The playground, pavement games and picnic tables with games painted on them are magical and will make playtime more fun for the children. The colorful murals do more than brighten the hallways and exterior walls, they offer inspiration and spark the imagination. And in addition to all of that, OmnicomCares installed 80 computers in the classrooms to help teachers educate and prepare these children for life.

More than 400 volunteers from Omnicom, the school and the surrounding community showed up ready to work and they did an amazing job. But as the children lined up in front of the playground for the ribbon cutting ceremony, it was evident that they were the real stars of the day. All the volunteers pulled out their phones to take photos of the children in front of the playground. As pointed out by Dennis Hewitt at the kickoff, “today was not about building a playground, painting murals or installing computers … it is about the changing the lives of children in the community.”

Johnson Gretna Park Elementary Principal Beth Wren said, “Every day when the children come to the playground, they will be reminded that strangers they have never met love and care about them. Most importantly, they will know that you believe in them.”

Thank you to everyone who worked to make this project a great success, and a very special thank you to the many sponsors who made the one-day makeover possible.

The school just reopened today following Hurricane Isaac. Fortunately the school suffered only minor damage. The children are all smiles here, making this project all the more worthwhile.

KaBOOM! Is prepping the playground site and making good progress. They have obviously done this before, having already outlined the area over which we will be spreading 7,000 pounds of  material.

Four artists from  Zimmerman in Fort Lauderdale are showing off their tremendous artistic skills, etching out the two murals we will be painting. Max Barrios, Carlos Rancano, Laureen Biruk and Oscar Alonso are supremely talented. The final product will be a great addition to the school.

Carlos visited with the school a few months ago to get their input on the artwork. The inside mural, 100 feet long x 11 feet tall, is an interpretation of what learning at the school is all about: reading, studying, music and culture symbolized by a trumpet player and a fleur de lis, the symbol of New Orleans. The outdoor mural will span two walls and reflects the transition from elementary school to college.

We can’t wait to see all the volunteers Saturday. You can get in the #NOLA mood by tweeting your favorite things about New Orleans. Please use hashtag #GretnaKaBoom .

We are still planning on building a magnificent playground on Saturday, Sept. 8 at an elementary school just outside New Orleans at Johnson Gretna Park Elementary School, located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about 20 minutes from downtown.  The school doesn’t have a playground so our project is especially exciting for them. We worked closely with the school and the students on the design, making sure the playground meets the needs the students.   We’ve partnered with KabOOM!, a non-profit which has built over 2,100 playgrounds and over 150 this year.

If you haven’t taken the time to learn about KaBOOM!, we encourage you to take a look at their website.  Their mission is to “Save Play” for our kids.  Having a safe, fun place to play within walking distance creates stronger, happier, healthier children, and has big impacts on surrounding communities as well.  We at Omnicom are delighted to be able to help KaBOOM! in this important work – and besides, building a playground is just plain fun.

Take a look at what we’ll be building in New Orleans in just over a week:

The kids at the school are just about bursting with excitement.  They can’t wait for us to get started – so Omnicom playground builders, get ready!

Johnson Gretna Park Elementary School has been providing an academic environment that promotes high expectations for all students to become lifelong learners and responsible citizens since 1958. In addition to its school-day programming, Johnson Gretna Park Elementary provides activities both before and after school in addition to opening up its facilities to children or other local programs and organizations, including the Boys Club and Girl Scouts.

The school serves 610 students in grades pre-K to 5, 94% of whom qualify for reduced price or free lunch. The school’s previous playground equipment was more than 15 years old and had to be removed due to mold and deterioration following severe storms.

This year’s “to do” list includes:

• Construction of a state-of-the-art playground
• Renovation of the school yard to include picnic tables, a shade structure and playground games
• Installation of new computers in the school
• Painting of two beautiful murals at the school, designed by the Zimmerman Agency

After completing more than a dozen projects across the globe, we’ve come full circle in our ongoing commitment to help local communities provide safe, clean and fun places for children to learn and play. We look forward to seeing you all in New Orleans!

It is difficult to put into words how it feels to know that what most of us would consider such a small gift of our time and resources could be translated into such a different experience. These particular smiles say it all.

To all the members of the OmnicomCares family, thank you. This is truly why we’re here.

Serge Dumont opened the event together with Paul Kronenberg, co-founder of Braille without Borders. Paul explained the amazing work that this organization has done in Nepal with blind people and their Institute for Social Entrepreneurs in Kerala, India, which aims to help socially disadvantaged people to realize their dreams.

Over 150 people attended the event which raised over 85,000 RMB (over USD$ 13,000) for our cause. This is enough to purchase two scholarships for students to attend the Kerala course.

Many thanks to the agencies (plus one of our clients!) who so enthusiastically supported this event, and raised donations:

BBDO
Consultech
DDB
Flamingo
Hornall Anderson
Jigsaw Hall & Partners
OMD/PHD
Pernod Ricard
Shunya
TBWA
Unisono
Direct Partners

Thanks also to individual donors Serge Dumont, Simon Dalby, Young Sohn, Doug Pearce, Maggie Shi.

Photographs of the event can be viewed by clicking here and you can also support Braille Without Borders by visiting their website.

On Saturday October 22nd our Asian colleagues will hold their second Omnicom Cares Charity soccer tournament in Shanghai. Eight teams will be participating from Omnicom agencies as well as some clients. It looks like a fun and worthwhile afternoon of sports and collaboration.

Whilst you may not be able to attend in person please consider a donation to the cause – Braille Without Borders – a charitable organization that has done inspiring work helping establish a rehabilitation and training centre for blind people in Tibet as well as The International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs (IISE) in Kerala, India, a ‘dream factory’ where disadvantaged individuals from all over the world are trained to create social change back in their home countries. The team is looking to raise a minimum of 60,000RMB (US$10,000) to fund a scholarship to send an individual from China to the IISE.

Any donation however small will be very welcome. You can donate via PayPal via this link http://www.braillewithoutborders.org/ENGLISH/support.html