JibJab and Operation Give Team Up to Deliver Smiles; Non-political Organization Delivers Toys to Iraqi Children

Business Wire, Jan 18, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- JibJab Media, the online animation studio that produced the 2004 online election parodies "This Land" and "Good to be in DC!" has teamed up with Operation Give to help send toys to children in Iraq.

JibJab will place prominent links to Operation Give's website in and around its upcoming online animation, "Second Term!," which will be widely distributed on Yahoo! and JibJab.com starting January 19, 2005. Operation Give collects toys donated in the United States and ships them to Iraq, where soldiers help distribute them to needy children.

"Children remember simple acts of kindness," said JibJab co-founders Gregg and Evan Spiridellis. "Soldiers in World War II gave chocolate bars to kids as a gesture of good will and that helped shape a future generation's impression of America. Operation Give offers every one of us the opportunity to do the same thing in Iraq."

Operation Give was founded by a soldier known affectionately as "Chief Wiggles" in answer to a call for toys and other goods to help the children he encountered every day in Iraq. "We founded the Operation Give as a grass-roots, non-partisan, volunteer-driven, and non-political organization. All we want to do is help the children of Iraq recover from years of depredation, and make the world a better place."

JibJab's latest cartoon also features the faces of real troops serving in Iraq singing the hopeful line, "We want Iraqis to have free elections!" Chief Wiggles was instrumental in coordinating the participation of the soldiers.

In December 2004, JibJab included links to Operation Give in its holiday animation, filling the charity's warehouse with toys and raising over $30,000 in donations.

People can send toys and make donations to Operation Give by visiting their website at http://www.OperationGive.org.

More information about JibJab can be found at http://www.JibJab.com.