Yesterday, First Lady Michelle Obama joined California First Lady Maria Shriver and 350 volunteers for a playground building service project at Bret Harte Elementary School in San Francisco to encourage Americans to to serve their communities. Together, along with 350 volunteers, they constructed the first fully volunteer-built “intergenerational playground” in the nation.

Griffin|Schake coordinated logistics with the White House Press and Advance Teams and oversaw media relations for the event.

This event served as the official kick-off for the 2009 National Conference for Volunteering and Service and marked Shriver’s 31st playground build throughout California. With 4,500 expected attendees, the conference is the largest gathering in the world of leaders of the service and volunteering sector.

The project was sponsored by CaliforniaVolunteers, the California state office charged with increasing the number of Californians who volunteer, led by the nation’s first state cabinet secretary dedicated to service, Karen Baker. Shriver serves as the honorary chair of the organization.

“Real change doesn’t come from the top down, it comes from the bottom up – from citizens organizing and mobilizing and serving the nation that they love…service has the power to transform individuals, communities, and this country,” said First Lady Michelle Obama.

“This is more than a play space, this is a testament to the fact that Californians of any age can unite around the concept of play, serve their communities and create an inclusive environment that transcends age diversity,” said First Lady Maria Shriver. “This trailblazing play space truly embraces the philosophy that playground lessons last a lifetime and we never outgrow play.”

This play space marks the first fully intergenerational volunteer-build playground, with kids, parents, seniors and Alzheimer’s experts engaged in every step of the planning and construction process. An edible garden will feature a farmer’s market stand, allowing kids and seniors from the community to create a micro enterprise, sell vegetables and raise money for the school.

>> For more background, read the articles in the LA Times, the New York Times, and USA Today.

Tags: CaliforniaVolunteers, Griffin|Schake, KaBoom!, Kristina Schake, Maria Shriver, Marissa Moss, Matthew diGirolamo, Media Strategy & Relations, Michelle Obama, National Conference on Volunteering & Service, San Francisco, Service & Volunteerism, White House

Today, Maria Shriver launched a multifaceted project in partnership with the Center for American Progress and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.

TIME magazine will also be involved in research and reporting, as well as co-presenting discussions and roundtables around the country.

The project, A Woman’s Nation, will take a new, empirical look at American women who for the first time in our nation’s history make up fully half of all workers and are becoming the primary breadwinners in more families than ever before.

The project will include the Shriver Report, which will combine the work of economists and academics to address the consequences of women’s more prominent economic status in the institutions that matter most in American life, including government, business, faith, education, and health. The report will also include data from research and on-the-ground reporting around the country, looking especially at the interplay between women and men in our society today.

“We will take a hard look at how women are doing in the United States today and consider the central question of the role government, business, and faith organizations, as well as individual women and men should play in supporting women’s role now in the workforce and the U.S. economy,“ said John Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. “We look forward to teaming up with Maria Shriver on this important work.”

The last expansive government project centered on women was conducted under the presidency of John F. Kennedy, who appointed Eleanor Roosevelt in 1961 to chair a commission to report on the status of women. A Woman’s Nation will report its findings to the nation, Congress, and President Obama, who recently signed an executive order to establish a council to coordinate the federal government’s efforts to address the needs of women and girls.

“As a reporter by trade, I look forward to working with CAP and our other partners to take a factual look at the consequences of today’s economic realties,” said Maria Shriver. “The world has changed dramatically since my uncle launched his commission in 1961, and the fact is we need a new portrait of the American woman so we can better understand what she needs to be successful in this complicated world. The truth is, we are now what I like to call, ‘A Woman’s Nation’.”

A Woman’s Nation will include roundtables, a national poll, and interviews with icons of the women’s movement and other prominent leaders. The preliminary report will be released in the fall, to be followed by a book.

>> Read Shriver’s piece in The Huffington Post here.

Tags: A Woman's Nation, Center for American Progress, Griffin|Schake, John Podesta, Kristina Schake, Maria Shriver, Marissa Moss, Media Strategy & Relations, The Huffington Post, TIME Magazine, Valerie Jarrett

Two weeks ago, Kristina Schake and Marissa Moss travelled to Washington, D.C. to accompany California First Lady Maria Shriver as she testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging and participated in Alzheimer’s Public Policy Week. They witnessed four days of incredible hope and dedication to an issue that so closely impacts many people’s lives.

The week began with a breakfast at the Hay Adams, where we introduced Maria’s film “Grandpa, Do You Know Who I am?” The special premieres Monday, May 11th on HBO, and is geared toward children and young teens coping with a grandparent’s illness. When the lights flickered on as the credits rolled, there was nary a dry eye in the room. A Public Policy forum luncheon followed, and the next day found us on Capitol Hill at Maria’s testimony, which can be viewed here.

Speaking along with Speaker Newt Gingrich, the honorable Sandra Day O’Connor and Senator Bob Kerrey, Maria’s testimony was a heartbreaking but hopeful narrative on the impact her father’s illness has on her family and her life. Alzheimer’s is a disease suffering from a public relations dilemma — there are no survivors to promote the cause, no champions to run races, no ribbons for anything but families searching for a memory of their loved one. But the scientific community is hopeful, and Maria’s testimony urged us to be too: “I am convinced that we baby boomers will be the generation who tells our grandchildren that believe it or not, there once was a time when there was no cure for Alzheimer’s.” Judging by the standing ovation in the Senate room, perhaps that dilemma is on its way to being solved.

You can watch Good Morning America’s moving piece here.

This week, on the opposite side of the map, Governor Schwarzenegger made an exciting announcement regarding Maria’s WE Connect Campaign. States including Illinois, Kansas, New York and Iowa have joined with us in a groundbreaking effort to extend the new federal WEb Connector tool across the country. Right now, anyone from anywhere can go to www.weconnect.net to find out what they are eligible for. With tax day around the corner, this is truly a unique effort to empower taxpayers and join up our national leaders in a way that truly works best - together, and for the benefit of the working people.

Of course, we are also fast at work planning The Women’s Conference 2009. We can’t divulge the lineup until July – but next week, Maria will be making an extremely exciting announcement I’m looking forward to sharing on Monday.

Tags: Alzheimer's, Governor Schwarzenegger, Kristina Schake, Maria Shriver, Marissa Moss, Media Strategy & Relations, The Women's Conference, WE Connect