2024 COMBO Playdate Recap

Celebrating and Supporting Our Local Community

On the first weekend in April, we kicked off Earth Month with our annual COMBO Playdate, a joyous block party packed with fun, free, meaningful offerings for families in our community: activities specially designed to support children’s development, and resources and experiences that support the whole family’s health and well-being. This year was our biggest event yet, with over 500 families in attendance!

Why the Playdate?

When COVID hit, we recognized an unprecedented need to rapidly gather information about the pandemic’s effects on families, and launched the COMBO Initiative. “We started the Playdate as a way to give back to the wonderful community that makes our research possible,” says Dani Dumitriu (MD, PhD), Principal Investigator of the COMBO Initiative.

And our enduring commitment to fostering community health, in which family health is unequivocally rooted, has seen the Playdate grow into an annual event that meaningfully celebrates and supports our Washington Heights community — which, as home to mostly Spanish-speaking and immigrant families, continues to be disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. With the Playdate, we invest in our community by lifting up their voices: asking what kinds of support would be most valuable to them, and offering tangible resources in response.

A quick look at this year’s community impact:

We gave out over $20,000 in free resources and experiences for the local community
50 attendees were certified in infant and adult/child CPR & AED (in both English and Spanish). We also distributed 50 adult CPR kits and 31 infant CPR kits, so attendees can share these life-saving skills with their community
90 families received lead testing demonstrations and testing swabs to use at home
We gave out over 1,500 children’s books, in both English & Spanish, to families and teachers in the community
72 families took home non-toxic all-purpose cleaning spray (+ DIY demonstrations and recipe cards)
45 families took home non-toxic playdough (+ DIY demonstrations and recipe cards)
Over a dozen families signed the Plastic Reduction Petition
500 families received reusable insulated grocery totes with gifts and from mission-aligned sponsors like Naturalena Foundation (who make non-toxic Happy Little Camper & Veeda Femcare products).
We gave out over $7,000 worth of premium eco-friendly products and experiences through prizes & giveaways
And 50 local volunteers helped make it all happen

Connecting with our community and our planet

This year’s April event date sparked a special Earth month theme and a partnership with the Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCEH), which conducts community-based research on the harmful effects of early exposure to environmental pollutants on children’s health. Together, we gifted attendees insulated lunch bags, and CCEH spent the day showing families how to make non-toxic cleaning solution and playdough, answering parents’ questions about healthy home environments, and providing free lead testing on toys families brought from home.

“Support for environmental health is especially important in communities like Washington Heights, which are also disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change,” says Esther Greeman, Event Director of the Playdate. “As a native New Yorker, I’m deeply aware of the limited nature experiences available to our youngsters. This event was far more than a fun day outside; by planting these early seeds of tangible environmental connection, we’re ensuring that the next generation not only cherishes, but also champions, our planet.”

Our Earth-month celebration inspired a whole suite of eco-themed attractions, collaborations with mission-driven organizations, and community-focused resources and giveaways. Here were some of the highlights:

Activities for the whole family:

Robbie’s Ranch petting zoo was a crowd favorite this year: children were so excited to interact with friendly pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, bunnies, and even lizards (and the adults were pretty excited, too)!
The New York Botanical Garden’s Edible Academy led an awesome urban farming station, where children got to plant cilantro seedlings, and families learned how to grow healthy, tasty herbs in their home kitchens
To keep those plants thriving, the Washington Heights/Inwood Food Council taught families how to make self-watering planters with recycled water bottles, which they got to take home.
Families also loved New Star Training’s empowering “mommy & me” Muay Thai self-defense workshops, and The Equality Education’s socio-emotional

learning workshops, designed to help children connect to their greatness through mindful art therapy.
Local multimedia artist Dana Barnes offered Earth-themed face painting — using non-toxic paint she created specifically for this event!

Activities to Support Developmental Play:

We brought back 2 popular sensory activities for the 3rd year in a row: rubber ducky fishing,

which offers beneficial gross motor play guided by COMBO staff; and the sensory bin station, where children get to experience fine motor sensory stimulation guided by Columbia’s Occupational Therapy department.
We also added a new sensory station thanks to the New York Public Library, who created a seed search activity: children got to dig their hands into soil to find seeds, and learn which plants those seeds might grow into!

Family-Friendly Performances:

The Lady Trailblazers, Inwood Academy for Leadership’s cheerleading team, kicked off the day with a rousing cheer that got everyone’s energy up!
The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra led two musical storytimes of the classic children’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” in both English and Spanish; and the New York Department of Health led two read-alouds, also in English and Spanish! Both of these storytelling activities were designed with accessibility in mind: ensuring that every family had multiple opportunities to come together for some relaxation in between lots of exciting physical activities, and to offer stories in three languages: English, Spanish, and music.

Resources, Giveaways, & Prizes:

Columbia’s Office of Community Service Programs led infant & adult CPR/AED training in both English and Spanish, while the Fire Department of NY led kid-friendly CPR demonstrations alongside them. 50 attendees were certified, and we distributed 50 adult CPR kits and 31 infant CPR kits, so that attendees could share these life-saving skills with their community.
We set up a free book giveaway with our friends at Reach Out and Read, and sent families and teachers in the community home with over 1,500 children’s books in both English and Spanish!
The Maternity Hospital Quality Improvement Network provided families with invaluable informational resources around their rights for respectful care through the entire maternal continuum (prenatal to postpartum).
The Northern Manhattan Perinatal Partnership Birth Justice Defenders, community residents who create innovative ways to educate their communities about their rights, focused their conversations with families around rights and respectful care during labor and birth.
Doulas en Español, a local collective of bilingual birth and postpartum doulas, helped parents learn how to use a yoga ball for coping and positioning during labor. Using a model of a pelvis and a newborn baby doll, they also helped both parents and children understand what happens anatomically during labor, and answered lots of questions!
The NYC Civic Engagement Commission shared resources related to civic engagement and voter registration, as well as The People’s Money: a participatory budgeting program in which all New Yorkers 11 years and older get to decide how to spend millions of dollars of the city budget!

Our Sponsors & Giveaway Partners:

We want to express our deepest gratitude to the local, national, and international sponsors & partners who made this year’s giveaways and raffle prizes possible. At the 2024 COMBO Playdate, we gave over $20,000 in free and discounted access to resources and experiences our local families value, thanks to:

The Center for Children’s Environmental Health, who helped us give out 500 insulated lunch bags and provided free lead testing strips for families to take home.
Reach Out and Read, who teamed up with us to host a 3,000-book giveaway! Families and teachers took about half home from the Playdate, and we donated the remaining half to the Children of Bellevue’s Reach Out and Read program.
The Columbia Office of Community Service Programs, who donated 81 CPR kits for families to take home
Naturalena Foundation, who gave each family a free pack of Happy Little Campers non-toxic wipes + discount vouchers for anything in their Happy Little Camper or Veeda Femcare range. Plus, they gifted a terrific raffle prize: a subscription for a year’s worth of free diapers and wipes!
And everyone who donated to our Raffle:
- The Equality Education donated an Empowering Bundle: coloring books, a workbook, a mug, and a large artwork canvas
- Back to the Roots donated 8 Microgreen Grow Kits
- MyKidville donated 10 Playspace passes
- Space Club donated 2 Playspace passes (for 2 children & 2 adults), including cool socks for the whole family
- Thrive Market donated a 1-year membership
- Mary Ruth’s Organics donated a $175 gift card
- Hick’s Nurseries donated beautiful potted plants
- Bonding Budds donated a Sensory-Soothing Basket filled with cute crocheted animals
- Kate McLeod donated a Self-Care Basket of their luxury non-toxic products (in plastic-free packaging!)

COMBO is deeply committed to understanding and improving family health, which we know is rooted in community health. And we feel strongly about creating an event that doesn’t just talk about community health, but actually impacts it in tangible ways. With the Playdate, we celebrate and support our Washington Heights and surrounding communities through equitable, accessible resources, meaningful connection, and collective joy.

Hosting this annual event is profoundly important to us, inviting our whole community to enjoy music, dancing, fun & educational activities, impactful prizes & giveaways, and — most importantly— a chance to connect with other families in the community. We can’t wait to see everyone next year for our 4th annual Playdate.