The Zappos men’s and women’s doubles teams both took home the gold earlier this week! The men’s singles team took home the bronze and women’s singles took silver. Great job everyone!

Jason is an extraordinary leader in the Zappos Kentucky Family on the floor, as a Lead in the Picking Department, and after hours. While volunteering for the Zappos Packs for Kids: Backpack Buddy program February 27^th – March 2^nd, Jason not only gave his time, he also packed 100 bags of food and wrote 100 notes for children in need. The Backpack Buddy program was started by Dare to Care in 2004 as an effort to bring nutritious food to children on the weekends, when free and reduced-priced breakfasts and lunches are not available.  This year, the Zappos Kentucky Family teamed up to pack over 2,000 bags of food and draft over 2,000 notes to the children in our area.  These will be distributed in new, sturdy backpacks.

We asked Jason a couple of questions about this project that is near and dear to his heart:

What drew you most to helping out with the Zappos Packs for Kids Backpack Buddy program?

J:   It’s for the KIDS!  How can you not?!

What brought you to Zappos?

J: The culture!

 If you won $1,000,000 to be donated to charity, what organization would you donate to and why?

J: Any charity [that assists] kids. They can’t help themselves.

What is one thing you had as a child that you still have or use today?

J:  A baseball.

What are three words you would use to describe yourself?

J: Spontaneous, Humble, Motivated.

Last week, our men’s and women’s racquetball teams represented Zappos in Corporate Challenge. The Women’s Doubles team went on to take home the silver medal! Congratulations ladies and great job to everyone who participated.

The Super Awesome Description award is a way of recognizing a member of the Zappos Development content team once a month. If a product description is particularly witty or creative, anyone in the company can nominate the person who wrote it.  The nominations are then read by other members of the content department and voted upon; the description with the most votes wins. The writer of that description is rewarded with a trophy and a certificate, not to mention recognition from their peers.

The winner for February is Kenny Lucas. Kenny is part of the performance team and his quirky description for the Quiksilver Venture luggage piece was too amusing to ignore. Congratulations Kenny!

We asked Kenny a few fun questions to get to know him better. Check out his answers below!

What is your biggest Grammar pet peeve?

K: Excessive… ellipses… dude…

What is your favorite color?

K:Plaid – I like to think it’s a color.

What inspired you when writing this description?

K: I read an article a while ago about a man who was trying to build a rocket ship in his backyard, so really, I was just reminding him to pack the necessities while he’s up there exploring the universe. Hopefully he didn’t forget his toothpaste.

What's a fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

K: I’m apparently named after Kenny Rogers, but since I can’t ever remember listening to him with my family, I can only assume I was named after his delicious rotisserie chicken.

Today’s Zapponian Spotlight is on our very own Zappos Mayor Jerry T.  He’s been with Zappos since 2005 and can often be found greeting our visitors at the front desk of Zappos HQ.

Pick 3 words to describe your personal style.

J: Colorful, casual, comfortable.

Who is your favorite musician or band?

J: Jackson Browne and classic rock. I was there the first time it got played on the radio.

Name 3 things you never leave home without?

J: Keys, wallet and cell phone.

 If you could have dinner with one famous person, who would it be?

J: Ronald Reagan or John F. Kennedy. I have seen them both thru their careers.

What’s the weirdest thing to ever happen to you?

J: Having a guy from Hair Club for Men ask me if I wanted a consultation…

What’s your favorite part about working at Zappos?

J: Getting to be the Mayor of course!

Photo credits: Jack Wang and Jia Tse

To celebrate another year of Corporate Challenge, The Zappos Family kicked off the Opening Ceremony with a good ol’ fashioned block party! The festivities took place this past weekend in our future HQ, Downtown Las Vegas.

What’s a block party without food, music and drinks? We had all that plus fun games, face painting  and rides for the kids. We also showed our support by cheering on Tony, Chris, Arun and the rest of the gang during the Executive Relay. The fun night was capped off with the official start of 2012 Corporate Challenge in the Lighting of the Torch ceremony.

Good luck to all the participants in this year’s games! Stay tuned for more updates from the Zappos CC teams as the season continues.

Zapponians love their pets, so much so that we held a Pet Photo Contest to show off our furry best friends. If you follow us on our Facebook page, you know that we even feature customers’ pets as “Fan of the Week”.

So without further ado, here are the adorable winners for each category:

Most “Zappified” Pet:

Fiona B. and her Chihuahua pups Ozzie (left) and Bell (right)

Funniest Pet Photo:

Megan R. w/her high-fiving dog, Savannah

Pet-Owner Look-Alike:

Kiersten and Kohta

The Super Awesome Description award is a way of recognizing a member of the Zappos Development content team once a month. If a product description is particularly witty or creative, anyone in the company can nominate the person who wrote it.  The nominations are then read by other members of the content department and voted upon; the description with the most votes wins. The writer of that description is rewarded with a trophy and a certificate, not to mention recognition from their peers.

The winner for January 2012 is Jay G. Jay is part of the athletic performance team and his witty description for the Ward’s Boxing Club NYC The Husband Beater was too clever to ignore. Congratulations Jay!

We asked Jay a few fun questions to get to know him better. Check out his answers below!

What is your biggest Grammar pet peeve?

Exclamation points. I use it to no end regardless of mood! See what I mean?

What is your favorite color?

Back when I was 10, I would have said “Blue”.  Nowadays, I don’t really have one, but I’ve found that anything light-colored or pastel-ish goes well against my skin tone.

What inspired you when writing this description?

It’s boxing-inspired athletic wear so I just played on those aspects.  Plus 1) I’m a big boxing fan (go team Pacman), 2) I use to write Athletic Performance clothing back in the days so it wasn’t that far from my wheel house and 3) I’ve been happily married to a beautiful yet stubborn woman for 11 years… hence the tone.  Everything else just fell into place.

What's a fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

I’ve owned 8 pairs of Z. Cavaricci pants and 3 MC Hammer pants.  Anyone above 35 would know what I’m talking about.