Longtime Cartoon Network executive leaves company

Talk to Zita Lefebvre about her fondest memories at Burbank-based Cartoon Network Studios and she might tell you about starting an effort to help match company employees with the right volunteer opportunity in the community.

“I think that makes for a much better relationship between employer and employee, between employee and community,” said Lefebvre, who is director of operations and community relations at the studio. “I think the best part of my job was growing volunteers.”

At a place where young and creative artists can freehand draw Scooby Doo or any number of other characters, Lefebvre is an expert at connecting the dots. She matches people and resources — reams of paper, used copy machines, office furniture — with the school or nonprofit that needs them in the community.

She’s been with the studio for more than 20 years — she started with its predecessor, Hanna-Barbera Productions, back in 1993 — but her final day with the company will be Dec. 5. She’s not yet sure who will take up her mantle helping make those connections.

Shanna Warren, chief executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank and Greater East Valley, said Lefebvre has been a huge support to the club for many years and her influence will be missed.

“She invites animators to come to the club every month to teach animation and has created opportunities for our club to apply for grants through Turner” to fund the club’s annual artist showcase, Warren said. “We have made [public service announcement] for Cartoon Network all because of her.”

One recent public service announcement about bullying was written, drawn and voiced by Boys & Girls Club members, Lefebvre said. She’s hoping to have it screened at the studio in early December before she leaves. It will also appear on Cartoon Network and on the Boys & Girls Club website, she said.

Lefebvre said she hopes that when she’s gone the employees at Cartoon Network will continue their community involvement. “The foundation’s there,” she said, but it’s up to them to carry it on.

“I would almost come back and consult to do it — for free — just to get it,” she said. “But it was time for me to change after 20 years. I want to do more volunteer and less ... day-to-day operations.”

She’s started packing up her office — including the sketch of Top Cat drawn and signed by Joseph Barbera when he was in his 80s — but Lefebvre said she’s not retiring.

“Retirement is a dirty word in my mind,” she said. “I would get bored to death.”

The decision to leave Cartoon Network came as a result of efforts by Turner Broadcasting, a Time-Warner company and Cartoon Network’s parent company, to reduce its workforce through buyouts and layoffs.

“There’s been a major bunch of layoffs at Time-Warner and the first group was voluntary,” Lefebvre said. “They presented a nice package and I took it.”

She’s not officially thinking about what will come next until after Jan. 1, she said, but “it’ll be fun, whatever it is.” She said she has already signed up to get certified as a master gardener.

“But I mean, how many rose bushes can I plant in my yard,” she said.

She said she hopes to continue helping out in the community, “growing volunteers.”

“I love that, when I see — I just grew a volunteer,” she said. “I think you have to give back ... I think it’s good for the soul.”

She said she’ll also keep pitching in at the garden at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary — where she’s volunteered for 10 years and helped start the Young Writers Program — and she’ll still be helping out at Family Service Agency of Burbank.

“Some things will never change,” Lefebvre said.