Silda Wall

Silda Wall is the Founding Board Chair of Children for Children. Children for Children (CFC) is a New York not-for-profit founded by parents to foster community involvement and social responsibility in young people. CFC offers opportunities for young people from preschool through high school to “grow involved,” through hands-on service and philanthropy programs that teach the value of volunteering and giving.

CFC’s programs accommodate a wide range of ages, abilities, interests and busy schedules just right for kids, families, schools, educators and other community youth organizations.

Though Silda Wall’s leadership of CFC, she has addressed multiple New York community needs such as education, building healthy communities and promotion of civic engagement. The work of CFC has also impacted international communities.

Through Mrs. Spitzer’s leadership and vision, CFC and its young volunteers have engaged in tens of thousands of service hours to improve their communities and the lives of others. For example, CFC has placed over two million dollars in resources in underserved schools, fundraised to provide bed nets for children in malaria endemic countries, and collected hundreds of thousands of books to build classroom libraries, in addition to countless other Silda Wall is unique because she has taken a leadership role and initiative in founding CFC. She left the private sector to wholly focus on giving back to the community and leading this organization.

Michael Simmons

Over the past 30 years, Mr. Simmons has worked closely with community organizations with an emphasis on youth leadership. He is the co-founder of the Metropolitan Mayors and Commissioners Youth Awards which celebrated 25 years of youth recognition of volunteer service to families and communities. He currently serves as Denver Public Schools Community Specialist. His role is to bridge relationships between diverse communities and the school district; increase parent engagement; and provide leadership opportunities for student engagement.

The community express in no uncompromising terms that Manual High School, a pillar in the neighborhood, could not close. Although low test scores and infrequent attendance forced the district’s hand to close the school, it was important to continue having dialogue and develop a collaborative plan that would serve the community and the district. Mr. Simmons immediately realized that the voices of youth were not being acknowledged. He initiated focus groups with youth leaders within and outside Manual High School. Students were able to serve on the community board to help developed a plan to reopen Manual High School. In addition, Mr. Simmons established the Manual Ambassadors Project to help displaced students affected by the school closure.

The Manual Ambassadors Project was incredible. Former Manual High School student volunteers established relationships with student leaders of receiving schools and developed a navigation process to assist students acclimate to their new school assignments. Ambassadors distributed and collected satisfaction surveys to help the school district better serve their displaced students. Through their efforts, an education resource center was provided to help student with their lessons and personal concerns. Mr. Simmons assisted the students in developing a final report to share with the School Board of Education and senior staff on the key protocols that should be implemented for future school closures.

The ability to engage young people is a special gift. As we know, young folk have problem trusting anyone over 25 years old. It is also important to mention that young people have special gifts which deepen the conversations regarding inequity and fairness. Mr. Simmons was able to bring angry youth to the table and create opportunities for authentic dialogue. The results of his work generated youth recognitions at the annual Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights Awards ceremony. The ambassadors became the eyes and ears of the superintendent. Finally, re-enforce the idea that youth voices continue to be an incredible change agent for solving colossal problems.

Marion Weber

Marion Weber is a volunteer who delivers mail to patients at Skyline Medical Center. She has the brightest, cheeriest voice and loves to brighten people’s lives by popping into their room with the announcement, “I have mail for you!”

Her smile is so engaging and it is obvious how much she loves delivering these little letters of sunshine to our patients. When a patient has gone home and she must forward their mail she works with such tenacity to find the patient’s “real” name, or locate an address that is not in the system or is incorrect. It is very important to her that each card reaches the patient for whom it was intended.

Marion has been a volunteer for 33 years and she is one of the most dependable volunteers at the Skyline Medical Center. She recently turned 95 years old, but has the mind, spirit and attitude of someone much younger. On days when other volunteers are unwilling to come in due to weather threats, Marion still shows up. When other volunteers are sick and need a substitute, Marion will always come in. Marion has spunk, spirit and a giving heart. She is an incredibly dedicated, loyal volunteer. In addition to her work for Skyline Medical Center, she volunteers at her church two days a week. In the past year she has taken on a new project of making tray angels for our patients and has enlisted six others from her church to assist her with this monumental project. She is an incredibly dedicated volunteer.

No one can spend time around Marion and not be uplifted. She never complains, is always willing to do more than her share, never engages in gossip, and always has something positive to say. Being around her is like sitting in sunshine. Volunteers and staff alike just “love” her. Marion is incredibly modest, humble and unassuming. She quietly goes about her job and is just not the type to seek the limelight. At the same time, she treats her volunteer “job” as if it were the most important thing she could do.

Shamika Lee

Shamika Lee took her eighth grade teacher seriously when she told her students that “to whom much is given, much is required.” As a former foster care child, she feels responsible to give back to children who are also growing up in foster care.

Today, Shamika—an MBA Harvard Business School student—is a board member and volunteer at Graham Windham, the foster care agency where she was once housed. She knows firsthand that children entering the foster care system face many challenges, including dealing with the abuse, neglect, and/or poverty they may have previously experienced.

Shamika remembers struggling with these serious issues, as well as the smaller issues, such as coming into foster care with a wardrobe that consists of the clothing on your back. Not wanting other children to experience this, she recruited a local department store to donate clothing and overstocks to Graham Windham, which children can access when they enter the agency.

Shamika also started an Annual Holiday Gift Drive for teens, working tirelessly to procure gift donations from corporations.

Shamika has touched each child and staff member she has met while volunteering. Her positive attitude and ever-present smile is infectious. Children at Graham Windham have hope that they can succeed and achieve their goals as a result of Shamika’s example.

Her volunteer efforts also have focused on education, and she helped expand Graham Windham youth services to include college tours and SAT preparation (she recruited Kaplan Test Prep to offer free SAT prep classes for the teens). In addition, Shamika advocates for foster youth, lobbying state legislators for improvements to the foster care system.

Shamika is unique in that she has had many obstacles to overcome, yet she does not have a chip on her shoulder; she has a drive to succeed and help others do the same. She is so dedicated to helping children in the foster care system that she spends numerous hours serving. Shamika cannot rest until her tasks are completed and the children’s needs are met to the best of her ability. She is driven to serve because she feels it is her responsibility. Shamika also believes people do not need more than several hours of sleep!

Jay Tippens

Since 2003, Jay has been actively involved with Junior Achievement (JA), the world’s largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Jay has supported JA through his work as both a volunteer teacher and an ambassador helping to recruit Deloitte employees to the organization’s corporate volunteer program. In his role as a volunteer teacher, Jay conducts four classes each year (each class consists of five to eight lessons) at local elementary and middle schools to educate students about work readiness, entrepreneurship, economics, and financial literacy.

As an ambassador for JA, Jay is tireless in his efforts to spread the word about Junior Achievement throughout his office. He enthusiastically and consistently participates in volunteer recruitment efforts, sharing his experiences with fellow Deloitte employees and helping to conduct Junior Achievement volunteer trainings for the staff.

Jay’s work with Junior Achievement enables him to provide young people with the practical knowledge, guidance, and experience they need to become successful, productive citizens. In particular, his work teaching JA’s “Excellence through Ethics” curriculum helps to address a critical issue that has emerged among today’s youth.

According to the fifth annual Junior Achievement/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey, which polled teens across the country, 71% of surveyed teens say they feel fully prepared to make ethical decisions when they enter the workforce. Yet 38% of that group believes it is sometimes necessary to cheat, plagiarize, lie or even behave violently in order to succeed. Nearly one-quarter of all teens surveyed think cheating on a test is acceptable on some level and more than half of those teens say their personal desire to succeed is the rationale.

These statistics demonstrate the very real and urgent need for ethics training in our schools. As part of Jay’s volunteer work on behalf of JA, he works with students to help them examine how their beliefs align with major ethics theories and learn the benefits and advantages of having a code of ethics.

Thanks to Jay’s work with JA, students at schools throughout his community are given a new perspective that will help to shape the course of their lives and, ultimately, prepare them to enter the workforce as young professionals. Through the JA curriculum, he teaches students about economics, trading, saving, careers, lifestyle planning, urban planning, and other key concepts that their textbooks, and often even their teachers, don’t teach them. From showing them how to write checks and avoid credit card debt to helping them explore career possibilities and learn the importance of ethical decision-making, Jay gives young people the understanding and exposure they need to successfully navigate the intricacies of adult life.

And, it is clear that the lessons he teaches actually do make an impression. Because Jay teaches at schools in the local community, he often runs into his former students. More often than not, regardless of how many years have passed since they’ve worked together, his students consistently bring up the topics they learned in his class.

In addition, through his work as a JA ambassador, Jay has helped to significantly grow the number of Deloitte volunteers engaged in the program. For the last five years, volunteer participation has steadily gone up each year by 45 – 53 percent. Ultimately, this increase in volunteers means that more students are able to benefit from JA’s programming and get on the path to a successful future. In 2003, Deloitte volunteers were able to impact nearly 400 students. Whereas, thanks in large part to Jay proactively sharing his experience and championing JA throughout his office, close to 1,800 students were impacted in 2008.

Based on these outstanding contributions to both JA and his students, Jay was honored with the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2005/2006.

Jay’s genuine passion for community service and social responsibility is what sets him apart. All it takes is talking to him for a few minutes to feel the authenticity of his commitment. Since his days as a youth minister years ago, he has maintained a steadfast belief in the power of education and outreach to change the lives of young people. And, despite a busy work schedule, family commitments, and other volunteer responsibilities in his community, Jay has never wavered in his commitment to JA or his students. In fact, he is always looking for additional opportunities to contribute and has even made it a goal to personally bring the Junior Achievement curricula to every classroom from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

In Jay’s mind, volunteering is not something to be done based on spare time, it is something that should be made time for. And, as a champion for JA, he works to bring that philosophy to life for other Deloitte professionals.

Avinash Janakiraman

In addition to being a Principal Consultant for software development, Avinash Janakiraman is an active volunteer for the CSR group at SAP Labs India for more than three years now. He has volunteered to work for many of the CSR projects of the company and also plays an integral role in leading and coordinating new initiatives of CSR.

Being a regular visitor to the Child Care Center which is supported by the company, he interacts with the 50 orphaned children and tutors them on their academics. He has also helped in setting up new CSR projects for the company like the day care center in Delhi, new child care center etc. Avinash plays a major role in increasing the awareness about the CSR group and its activities amongst the SAP employees. Today every second employee in this company contributes in some way to SAPPORT and he is a key factor in increasing the awareness through the induction programs for new employees which he handles on a regular basis.

He has also visited remote areas across India, interacted and worked with and for the people who are supported by the CSR projects.

During the Week Of Service, SAP Labs India’s annual event for providing its employees numerous opportunities to do social activities, Avinash plays a pivotal role in coordinating and setting up various activities. In fact, during the 2007 week of service event, he led the team that raised close to 200,000 Indian Rupees by setting up stalls across all locations of the company. This whopping amount was used for the various CSR projects.

In addition to his immense contribution to the success of the CSR of SAP Labs India, Avinash has also set up a trust along with a group of likeminded people who work together for social causes. This group identifies people in distress and raises funds to cater to their needs. Some activities of this group include aiding for the eye operation of a village girl who was partially blind, funding for the cancer treatment of an elderly woman, donating furniture for a village school which provides free education etc.

Thus Avinash is creating a significant impact in the betterment of the poor and the needy people in India. His commitment and selfless dedication to the social causes is laudable.

Avinash social works are generally towards the betterment of poor children and their education. As a CSR volunteer, he has involved himself in various projects including setting up a Child Care Center, constructing a school in a Tsunami hit area, setting up day care centers for the underprivileged children etc.

As a regular visitor to the child care center, Avinash has created a visible impact in the lives of the 50 children residing there. Avinash has also significantly contributed in increasing the awareness of the CSR activities of the company thereby increasing the number of volunteers and the funds. His other social activities which he undertakes personally have also created direct and visible impacts in many poor people. For example, the girl whose eye operation was partially funded by Avinash’s group is now attending a regular school as her vision has been corrected. Also, the school in the rural district of Karnataka for which Avinash’s group donated furniture is also directly benefited as the children then get better infrastructure for their studies.

Although The CSR group at SAP Labs India has more than 50 active volunteers, Avinash is always considered a key volunteer due to his endless commitment and unflinching passion serving the community. He ensures that even though his work responsibilities keep increasing, his contribution and commitment to CSR has always increased continuously. As the CSR head of SAP Labs India, I always find Avinash to be a reliable and resourceful volunteer who always has the heart and the will to help for a social cause. Another distinctive factor of Avinash is that in addition to his individual contribution to CSR activities, he also inspires and encourages other colleagues to get involved and creates a platform for them to contribute.

Additionally, his other social activities, which are outside of the SAP CSR activities, also call for due appreciation as they directly touch the hearts and needs of the poor and the underprivileged people.

Sao Paolo, Brazil GE Volunteers Council

The GE Volunteers council in Sao Paolo created an unusual Ecologic soap factory thanks to a grant provided by the employee and retiree funded GE Volunteers Foundation.

Utilizing the business skills of GE volunteers the factory recycles used, donated cooking oil, which is screened and mixed with other products and transformed into ecologic soap. The factory’s production capacity amounts to the equivalent to one quarter of the cooking oil discarded in the city.

Here is a local press write up about the factory:

“The city has now a soap factory, which shall produce seven tons of product at first. The income from selling the product shall support social projects. A bakery spends an average of 200 liters of oil per week, for deep-frying all sorts of snacks.

Now, all the cooking oil used is donated. The gallons full of oil are taken by a van, which goes straight to this factory. Just like this bakery, other 243 companies shall help. The oil is poured into a drum, for screening. After that, it is conveyed to the machines, mixed with other products and transformed into ecologic soap. Each liter of recycled oil produces approx. 1,3 kilogram of soap. The factory is a partnership between a multinational company and the Coeso- Centro de Orientação e Educação Social (Coeso – Center for Social Education and Orientation) – a NGO, and started operations almost six months ago. It is waiting for Cetesb license. So, it is still undergoing tests.

The factory starts it commercial operation in December. Its production capacity shall be seven tones of bar soap and powder soap. According to the NGO, this is equivalent to one fourth of the cooking oil discarded in the city.

Each liger of cooking oil discarded into the waste water can pollute one million liters of water. This is approx. the amount of water consumed by one person in fourteen years.

Besides taking care of the rivers and preserving nature, recycling helps this NGO on developing social projects. The NGO provides in its facilities extra classes for school subjects, leisure activities and dance. It also maintains daycare centers, which serve 330 children.

The factory facility also maintains daycare centers and provides classes in academic subjects, leisure activities and dance. Today, the factory has eight employees, most of them parents of the children served by the centers. This work not only creates income and sustainability, but also protects the environment.”

Jo Ann Hernandez

Jo Ann has worked with New York Cares for over 10 years in the role of team leader in which she assists homebound seniors each month and helps rebuild libraries in the New York City’s public schools four times a year. She has worked as a math tutor with Literacy Partners, a not-for-profit organization that provides free community-based adult and family literacy programs to ensure that all adults have access to quality education needed to fully realize their potential as individuals, parents, and citizens.

For Jo Ann Hernandez, a senior associate with Deloitte’s Financial Advisory Services (FAS) practice for three years, volunteerism is a part of her DNA.

“I do a lot of volunteer work and really enjoy giving back to my community by helping others,” said Jo Ann.

“It makes me feel good to know that I am making a difference not only on that student, but on future generations to come. Each of these students will not only encourage their fellow peers to apply to college, but they are empowered to encourage their brothers and sisters and the children that they will have in the future to attend college. That’s a powerful impact!”

About a year and half ago, Deloitte announced its alliance with College Summit, an organization that focuses on helping under-privileged students prepare for college. College Summit recruits volunteers each summer for workshops that help rising high school seniors prepare their college applications and essays. Deloitte enlisted the support of its professionals for the workshops in 2007, and Jo Ann Hernandez was one of the first to sign up to serve as a writing coach. She was placed at the West Virginia State University Workshop in 2007.

“I really saw it as an opportunity to make a difference in a student’s life. I was actually a first-generation college student in my family, and I know how important it is to have the knowledge of applying to schools. I had mentors to help me with this process, and my way of thanking them is working with these students,” said Jo Ann.

Jo Ann was so enthusiastic and passionate about her 2007 workshop experience that she not only volunteered to serve as a writing coach for the 2008 workshop at St. John’s University (her alma mater), but also was very active in the recruitment of College Summit volunteers in Deloitte’s Northeast region.

For 2008, Jo Ann hosted two College Summit recruitment breakfasts, in which she invited Deloitte personnel to learn more about College Summit and the workshops. In addition, anywhere Jo Ann had an opportunity to speak about her experience, she was willing to share it. She spoke at a web cast on the program and even discussed it one-on-one with many of her FAS colleagues.

“My experience at the 2007 College Summit workshop really stayed with me for such a long period of time. This was not an experience that I just wanted to keep to myself. I wanted everyone to experience working with these great students,” said Jo Ann.

Because of her enthusiasm she was one of the reasons, 50% of the Deloitte professionals who volunteered came from the Northeast.

A FAS colleague said, “Jo Ann Hernandez deserves all of the credit for the FAS participation in the Northeast. Without her commitment, dedication, and enthusiasm for the program, I don’t think I would have volunteered.”

Another FAS colleague wrote: “Just wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in College Summit with you all. I can’t tell you the sense of fulfillment I had from this weekend. Those kids are something else! I’m completely exhausted from the weekend’s intense schedule, but I’m completely grateful for any chance to make a positive impression on our youth. You constantly told me how the program will make a lasting impression on me and I have to tell you that you’re 100% right.”

Jo Ann has not only made an impact on the recruitment of Deloitte College Summit volunteers, she also left a great impression on her students at the workshops. Recently, she heard that one of her students from the 2007 West Virginia State University workshop received a scholarship because of the essay that she helped him draft last summer.

Jo Ann exhibits the quality of a true leader. A leader inspires others to serve, and Jo Ann has inspired her fellow colleagues to volunteer for College Summit workshops. Her commitment and passion to helping these students has also been greatly appreciated and has inspired most of them to go to college.

Annette Roberts

Annette Roberts works in the Network Management department of Aetna in Milwaukee, WI. Outside of the office she chooses to work with underprivileged youth in the Milwaukee community. She does this through a program called God Bless the Kids Spot. Annette says, “Every Wednesday I rush to wrap up my workday in anticipation of spending time with 12-30 young people who attend this weekly central-city program that keeps them off the streets and gives them a safe, loving environment.”

God Bless the Kids Spot is an organization that was started by Annette’s church, Incarnation Lutheran, in order to reach out to both the youth of its congregation as well as the youth in Milwaukee, many of whom have had very difficult personal lives. When Annette first began volunteering she helped out as a cook with two other women on Wednesday nights. Since then, Annette has gone on field trips with the young people; helped tutor them; and most importantly has become a mentor to many of them.

For many of these children, Wednesday night is the highlight of their week. For a number of them, God Bless the Kids Spot provides them with the only hot meal they will eat that week. The environment at the Kids Spot is unlike any they have ever experienced before – they are in a safe environment where people genuinely love them. In fact, this environment is so appealing to the youth of Milwaukee gang members to participate on Wednesday nights and on field trips.

Annette’s passion and dedication to this program have helped her build strong relationships with many of these youth and break down many walls. Through these relationships, Annette has been able to mentor and help them change their lives for the better. In fact, many of the kids have actually begun to call her “ma.” This truly shows how much of a positive impact Annette has on each of these kid’s lives.

One of the most important things that Annette stresses to all of the kids she meets is the value of obtaining an education. She will tell them, “Getting an education is not an option.” Annette often speaks about a 19-year-old man she has been working with for some time now. She said that when she first met him he did not show much interest in schoolwork, and he did not even think he was going to graduate from high school. Now that he has gotten involved with God Bless the Kids Spot, he is getting higher grades and truly wants to graduate from high school. This is just one of many examples of the positive impact the program is having with the youth of Milwaukee. According to Annette, one of the biggest joys she personally receives from working with this program is “being able to see kids get excited about education.”

Another story that Annette was excited to share with her friends at Aetna was that she had the opportunity to take about 50 kids caroling this past Christmas for their first time. They went to the homes of elderly and homebound people they knew in the area and sang Christmas carols to them. Instead of feeling awkward, the children felt a sense of pride and confidence.

Annette has delivered a personal commitment to these kids when many times their own parents have abandoned them. She accepts and loves them just as they are. Through this spirit of service, Annette is not only changing the lives of these young people, she is positively influencing their friends; acquaintances; and, hopefully, those of future generations. Annette is truly providing these children with a beacon of light and hope for the future.

David Rockwell

In addition to running Rockwell Group, an award winning, cross-disciplinary 250-person architecture and design firm, David Rockwell has spent the last several years designing and creating Imagination Playground, a new concept in playgrounds, intended to allow children to create and manipulate their own play environment. The idea came to Mr. Rockwell after New York began their search for a design that would serve as a tribute to those who lost their lives on September 11th. Mr. Rockwell wanted to create a memorial playground that really engaged and excited children so he began watching how his own children interacted with things such as sand and water, as well as unconventional items, such as sticks, sheets, couch cushions and pieces of string.

Mr. Rockwell first began working on his ideas with New York City Department of Parks and Recreation collaborated to create a new play space at Burling Slip in lower Manhattan. A unique child-centric downtown oasis, the future “Imagination Playground” will combine sand, water, “loose parts” and play associates to encourage a constantly changing environment where children can play, dream and build. Activity will be mixed with creativity by providing diverse materials to promote unstructured “free play.” The site is set to open later next year.

Mr. Rockwell is also working with KaBOOM!, a national non-profit dedicated to bringing play back into the lives of children, on a smaller, more portable version of Imagination Playground called Imagination Playground in a BOX. The partners have just concluded a successful summer-long prototype test of the Imagination Playground in a BOX. Now, KaBOOM! and Rockwell are working on how to distribute the materials and knowledge needed to create Imagination Playgrounds to facilities across the nation next year.

Play is not a luxury. Play is a childhood necessity. There is a wealth of data on the power of play and the difference unstructured play can make on the health and well-being of a child. The numbers of children suffering from obesity, ADHD and depression are alarming. The belief that play is a luxury has deep roots in our nose-to-the grindstone, work-hard-now-and play-later lives. The very definition of play is to “have fun”—and we are taught from childhood that fun things aren’t necessary. Our cultural bias is exacerbated by these technological, societal and educational trends that further erode the incidence of play.

This “Play Deficit” can be seen every day, and is reflected in the results of several different studies. Kaiser Family Foundation found that “Youth between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of 6.5 hours a day with electronic media – more than 45 hours a week.” In his book Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv found that “the area outside of the home that parents feel comfortable letting their children play unsupervised has shrunk by 90% since the 1970s.

The problems that this Play Deficit creates are manifold; since play helps children become happier, healthier, more creative and socially adept. According to a Harris Interactive Poll, 89% of pediatricians believe play helps kids from becoming overweight. A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation poll revealed that 90% of teachers and 86% of parents believed that physically active children are better able to learn and are better behaved in the classroom. A recent UNICEF report found that British and American youth are the unhappiest children in the developed world, most likely due to the decline over the last 15 years in outdoor, unstructured play. To deprive children of adequate time and space to play is detrimental to their well-being now and in the future.

The testing of the first prototype installation of Imagination Playground in a BOX that began on July 8th in Brownsville, NY concluded this past weekend, and the system is proving to help create the engaging, exciting environment that Mr. Rockwell had envisioned for children. Brownsville, NY was chosen to test the prototype because it is one of the lowest-income areas in the city, and both KaBOOM! and Rockwell wanted to make sure that any play system they created could be implemented where children needed them the most. Multiple studies have shown that children in low-income neighborhoods play much less than their affluent peers. To address this need in particular, KaBOOM! and Rockwell both wanted to create a play system that could be replicated in wide range of environments, especially those in which standard play equipment is impractical or unaffordable.

Imagination Playground in a BOX is proving to be a great play system for under-served communities. In Brownsville, children who regularly use the playground are engaged in meaningful play for longer periods of time and are coming back to the playground more often. The Playground Associates who supervise the kids and facilitate play report that the children, “never get tired of playing with these blocks. They won’t stop playing with them until someone makes them.” Play with the loose parts is often integrated with play on the fixed, installed play equipment, and evaluators have observed comparable levels of physical activity with loose and fixed play equipment. Kids are also playing more imaginatively and collaboratively.

To have an architect of Mr. Rockwell’s caliber turn his attention to the importance of play is extraordinary. Mr. Rockwell has used his design prowess and experience to re-think the very concept of what a playground should be, possibly revolutionizing the industry as only an outsider can. His ideas and devotion to the cause of play will impact the lives of millions of children over the next several years, making them happier, healthier, smarter and more socially adept now and in the future. There aren’t many folks who can claim such an achievement.