A little about us. LPR is a boutique public relations agency that has been of service to the toy industry since the ‘80s. I founded the agency in 1988 after a career in consumer package goods marketing (I was part of the team that brought the supermarket hosiery brand, L’eggs, to the forefront in the ‘70s). Along the way, I learned from the best – not only about consumer package goods marketing but the toy industry. LPR has been fortunate enough to work with many of the industry’s greatest people, products, and brands over the years. 

During COVID we were called upon by our diverse roster of clients to help them pivot organically into relevant, timely conversations, from adjusting to the new WFH normal to civil unrest and supply chain and shipping issues; many of these issues continue today.

Last May, as our clients turned to us for counsel, we realized we needed to look at our own behavior. Our response to what was happening in the world around us needed to be real and check the pay-it-forward boxes that are at our core. We asked ourselves: who has been the constant in our 33+ year history? Children and families. That’s how LOVE, Litzky was born. I had nothing to do with it – conceptually I was all in, but the initiative was the brainchild of the agency’s president, Josslynne Welch. 

The LOVE, Litzky Grant supports entrepreneurs and small businesses that improve the lives of kids and families. LOVE, Litzky, an acronym for Lifting Outstanding Voices & Endeavors, will spotlight a specific and timely issue each year, and award a new recipient with a grant to fund a PR campaign.

The inaugural recipient is PunkinFutz, a company that designs and manufactures sensory play products for kids, making play accessible for every child. PunkinFutz was chosen as the 2021 LOVE, Litzky recipient for its commitment to ensuring that all children enjoy the developmental advantages of inclusion, imagination, and child-led play. The grant will provide PunkinFutz with a PR campaign strategy to launch its Sesame Street collection and $25,000 in professional fees to execute it. 

I am honored that this program bears my name. While I may not have played a role in its creation, LOVE, Litzky is grounded in the principles on which I founded my agency more than three decades ago; I am proud that the next generation of agency leadership will carry those tenets forward.