Los Angeles, CA, April 13, 2020 - Gina Zapanta and Mike Alder host a weekly virtual dance fundraiser on Facebook and Instagram, to help small businesses and healthcare professionals. They pledge $1 per viewer, up to $25,000 each week and buy meals for healthcare professionals working in emergency rooms.
Gina Zapanta and Mike Alder are lawyers and entrepreneurs, but first, they are community advocates. Like many businesses, they were in the midst of an expansion with the launch of their new worker’s compensation firm, ZapantaAlder Law. From one day to the next, it was no longer business as usual. COVID-19 hit Los Angeles and all was shut down.
Gina Zapanta is a pillar in the community and her family has been advocates in the healthcare community for two generations. Her father, the late Dr. Richard Zapanta, was a well-known orthopedic surgeon and a fierce advocate for building community and equitable access to healthcare and education. Closer than ever to the frontline during this pandemic, her brother Richard Zapanta is an ER registered nurse at LA County Hospital.
Mike Alder, a Louisiana native, is a successful Los Angeles trial lawyer and founder of Alder Law specializing in personal injury and employment law. He has been involved in many philanthropic efforts including as a founding member of The LA Trial Lawyers Charities and as a board member of the LA Inner City Law Center which advocates on behalf of the homeless.
Gina and Mike decided to take action to help small restaurants and healthcare professionals at the same time. They buy meals from local restaurants and serve 50-100 stressed-out healthcare workers - who often eat from vending machines or skip meals - per hospital across Los Angeles.
As they talked about the ways they can help, Gina and Mike knew that people also need a little joy and fun. So, they created a fun way to give back. Gina and Mike partnered with Loriann Serna of Wife of the Party, a well-known event producer in Los Angeles, to host a live Instagram and Facebook party with DJ Herick. The first week, Gina and Mike committed to donating $1 for every viewer, up to $25,000. That’s right, no donation needed. They just wanted to spread some joy and fun during these hard times and in return, they would make a donation to restaurants. In the first week, over 10,000 people viewed the party and that delivered over 1,000 meals. Week two was just as successful, delivering another 1,000 meals. In all, 18 hospitals and 22 restaurants have been helped.
As they gear up to do this week to week, they want to continue to spread joy and fun through dancing at home from your living room. Join Gina Zapanta, Mike Alder, and Wife of the Party each Saturday Night at 7pm PST to keep this going. This fun FUNraiser is now growing a movement that inspired others to do the same. Check out @ZapantaAlder and #ZAGives on Instagram and Facebook.
To book an interview with Gina Zapanta and Mike Alder or to join them on a delivery, please contact: [email protected]
______________________________
Zapanta Alder Law firm founders, Gina Zapanta and Mike Alder, launch a weekly virtual dance FUNraiser to personally help small businesses by buying meals to donate to healthcare professionals working on the frontlines. “You dance, we donate $1 for every viewer up to $50,000.”
Gina Zapanta and Mike Alder have donated over 2,000 meals to 18 hospitals in the Los Angeles area and plan to deliver an additional 1,000 meals this week.
