Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe that more than a decade has passed since our community gave birth to a series of tech free Shabbat dinners, through the Sabbath Manifesto. Those dinners evolved into thousands of community partners organizing live events, year after year, on what is now globally celebrated as the National Day of Unplugging.

The impact we have had can be seen in the partnerships developed with thousands of schools and synagogues. The effectiveness of the campaign shows up when we see that over 90% of people surveyed reported that they are highly likely to participate again, 62% told us their community members were more likely to unplug after their participation in the National Day of Unplugging and 87% said they would likely recommend partnering with NDU to a colleague.

As many of you know, this campaign would not have been started without the creative energy of a number of key players like Dan Rollman, founder of Sabbath Manifesto, and Jessica Tully who was the artist/creator of the cell phone sleeping bag.  Because of the Reboot network, the National Day of Unplugging will forever have its roots in the Jewish tradition of Shabbat. In recognizing the immense growth over the past 10 years, it is now time for this treasured program to spread its wings.

We are excited to announce that the National Day of Unplugging awareness campaign will continue its growth through the non-profit entity, Unplug Collaborative, under the leadership of one of our community partners turned NDU Ambassador, Kim Cavallo.

Here are the reasons why we feel confident in this transition:

• Kim Anenberg Cavallo has 25 years experience serving on boards and raising funds, event planning and community building for nonprofit organizations, which has brought her to the intersection of wellness, social action and the life/tech balance movement.

• Kim is the founder/CEO of lilspace, a company that has been elevating human connection over digital engagement since 2017 through phone-free wellness lounges at music festivals and the Unplug for a Cause™ initiative.

• In addition to building lilspace, Kim is the co-founder of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival and L’ Dough V’ Dough, a project of the LA Museum of the Holocaust.

• Even as the COVID-19 crisis was ramping up, under Kim’s ambassadorship, the 2020 National Day of Unplugging campaign brought the global community together for hundreds of live, phone-free events March 6-7. Once the shelter in place mandate began, Kim kept the National Day of Unplugging at the forefront of the conversation about screen time with a series of Online Gatherings in partnership with leaders in the field such as Rebooter, Tiffany Shlain, author of 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day A Week.

We are excited to see the NDU campaign expand its reach this summer through a partnership with HalfTheStory, a mental health advocacy organization led by Larissa “Larz” May. Learn more about this collaboration to support people around the world experiencing wide-spread burn out from the increased use of technology in doing the critical work to achieve racial equality.

For more than 10 years, Reboot helped people around the world hold up signs to declare “I Unplug” for a variety of reasons. Each and every sign reminded the world that in-person connection is more valuable than digital engagement. We want to wish the newly formed Unplug Collaborative continued success in spreading this message and sustaining the operation of the National Day of Unplugging campaign.

If you have any questions about Unplug Collaborative or the plans for National Day of Unplugging, please contact Kim directly at kim@nationaldayofunplugging.com

Sincerely

David Katznelson
Reboot, CEO