The First Ladies are just the latest supporters of Zeno Group’s pro bono client, KaBOOM!, a national non-profit organization that is bringing play back into the lives of children. In San Francisco this week, First Lady Michelle Obama and First Lady of California Maria Shriver got down and dirty to build a local playground with KaBOOM!.

My fellow Zeno-ites and I recently had the opportunity to join a similar KaBOOM! playground build at a school in downtown Baltimore. We arrived early that morning to the inner city charter school, where so many volunteers gathered to create a safe place to play for the students and local children in the community. Fortified by caffeine and sporting old clothes, we were ready for an adventure in play. The next six hours were a blur of pitch forks, giant slides, sloppy mud and new friends. We were all energized by the task at hand: gaining a better insight into KaBOOM!’s mission and demonstrating Zeno Group’s dedication to improving the communities in which we live and serve.

Team Zeno helps out at the KaBOOM! playground build in Baltimore

KaBOOM!’s emphasis on community engagement and support is a welcome reminder that sometimes we need to step out of the office and onto the concrete for some much needed service in our communities. It’s amazing how much you learn about an organization’s dedication to service while shoveling mulch and laying bricks with community volunteers all day! I was proud to be a Zeno ambassador both on the playground that day and back at my desk, strategizing with our team to build buzz for KaBOOM!’s upcoming Play Days, September 19 – 27, 2009.

KaBOOM! Play Days are outdoor events that celebrate play and emphasize wellness with games and activities. KaBOOM! believes that unstructured play in particular helps make children happier, fitter, smarter, more socially adept and creative. Further, Play Days are an opportunity for communities to come together to improve their local parks and playspaces with clean-ups, simple enhancement and construction projects.

Having been atop the mulch pile, I can attest that being hands-on involved with KaBOOM! is a really rewarding experience. I encourage all of my colleagues to join in to plan a Play Day or spread the word to their friends and family. It’s easy to get started: just go to www.kaboom.org/playday to sign up!

Find out what Michelle, Maria and I have already discovered: playing with KaBOOM! is a great way to have fun AND give back to the local community!

In 2007, I worked with Jessica Vitale to make Adoption Day a success – 200 children received permanent families, community involvement was at a high, and the media turnout was more than we could have hoped for. We secured broadcast and print hits, including coverage on the local FOX, ABC, Telemundo and NBC affiliates, as well as the LA Times. The Alliance was thrilled with the resulting coverage, which helped bring awareness to event and all the groups that made Adoption Day possible.

For this year’s event, we had all the makings of a successful day – again, more than 200 Los Angeles-area children would join their new families permanently, actresses Lucy Liu and Nia Vardolos were going to assist with the adoptions, Nia was going to make a special announcement regarding her own recent adoption success story at the press conference (she had not yet announced that she and her husband Ian Gomez had successfully adopted a little girl in the previous months), actor Willie Garson was in attendance for the second year in a row and multiple families were adopting siblings of those who had been adopted on previous Adoption Days.

Our successful media day was quickly foiled by an outbreak of wildfires in Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties on Thursday, November 13. On the day prior to the event, we warned The Alliance that these fires could be problematic in getting media to the event, but that we should still have a decent turnout. Saturday morning would prove differently. Overnight, hurricane force wind gusts had spread the fires to numerous counties, and major freeways such as the 405 were closed in surrounding areas. Obviously, the broadcast and print crews, already limited in number due to the weekend staffing, would be covering these major developments. Media follow up on the day of the event brought bad news – no one would be covering anything but the fires, and they would not run b-roll footage of the event.

The Alliance was already dealing with multiple families who were put hours behind schedule due to the road closures and fires, and had to adjust the schedule of events to accommodate those families already in attendance. While The Alliance was understanding of the media situation, it was still disappointing for everyone involved – National Adoption Day is such a great event and brings awareness to the foster care systems in Los Angeles and across the nation.

While the fires disrupted a number of adoptions scheduled for the day, and lowered our expected media attendance, it was still a success in the eyes of everyone involved. We prepared the Alliance for the possibility that we wouldn’t get any media – and when this turned out to be the situation – it wasn’t a huge surprise to them – likely making it easier to accept.

I am already looking forward to the 10th annual National Adoption Day next year – a decade of successful adoptions in Los Angeles is certainly something to celebrate! Let’s just hope Mother Nature doesn’t throw another kink into our plans.

I just finished with assiting with the 9th annual National Adoption Day, along with several of my Zeno colleagues.  National Adoption Day is a nationwide event, originally started here in Los Angeles by the Alliance for Children’s Rights. Judges, lawyers, families, and the community come in once a year to finalize hundreds of adoptions in every city and bring attention to the 129,000 children who are in foster care and available for adoption. This year we had several celebrities, including Lucy Liu, Nia Vardalos (who recently adopted a daughter), and Sue Naegle; help the families finalize their adoptions.

I had a wonderful time at the event. It was truly amazing to watch all of the parents and children, some of whom had been together for years as foster parents and children, officially become families. Most touching were the foster parents who had previously adopted a child and were back this year to adopt one of that child’s siblings. Several things struck me about the day.First was the outporing of support from the community. Before any of the adopting families showed up, dozens of volunteers, ranging from girl scouts to corporate lawyers, arrived to decorate, provide food, give out gifts, and assist with the adoptions.

Second was the level of emotion. While I was expecting people to be happy about the day, the sheer sense of joy and euphoria in many of the families was astounding. Several of my co-workers who had participated in the event before had told me about it, but you cannot fully appreciate it until you see it for yourself. I chose the picture at the top of the page because it is the single shot that best captures the feeling of the day. You can truly see the joy on this mother’s face as she signs the adoption papers and officially becomes the mother of the little boy sitting next to her.

Third was the dedication of everyone who was working there. Despite several hiccups in the day (such as many of the families being delayed due to the fires raging through LA County), everyone was calm and patient. Everyone there knew the importance of the day and was committed to making sure that it happened. Schedules were juggled, plans were changed, and in the end, all of the children were united with their new families.

I’d like to say congratulations to all the other Zeno LA staff who were with me today (in particular, Kari Ramsey who did an amazing job coordinating the Zeno presence). I encourage everyone to reach out into their communities and find organizations that they can assist. The sense of joy and accomplishment gained from this work is truly unmatched by anything else we do.