if you you’ll know you’ll know who I am, but if you want to come up and see the studio and check it out, you’re more than welcome on that day. Oh, fun. Yeah, so I think that will be someone’s calling me. No one ever called me. I wonder if I should answer it while I’m on the air.
Donna Choi:
Something nice you’re doing a podcast.
Christine:
Oh, yes. Hi, hi, hi, Miss Streisand.
Donna Choi:
Oh, she’s calling you. You know, um the the thing about uh polka dots, yeah. Uh, you know, I don’t want to leave it on a sad note that oh, they’re closing. Because yes, that is sad for us. Yeah, for us, it’s not sad for them. It’s what they want to do in their life, it’s where they’re at in their life. They’ve been such an asset, and uh boy, we’ve bought a lot of costumes from them. Love all of them. Um so yeah, I always say I think it’s kind of funny. Like we’ve had other businesses where they do something different in life, but then you get new businesses that come in, like All India Cafe. Yeah, yeah. Um or the what the other one that kind of cracks me up is downstairs there’s uh the chakra center of Arcadia and uh Ginger Johnson, and she’s wonderful. And she has all these crystals. Oh, she’s great. So she’s not open like you know, uh eight hours a day. She kind of comes in for her appointments. She says her children look forward to this Halloween haunting on Friday, October 24th, from 4 to 6:30. Um that her children look forward to this every year, and I was like, oh, that’s cool, thinking they must be a little bit older. She’s got little kids and they would prefer to pass out candy than go trick-or-treating and get their own candy. So cute.
Christine:
That is so cute. That is so cute. Okay, so businesses uh going back to the other events just real fast because I have this on my mind, and since it’s on my mind, since I don’t know what I just did a few minutes ago. Businesses that are not in downtown Arcadia, how uh do they have to pay to have a booth to come in? Yes, yeah, okay. I just want to make it.
Donna Choi:
So they can come in and pay a fee and have access to everything that we do with the 15,000 people at our Lunar New Year festival, our 8,500 people at our holiday fair. Um, they get a space and they bring everything that they need. So we don’t have rows of booths that are all white and they all look the same, and you can’t even tell what anybody’s doing. These are all different, it looks really unique, it’s really fun. It’s a great way to get in front of a bunch of um Arcadians and the local community.
Christine:
And how many people to get in front of these people? How many people show up to like just say the holiday fair since that’s coming up?
Donna Choi:
That’s over 8,000 people.
Christine:
Yeah, see, that’s a lot. And I I I want to say this as a as a testimonial because he’s also a client of mine. I built his website, Woodworks. Yeah, David. David Lamb Woodworks David Lamb Woodworks, and he comes to, he loves. In fact, I just talked to him the other day. He’s gonna be at the holiday fair. He says he said, heck yeah. He loves it. Why? Because he sells his chocolutie boards. He’d be so proud boards. That I said that right. Jacuterie boards, uh, boards, cutting boards. He has it all set up. They are gorgeous. I have one in my house. I have look all if you if you’re watching, I your desk the desk here. This is made by him?
Speaker 2:
This is made by him. Oh my god! And our shelves. This is made by him. He does beautiful work.
Christine:
I have ten pieces of furniture in this office built custom made by David Lamb. He is so good. And he he loves, I just want to say that to encourage other businesses. How the benefit of having a booth, and especially if you’re selling something. Yes.
Donna Choi:
Well, and the other thing about David, so he’s come for a a few events now. Um, I mean, I’ve known him for a while, even when he was doing his CPR business, because he’s as you probably ex fire service person. Yeah. Um, and so I’ve I’ve love having him there. His energy and he’s really fun. But his product is gorgeous. Yeah. And so he’s come and I’ve had him there. And now this time I’m mapping everything out. I’m like corner spot, prime location. And that’s another thing that you get by being a repeat person with us. I know a little bit more about what you do and who you are, and can really put you in exactly the perfect spot. There’s a lot of thought that goes to that.
Christine:
And that just goes to show if if you’re not getting this with Donna and MJ, they are aware. They see you, they know, they remember. It’s about connection. That’s what I love about downtown arcade. That’s what I love being here. It is a dream. It is a dream come true. Okay, there’s so many things that I gosh, I don’t even know. Oh, okay, we’ll get to that in just a second. There’s so many things I want to talk about. New businesses. You did mention um all Indian Cafe.
Speaker 2:
Love, love, love, I love, love them. Oh my gosh.
Christine:
Confession again. MJ and Donna kept telling me, you gotta go try it. I’m not an Indian food person. I’m Italian, I’m Mexican. Let me just stick to my burritos and lasagna. MJ’s all like, you gotta go, you gotta go. So I go in, meet the owners, try their food. I’m addicted. I’m like, I go, I ask the owners. I’m in there almost every week. In fact, I’m going to lunch after this podcast to meet up with Cena.
MJ Finstrom:
Nice. Oh Cena, the lawyer.
Christine:
I love Cena. If you need a divorce, he would be the one to take care of it. He has a family. Exactly. I’ve seven clients. So we’re and we’re gonna go through the all Indian cafe. That’s how much I love that business because it’s all Indian and they they have a cultural plethora of different Indian foods.
Donna Choi:
Well, and if you haven’t tried, they have something called the Frankie, which is like an Indian burrito. So there you go. I haven’t even. And then the other thing they have, like an Italian food, one of my favorite things is cocoa de pasta. It’s bow thai pasta with coconut curry. Oh my gosh, I gotta try that.
MJ Finstrom:
I’m gonna try that for lunch. Please. It’s on their street food menus. Yes. Yeah, it’s great. Oh my gosh, I gotta try that. Oh, yeah.
Donna Choi:
And then the other thing we have is one of the uh best Taiwanese restaurants, which is Monja Tiker.
Christine:
Oh my gosh.
Donna Choi:
And they’re right on um Huntington. I mean, we really have so yeah, Huntington just east of first. I mean totally just east.
Christine:
It’s right next to the what fix for you.
Donna Choi:
Yes, exactly. I fix for you. I fix for you.
Christine:
Some of these names sometimes like okay, I fix for you, I know you, I don’t know you. Uh come get a massage, maybe a massage.
MJ Finstrom:
Well, the cool thing about All India Cafe is like they have a very solid history in the culinary world. Not an Arcadia, it’s it’s actually a gift to Arcadia that they brought them. They chose us, right? So it’s really, really spectacular. There’s a new I don’t know if I can talk about it, but another big restaurant coming in next door to them. And it’s gonna be uh fantastic. But you know, the the father, he was the um head head chef, I think, at Bombay Cafe in Santa Monica on Third Street, and they have two other restaurants in Glendale and Pasadena that are just wildly popular. And for them to choose Arcadia is it’s a really big deal. Downtown downtown Arcadia, yeah. It’s a big, big deal, and they’re just amazing. They couldn’t be nicer, but their food, like you know, it’s just different. You know, even if you don’t like Indian food, you can have like a chicken and rice, it’s just fantastic, you know. We tried the barani rice the other day, and it was just amazing. Oh my gosh.
Christine:
It is good. I ate that stuff. And you know when I go in there now and they know what I like, so they almost kind of serve it up for me.
MJ Finstrom:
Yeah, they do the same with me. Yeah, yeah.
Christine:
And the reason why we’re mentioning all Indian cafes so much is because they’re the ones, if you if you can donate your candy to them, and if you do, they’ll give you 10% off a lunch.
MJ Finstrom:
Or cheeseburger dinner promotions. This is great news. Thank you.
Christine:
Thank you. Thank you. So, but yeah, it and it is true. You take take the candy in there and you’ll get and and sit and have a meal. You will love all Indian Cafe. And uh so what was the other restaurant that’s uh Monja Titan. Oh my gosh, I love it.
Donna Choi:
Um, one other thing about the candy donations that I’d like to say a lot of people don’t have kids, and they’re like, but I would like to help and be involved and give back to the community, help with what you’re doing. What can I do? And we’ve never really had this opportunity, and we thought, well, if people want to help, we need help. And I will always take help. And so people have been very generous in donating candy, and it’s a real way to be involved, even if you can’t volunteer, you can’t sponsor, you can’t have a boot all of those things, you can still donate candy.
MJ Finstrom:
Area we need the help in because we run out of candy sometimes. We do, so the more candy we have. Oh my gosh, we do the better the event is because you know you try to plan. I think the first year we’re like, we’ll have 500 kids there. Oh, I’ll never get that thousands of kids showed up.
Donna Choi:
It was like the kids were like little zombies. I was like, ah! You know what?
Christine:
I I was there for that first one.
MJ Finstrom:
Yeah, and the first one we didn’t expect such a turnout.
Christine:
And it was funny because I remember you saying, Oh, we’ll probably have 500 kids, I hope.
MJ Finstrom:
We’re crossing our finger. We don’t know, you know? And people love Halloween, they love to dress up. Um but I do want to point out that the candy is for the kids. Okay, so not the adult. I do have to answer. Oh my gosh, I’m doing it.
Christine:
Let’s answer this live on the air.
Sina Mohajer:
Okay.
Christine:
Okay, it it is hello.
Sina Mohajer:
Hello?
Christine:
Hello, um, Sina. You you are live on Arcadia FYI.
Sina Mohajer:
Hey, hey, hey, hey, what’s up, Arcadia?
Christine:
In studio, I have with me MJ and Donna with Downtown Arcadia, and we’re we are doing a show talking about the Halloween haunting. Are you ready to be are you ready to be scared in a couple of weeks?
Sina Mohajer:
Oh my gosh, I’m so excited for the Halloween event. Downtown Arcadia always puts on an amazing event which everyone shows up to, so I’m super stoked.
Christine:
Yeah, he and now I got to say that Sina not only can help you um with the divorce, he is the president of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce. Yeah, we love it.
Donna Choi:
So great when he rocks the mic, you will not be able to contain yourself. He’s hilarious.
MJ Finstrom:
And he always dresses up in something. I’m I’m wondering what you’re gonna be this year, Cena.
Sina Mohajer:
I’m I’m wondering the same thing.
Christine:
Well, you can always go to polka dots. But anyway, okay, Sina, let me finish this up and I’ll meet you at All Indian Cafe at 12:30. Sounds good. Okay. All right. Bye.
Donna Choi:
So there you go. What a great. Can I uh mention something before we’re done? We were talking about the restaurants. We have a new campaign we’re doing Dine in Downtown Arcadia. Oh, let’s talk about it. Because we have the most amazing restaurants. We have, we’ve talked about the fact that we have Denny’s, we have Chengdu Impression, which is uh Michelin-starred and amazing. Uh we have Monja, we have uh Matt Denny’s, we have Outback, we have the boiling point. We have boiling point’s delicious for hot. We have Fresh Delicious, which they do um like uh the what’s the chicken uh nugget? What do you call those? Popcorn chicken. Popcorn chicken. Oh my gosh, everybody loves that. Hyper coffee. We have uh ABJ water for all your candy and all the treats that you might want. So we have a lot of really great restaurants concentrated in this small area. Another reason to come visit downtown.
Christine:
Clairos, we can’t forget about Indian Cafe, Clairo’s, Matt Denny’s, and you cannot forget Vendome. I mean, come on, right, right. Oh, and Goki Cafe.
Donna Choi:
See, there’s so much that it’s like Cafe is amazing, yeah. Yeah, Gokie will um and White Springs Cafe will be at the holiday fair. So keep supporting our businesses, keep supporting these small business owners.
Christine:
You could see all these questions I still want to get to. Um, you will come back in November after Thanksgiving to talk about the holiday. Well, probably before then, huh? Man, holiday fair is gonna be. Whatever Christine wants. I know. I just hope there’s snow at the holiday fair. Um I wanted to see if it if the farmers market was ever gonna come back. Will that ever come back? Maybe? No. I don’t know. A couple people are talking about it. Okay, okay. Well, we’ll stay tuned for that. Yes. All right. Halloween haunting right here. Friday, October 24th. Um, it starts at 4 p.m., goes until 6 30 p.m. Uh, candy, visit the the shops, the restaurants. There’s so much. And then after that will be the holiday fair, and we’ll talk about that on another show. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming in. Thank you so much. My little pretty! So okay. It’s been a pumpkin of a time.
MJ Finstrom:
It’s been a pumpkin of a time. I love it. It looks so delicious.
Christine:
Thank you so much. All right, I cannot forget as we end, I want to thank our sponsors. Longo Toyota, Lexus and El Monte. Have you guys ever been there? I bought my car there. No, you did? I love it. I’ve teached. My dream is a Lexus. I keep telling Mike and Brooke that. I want a Lexus. Star Seven Financial with Francine Chiu. Love her.
MJ Finstrom:
Love her too.
Christine:
Santa Anita Park. Don’t forget, Enchant is coming up. And uh we’re gonna be giving uh Donna and MJ, the downtown Arcadia will be giving a family four pack to Enchant and the Le Méridien Hotel in Arcadia and Pasadena. Until next time on Arcadia FYI, make it a great day and be blessed.
