TEMPUS Magazine redefines time, giving you a glimpse into all things sophisticated, compelling, vibrant, with its pages reflecting the style, luxury and beauty of the world in which we live. A quarterly publication for private aviation enthusiasts.
Issue link: http://tempus-magazine.epubxp.com/i/156069
W the Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University found that children participating in the program became signifcantly less depressive, anxious, angry, isolated, aggressive, and oppositional. Moreover, they became signifcantly more joyful, prosocial, and independent. With Project Joy's training program expanding, Life Is Good in 2010 lent its name to the nonproft, making it Life Is Good Playmakers. The next year, in response to the devastating January 2010 earthquake that had stricken Haiti, the organization established a Playmakers offce there to train native providers— known locally as Joy Warriors—working with children exposed to chronic poverty and trauma. To date, about 3,700 child-care professionals have become certifed Life Is Good Playmakers, including Jodi McGahan. A forty-year-old preschool teacher from western Massachusetts, McGahan has worked extensively with students from low-income households in the Head Start program and has witnessed the benefts of play-based intervention. "Play relieves internal emotional distress," she says. "And distress inhibits growth and development.…Without play, there's no joy, and without joy, children are unable to learn and grow." Playmaker training also offered McGahan critical self-care tools. "If you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of others," she says. "For a person who was always taking care of other people before myself, it was a wake-up call." Earlier this year, Life Is Good announced that it would henceforth donate 10 percent of the company's net profts to the Life Is Good Kids Foundation to support Playmakers, which in 2011 had revenues of $1.6 million, according to public records. Such a commitment to philanthrophy is extraordinary, says Katherine Smith, the executive director of the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College's Carroll School of Management. "The average [contribution] of companies reporting their giving is just under one percent," says Smith, citing an annual survey by the New York– based Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthrophy. "When we work with companies and we see them giving more than one percent of net profts, we consider them extraordinarily philanthropic.…So ten percent is a very signifcant number." By integrating focused philanthropy into Life Is Good's business model, the Jacobs brothers hope to make a meaningful difference for children in need. What's more, the Playmakers' work to restore traumatized kids' optimism is consistent with the brand's mission. While devoting a portion of its profts to the cause, Life Is Good continues to raise funds for its foundation through the Life Is Good Festival, a music and family entertainment extravaganza staged annually at a farm south of Boston. The Dave Matthews Band headlined the 2012 festival, which raised $1 million, and this year's edition, featuring Jack Johnson and Hall & Oates, aims to surpass that. WITH LIFE IS GOOD'S SUPPORT, PLAYMAKERS IS establishing a satellite program in Los Angeles to augment the work of its Boston and Haiti operations. By establishing headquarters in additional major cities and offering its basic Playmaker training virtually, Playmakers aims to reach 25,000 child-care professionals and 500,000 kids by 2021, with the ultimate goal to have offces in all ffty states, Gross says. Almost two decades after selling their frst Jake T-shirt, the Jacobs brothers have proved beyond a doubt that there's a market for optimism. And through its commitment to Playmakers, their company is making a difference in kids' lives. Still, the Boston Marathon bombings, in response to which Life Is Good demonstrated the power of its brand in the face of tragedy, have given the company pause as it ponders its philanthropic future. Speaking in a colorful conference room with walls adorned by framed photos of smiling children, Life Is Good's chief executive optimist—a rangy, bearded, hair-below-the collar guy whose workday attire is a Life Is Good T -shirt, cargo shorts, and brightly hued running shoes—refects on the dilemma the company's marathon response has presented. "There's a debate internally whether we should do more of that or whether we should take the advice of those CEOs and stay focused [on kids]," he says. "Where will we help more people? I don't know the answer to that today.…We'll learn from it, and we'll know in the next six months how to translate what happened." Fall 2013 . Tempus-Magazine.com 91