About 100 conference attendees and exhibitors participated in the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.'s seventh annual Community Service Day on Sunday, assembling story boards and puppet theaters for Chatsworth, Calif.-based Child Care Resource Center.

RIMS conference attendees painted and built 19 puppet theaters, assembled story boards and participated in a book drive for the center's Head Start program.

The program specifically targets 19 area preschools, helps 1,500 children and their families to identify special needs, makes sure they receive health and dental exams, and provides more than 100,000 nutritious meals every year.

Since 1976, the center has worked to help parents, child care professionals, employers and local communities in matters of early care and education. It serves 25,000 children and low-income families in the Los Angeles area to promote higher standards in early child care and education.

Marion Poltermann, risk manager at Sirva Inc., based in Chicago, said she wanted to participate in RIMS community service day for the last few years.

“My schedule hasn't allowed me to do that,” Ms. Poltermann said. “I made it a point to come earlier this year so I can be here today.”

Ms. Poltermann was working with felt fabric to make hand puppets that accompany the puppet theater.

“It was important to me to give back to the community,” she said. “Everybody is in a really good mood, we're having a lot of fun; you feel like you're kind of a kid for a day.”

After initial use in a preschool, puppet theaters proved to be a successful teaching tool for children, said Betty Zamorano-Pedregon, Early Head Start director at the center in Chatsworth.

The 19 theaters built Sunday will help the center's efforts to replicate the puppet theaters' benefits across other centers.

RIMS members and event sponsor Zurich North America donated 3,600 new and gently used children's books to the center that will be reworked back into the community.

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“Zurich firmly believes in giving back to the community where we live, operate and work. It is tremendously important,” said Bill Blake, who is regional executive for Zurich North America in Los Angeles.

“We encourage our folks to give back, and our employees appreciate it,” Mr. Blake said, noting that employees spend time with team members they don't typically work with on a daily basis.

“It serves as a team-building event for many of our staff as well,” Mr. Blake said. “It builds a better community within Zurich.''

Zurich ran a national campaign this year to collect the books, and pledged $10 dollars for every book donated, with a cap of $25,000, “which we achieved pretty quickly,” Mr. Blake said.

“The financial help for them is really critical today because government contributions to organizations like CCRC are down, so anything we can do for them is a massive help,” he said.

“We've had quite a few volunteers but nothing like this before,” Ms. Zamorano-Pedregon said.

“The number of books and the amount of money that was raised for our organization is something I've never seen while I've been there,” she said. “It's wonderful.”

With such donations, the CCRC is looking to promote literacy, fund parenting classes, and bring new media into classrooms, such as computers, among others, Ms. Zamorano-Pedregon said.