Office Depot Helps Kids Get Ready for School    Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council Member Janice Hahn thank Office Depot Western Region Vice President, Patrick M. Welch.   Graceful palms swayed against a dazzling blue sky.  Flowers of every color were in full bloom on the hillsides.  It was a beautiful end-of-the-summer day in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles traffic was the usual unpredictable beast.  Knowing that the drive from Studio City to the William Nickerson Recreation Center on Compton Avenue could take one hour or three hours, my son Christopher and I decided to split the difference, leaving two hours ahead of time.  Which meant that we arrived an hour early.  (Better than the alternative.)   Gregory Thomas, the Acting Facility Director for the Nickerson Recreation Center, greeted us and directed us through the building to a small park with a playground in the back.  There were trucks already parked there: one from Office Depot and another from Feed the Children.    Two men were setting out chairs and erecting tents to provide shade.  Another man was tying a cluster of red and white helium-filled balloons to the end of a stage.    It was a calm and quiet summer morning in Nickerson Gardens while 10 miles away at LAX Airport, I knew that chaos was unfolding.  Women clad in Dolce and Gabanna were tossing their perfume, hairspray, toothpaste, and "make up" in trash bins.  Mothers and fathers with toddlers were throwing away unopened cartons of milk and juice, and businessmen were being forced to part with their grooming products and beverages.  The flying public was being introduced to the new normal.

Mary Wong, The Director of Community Relations for Office Depot, arrived.  She’d flown in the day before from Orlando, and would be leaving us to go to LAX to travel to another community.    This year alone, Mary told us, Office Depot would be donating 300,000 backpacks to needy kids, bringing the total for Office Depot’s Back Pack Giveaway program to 1 million.    (Pictured: Gregory Thomas, Acting Director of the William Nickerson Recreation Center, Bobbi McKenna, Publisher of Givingyouavoice.com, and Mary Wong, Office Depot Director of Community Relations.)

I took my seat in a folding chair under a tent and watched as groups of children begin to arrive for the big event.  I asked the boy who sat down in front of me: “Are you excited about seeing the Mayor?”   “Yes,” he said, his head bobbing up and down.    (Pictured: Holly J. Mitchell, CEO of Crystal Stairs and a Commissioner for Children Youth and Families for the City of Los Angeles, with Bobbi McKenna.)

Scott Folsom, President of the 10th District PTSA, Holly J. Mitchell, CEO of Crystal Stairs and a Commissioner for Children, Youth, and Families for the City of Los Angeles, Karen Villafana, Area Rep for Neighborhood and Community Services in the Mayor’s Office, and representatives for LA’s Best, Feed the Children, Unification of Disabled Latin Americans, and Art of Elysium arrived.  The City Council Member for the district, Janice Hahn, had to be coaxed out of the audience and onto the stage.

Gisselle Acevedo, the CEO of Para Los Ninos sat down next to me and said, “I just heard that the Mayor won’t be able to come because of the situation at the airport.”  I remembered then that each Threat Level carries with it a mandatory set of protocols.

I was a little disappointed.  Yes, I’ve met the Mayor several times.  I’ve written about him.  But my son Christopher hadn’t yet met Mayor Villaraigosa, who was named one of the nations “25 Best Leaders” by US News and World Report in October 2005.   (Christopher has, however, met two U.S. Presidents: George Herbert Walker Bush – the first President Bush – and William Jefferson Clinton.  In fact, he saw Clinton play his saxophone at his first Inaugural Ball.)   Oh, well, I thought…another time.   Then Brenda Anderson, the South Los Angeles Area Director for the Mayor’s Office, said:  “We have a surprise.  The Mayor heard that there were children here waiting for him, and he said that this was where he needed to be.”

And there he was.  It was very low-key.  Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the first Latino Mayor of Los Angeles since 1872, took to the stage.  He thanked Patrick Welch, Regional VP for Office Depot, handed out backpacks, and made the day for the children assembled there.   (Pictured: Children from Para Los Ninos on stage to get their new Office Depot Backpacks with Para Los Ninos Staff Members: Deshonna Jones, Site Supervisor, and Evelyn Ramirez-Schultz, Director of Special Events.)

The crowds scattered.  Some left for the airport, others to buses, while my son, Christopher, and I climbed back into the car to battle the beast of the freeway.  Christopher maneuvered the car across the obligatory four lanes of traffic – why does going anywhere on a freeway require four lane jumps within thirty seconds?   I thought about the children with their new backpacks beginning a new school year, new classes, maybe with new teachers, new friends, and new hopes.  I wished them all the very best.   Participating Organizations:  LA 10th District PTSA, Blackwell International Academy of Performing Arts, Friends of Child Advocates, Communities in Schools of the San Fernando Valley and Greater Los Angeles, Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, Art of Elysium, The Resource Center for Non Profit Management, Central City Neighborhood Partners, Child Development Consortium of Eastern Los Angeles, Para Los Ninos, Angels Flight At Risk Youth Services, Nickerson Gardens, Imperial Courts, Jordan Downs, Gonzaque Village, UDLA.