Chef JJ & Play Pretty, Play Pals Project Partner Up On A Kids Cooking Show

Chef Joe "JJ" Johnson, the first winner of the Bravo Cooking Contest called Rocco's Dinner Party, has agreed to team up with Play Pretty, Play Pals Project to develop a new kids cooking show to get kids to start cooking and to help parents to be more conscious of what they put in their bodies.

We're scheduled to start filming the pilot on August 22nd, 2011 at Pellegrino’s Restaurant & Lounge in North Haledon, NJ.

If all goes according to plan, we'll be serving up Spaghetti and "grass-fed beef" meatballs, Watermelon Salad, and a Chobani Parfait on a TV channel real soon.

Threadless Community Loves Play Pretty, Play Pals Project Design Patterns

Threadless Design Challenge Today, we submitted several of our merchandise designs to Threadless.com to help bring more awareness to our anti-bullying campaign. With the help of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Plaxo we were able to send out multiple emails to our friends, colleagues, and supporters encouraging them to help our designs get printed by scoring it.

If our baggu bag, scarf, or wallpaper print design is printed our organization will get paid $2,500 in cash and prizes for our bullying prevention campaign. Help us spread the word. Thanks.

Give Back Your Foundation Celebrates The Everyday Philanthropist

Give Up A Week, Get Back A Lifetime Yesterday, we started filming the pilot program to a new reality docu-series that puts a lens on the lives of those among the richest who enjoy sharing their fortunes with those who don’t have that much.

Hosted by philanthropist, corporate speaker, winner of Oprah’s Big Give show, founder of two non-profits, and volunteerism expert Steven Paletta, each episode will feature heart-felt interviews on location (home, business, neutral site) with philanthropists and people from all walks of life, unique opportunities for people to receive “celebrity-style” perks & luxuries courtesy of a celebrity, and an online boot camp challenge


Give Back Your Foundation We traveled throughout NYC with Steve, the founder of Give Back, stopping in Grand Central Station, Times Square, Penn Station, and Union Square attempting to find (and film) as many random acts of kindness, philanthropy in action, and man serving man in small ways.

The purpose was to celebrate the "everyday" philanthropist by giving them the gift of giving, a 'Give Back Your Foundation' promotional give away coupon worth $5, $25, and $50.


Random Acts of Kindness As part of the show segment we profiled an “everyday” philanthropist who demonstrated a random act of kindness. One act was as small as a woman giving change to a homeless person on the street or volunteers giving their time to The Salvation Army. The highlight of the morning was when a good samaritan helped a blind person regain her sense of direction.


The Gift of Giving The objective was to elevate and celebrate the “art” of personal fulfillment and giving back. We believe our first film shoot with Stephen accomplished this and more. Thank you Stephen, Sean, Donna, Jeffrey, Gloria, Manpreet, Tamara, Andrea, Terrance, Gerard & The Ground Stone, and the Fresh Air Fund team for supporting our pilot program.

ZYBL and Play Pretty, Play Pals Project Join Forces To Promote Anti-Bullying Message

Z's Youth Basketball League Yesterday, we had the privilege of filming the launch of Lazarus Sims' (aka Z) youth basketball clinic at the Boys & Girls Club on Shonnard Street in Syracuse, NY. Coach Sims is a prominent figure in the Syracuse community and the SU men’s basketball coordinator of player development/asst. strength and conditioning coach.

The goal of the ZYBL is to bring basketball back to its true form with hard work and dedication. “I believe the best basketball is built on trust & relationships in teammates!” said Coach Z.

In a joint effort with ZYBL, we started enlisting Syracuse leaders, local businessmen, and athletes to contribute their unique talents, resources, and life lessons to a national cause around the issue of bullying.


Rest In Peace Coach Maz "My high school coach and mentor Joe Mazella, taught me the “Heart of The Game”, is through hard work and having a passion for basketball," Lazarus said. "Coach Maz challenged me both on and off the court to be a leader, a positive role model, and achieve my personal best. He also instilled in me the value of family and friendship as well as to NEVER turn a child away."


Z's Footsteps to Success To further reinforce his mission statement, Coach Z personally designed a line of colorful t-shirts with 10 of his 13 steps to help him teach his youth.

1. Family 2. Respect 3. Belief 4. Education 5. Honesty 6. Dedication 7. Drive 8. Trust 9. Desire 10. Hard work 11. Commitment 12. Sportsmanship 13. Eating right


Say Yes To Education Thank you Lazarus, Samuel, Lee, Fred, Joevon, Thomas, Greg, Michelle, Chelsea, Edmund, Oliva, and Chief Fowler for supporting our documentary project and helping us to advocate for the education of children on the issue of bullying prevention and youth violence on various levels.

Syracuse Leaders Support Bullying Behavior In America Documentary

Mr. Daniel G. Lowengard, former Superintendent of Syracuse City School District, welcomed us in his home earlier today so we could interview him for the 'Bullying Behavior In America' documentary. A long time advocate for fair funding for city kids, Mr. Lowengard had been a Syracuse Superintendent for 5 1/2 years, Superintendent in Utica for 8 years, and worked nearly 39 years in public education.

We're hoping to introduce our documentary, books, and digital media products to children in as many Syracuse and NYC school districts as possible.  Mr. Lowengard's support with encouraging Mary Anne Schmitt, President of Say Yes To Education, and others to embrace our program can go a long way in helping this goal become a reality.


Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler allowed our cameras to follow him for a day as he gave us a glimpse into his life as head of the Syracuse police department. He talked about their Crime Analysis Center, the rising number of recent killings in Syracuse, and what his department is doing to combat youth crime, gangs and gun violence.

The next day, Chief Fowler took us on a tour of the Syracuse neighborhoods and we discussed a new TV show concept we're developing called Police Chief, which will center around a boot camp program for bullies, juvenile offenders, and gang members to deter them from a life of crime and gang participation.

We're proud to say our Chief has agreed to participate. To be continued...