Help to solve maxscript probs

Hi and thanks in advance for you help, I am not new to max been using since the dos days- I am newish to maxscript- i seem to hit snags often and cant get past.

here are a couple I cant get past- i have a rollout with the buttons that do the functions

here is question 1 and 2
1.- I want to target the parent of the light as the source of the light mesh- there will be many many of them
they are named ArnoldLight_4_box_001, ArnoldLight_4_box_002,ect. the parents are named GlowBox001 GlowBox002, ect
i know the name needs to be appended for both the light and glowBox

2. progress bar to work
heres the var

local lightCount = $ArnoldLight_vol_*.count + $ArnoldLight_4_box_*.count

on btn_rand_color pressed do
(

for o in $ do
(
$ArnoldLight_vol_*.color = sceneMaterials["pixelColor"].base_color -- works
$ArnoldLight_4_box_*.color = sceneMaterials["pixelColor"].base_color -- works
sceneMaterials["pixelColor"].emission_color = sceneMaterials["pixelColor"].base_color-- works

$ArnoldLight_4_box_+o.lightMesh = $ArnoldLight_4_box_+o.parent -- does not work

--$ArnoldLight_4_box_+[o].lightMesh = $ArnoldLight_4_box_+[o].parent
--$ArnoldLight_4_box_*.lightMesh = $ArnoldLight_4_box_*.parent

colorProgress.value = (100.0 * o / lightCount )
if colorProgress.value>99 do(colorProgress.value=0)

)

Question 3
how to get this loop to only do 1 group at a time run the function (rotateDoors ) then move the time to a new random frame and do another group
here the vars and function (there will be many many of them) I left in things I have tried with the -- commments

sTime = random 0 (animationRange.end)
eTime = sTime += 20

fn rotateDoors =
(
--print "rotate doors"
rotate $door_left* (angleaxis -90. [0,1,0])
rotate $door_rt* (angleaxis 90. [0,1,0])
)

my button is -
on animateobject pressed do
(
animate on for t in 0 to 100 by 10 do
at time t
(
--if selection.count != 0 do for o in selection do rotate o h
--if selection.count != 0 do for o in selection do rotate o h
--if selection.count != 0 do for o in selection do rotateDoors o
--rotateDoors
)

)