Pam Proto/Proto's Pizza And 3L Foundation.

• Author: Caley, Nora
• Position: TRENDSETTERS

Pam Proto loves talking about pizza almost as much as she loves talking about Thai orphans.

The founder of the six-location Proto's Pizzeria Napoletana is also a cofounder of 3L Foundation, a nonprofit that helps abused, abandoned, and exploited children in Thailand. A few years ago Proto traveled to Thailand with Ashley Syms, who now lives in Boulder but traveled to Thailand as a child, doing volunteer work with her parents. Proto and Syms visited an orphanage in Pattaya, Thailand.

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The experience moved Proto. "Your heart breaks, and you can't even stop crying, so you have to help," she says. "I decided I could not be the only beneficiary of the success of Proto's Pizza."

She and Syms visited the orphanage several times, and in 2008 they met Matt Cline, an Ohio-based photographer working on a book on the orphanage. The three launched the 3L Foundation--the three L's stand for Learn, Laugh, Love--in 2009.

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