Pro Bono: Attorney and Staff Community Service

 

Karen Grebenor, Chicago Legal Secretary, Lakeview Pantry

For three years, Karen Grebenor has been volunteering in her local community, helping with the Lakeview Pantry's food delivery service for the homebound. Two Saturday mornings each month, Karen fills approximately 70 grocery bags with a predetermined nutritionally balanced supply of food, including fresh produce and frozen foods. The bags are then delivered to the homes of needy individuals who have requested assistance. She believes the Lakeview Pantry is making a difference in the fight against hunger.

“I get satisfaction out of knowing that I’m making a small contribution to solve a larger problem for people who can’t make ends meet or are elderly or housebound,” says Karen. “I’ve made friends with other volunteers and love helping out there.”

Karen's commitment to the Pantry motivated her to request and receive grants in 2007 and 2008 from the Seyfarth Shaw Charitable Foundation. Her dedication has not gone unnoticed: the Pantry recently featured Karen in its brochure.

Lakeview Pantry is a non-profit organization with the mission of eliminating hunger in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood by providing food to fill the basic needs of hungry people, increasing the independence of its clients through self-help initiatives and other innovative programs, and raising awareness of poverty and its solutions. For more information about Lakeview Pantry, please visit www.lakeviewpantry.org.

 

Jonathan Evan Goldberg, Labor & Employment Partner, Cherub Improv

In 2007, New York Labor & Employment partner Jonathan Evan Goldberg and two of his friends formed Cherub Improv, an organization dedicated to performing and teaching short form improv comedy and musical improv comedy on a volunteer basis for underserved populations throughout New York City and its surrounding areas. The lawyer, social worker, and television commercial producer -- who met while taking improv comedy classes -- developed a new concept: bringing improv to nursing homes, senior centers, hospitals, hospice, a children’s runaway shelter, a cancer support organization, a homeless outreach program, and other worthwhile organizations.

“In addition to being fun, improv fosters creativity, confidence, and teamwork, and emphasizes the importance of giving (the gift of information) and being supportive (of information given to you by the audience and your scene partners),” said Jonathan. “Similarly, volunteering is about giving and supporting. Together they are like a match made in heaven.”

Since its debut performance in April 2007, more than 40 Cherub Improv volunteers have entertained and educated audiences for free at more than 25 organizations during over 130 events. Many of these organizations have asked Cherub Improv to return for additional engagements.

“The feedback from our audiences has been overwhelmingly positive. We have received compliments for keeping our shows ‘clean’ and for making our events accessible to our various audiences and sympathetic to their needs,” said Jonathan.

Sometimes, it is the audience members who provide the laughs. “On one occasion I asked an audience of mostly octogenarian women for two words that seemingly have nothing to do with each other so that we could perform an improvised song: ‘love’ and ‘marriage’ was the immediate response. Everyone’s a comedian, in a very good way, during our events.”

Jonathan’s enthusiasm for Cherub Improv has spread throughout the Firm:

  • New York attorneys Candace Quinn and Frances Rivera-Medero are providing pro bono legal services to Cherub Improv, helping it obtain 501(c)(3) not-for-profit status.
  • In April, Jonathan and two other volunteers led a children’s improv workshop in the New York office for “Take Your Child to Work Day.”
  • In July, Jonathan conducted a lunch-time improv workshop for the lawyers and staff in the Boston office. Subsequently, Jonathan returned to the Boston office in November and conducted an improv workshop during the Boston Lawyers Group’s welcome reception for the New Fall Associates of Color.
  • At the September Partnership Retreat, Jonathan performed a stand-up comedy routine and led a brief round of improv games.

“I feel extremely fortunate to be part of a law firm that values community service as much as Seyfarth Shaw,” said Jonathan.

For more information about Cherub Improv, please visit www.cherubimprov.org.

 

Georgina North, Labor & Employment Associate, Comfort Zone Camp


In September 2008, Los Angeles associate Georgina North spent a weekend volunteering at Comfort Zone Camp, a free weekend bereavement camp for children who have recently experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. The Comfort Zone Camp gives children the opportunity to discuss their losses within a “healing circle” of kids their age. This allows the children to figure out ways to cope and heal.

During the weekend, Georgina served as a Big Buddy to an 11-year-old girl who had lost her father after complications arising from heart disease and diabetes. The situation of Georgina’s Little Buddy was very similar in emotion to the other 60 children that attended the camp.

“It was heart-wrenching to hear their stories,” said Georgina, “But it was also amazingly uplifting to see how the children supported each other and shared their opinions and ideas about coping with loss.”
Outside of healing circle time, the camp provides an opportunity for Little Buddies to get away from the loss and grief that is part of their every day lives by playing with other kids their age and participating in the usual camp activities, such as bonfires, sing-a-longs, games, rock climbing, and hiking.

“This was an amazing, humbling, exhausting and very emotional experience for me and the rest of the Big Buddies that attended camp,” said Georgina. “Above all it was a reminder of just how fortunate we all are as adults to not have to go through the turmoil these kids are currently experiencing in their lives.”

Comfort Zone Camp is the nation’s largest nonprofit bereavement camp for children and prior to this year held camps in New Jersey and Virginia only. In 2007, Los Angeles Litigation partner and charitable giving co-chair Dean Martoccia joined Comfort Zone Camp’s Steering Committee, which has raised more than $75,000 to support camps in California. The Firm has supported Comfort Zone Camp with grants from the Seyfarth Shaw Charitable Foundation.

For more information regarding Comfort Zone Camp, please visit their website [www.comfortzonecamp.org]