By Paola Adler
Communications, Media and Community Affairs
Few organizations are more iconic in our city than the Los Angeles Dodgers. And when the boys in blue are playing, Angelenos are watching. By partnering with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF), the team’s official charity, LADWP has found new avenues to educate, inform and give back to our customers and local communities.
LADWP’s partnership with LADF has allowed the Department to promote our message of water conservation and energy efficiency through new and exciting customer-facing interactions. In 2018, LADWP expanded that partnership to support several local events benefiting underserved youth across Los Angeles. The partnership allows LADWP to share important information directly with our customers and communities about the service and value we provide.
A young Dodger fan enjoys clean, refreshing water from the tap.
At two recent LADF events, the RBI Playerfest in June and the unveiling of a new Dodger Dreamfield in September in South Los Angeles, thousands of youth and their parents from across Los Angeles were served pure, clean, refreshing tap water directly from the LADWP water trailer.
With a commitment from LADF to build more fields, LADWP plans to be an integral partner alongside other municipal agencies, including Recreation and Parks, to partner on various beneficial projects at locations where Dodger Dreamfields can also be built, bringing added value to our customers.
Also in September, employees brought LADWP’s sponsorship of the Biofreeze Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation 5K/10K to the next level.
A group of LADWP employees swapped out their work shoes for running shoes to participate in the race, wearing lime green shirts to promote LADWP’s electric vehicle programs, making them easy to spot in the sea of 11,000 runners wearing Dodger blue.The event also featured LADWP’s water trailer, which helped to keep thirsty runners hydrated.
A Learning Opportunity
In addition to connecting with Dodgers fans at local events, LADWP also had a unique opportunity to turn a local power outage into an important teaching moment for customers throughout the city. When a mylar balloon hit a power line at Dodger Stadium during a game on the night of July 30, 2018, power flow to the venue was interrupted for two seconds, causing the game to be delayed for 20 minutes in order to reset equipment and lighting.
The Department worked in close coordination with Dodgers staff and stadium personnel to ensure power was restored quickly and safely. Many watching the game wondered why the power had gone out. LADWP was quick to respond to inquiries via social media and our newsroom, utilizing the outage as an opportunity to educate customers about the danger of mylar balloons, which cause 150 outages per year on average in the city. Turning a negative into a positive, many customers became better informed, helping to raise awareness about the serious impacts of mylar ballons on electrical equipment and helping protect the power grid.
LADWP’s water trailer makes a splash at the 5k/10k Dodger Foundation run.
LADWP hopes to continue to foster this connection with Dodgers fans in the future, and is planning to participate in several events in 2019. Stay tuned!
