Awesome Foundation - Проекти

Boulder, CO (Неактивен) – NoBoLittleLibraries

2012-11-12T00:00:00Z

We are creating six little free lending libraries across North Boulder as a way to focus on the community's need and desire for a real library/resource center. We raised enough money for three libraries and we need to raise $1000 for each of the next three sculptural little libraries. Our first and to date only installation was at Lucky's Market. It is called the Spaceship Little Lending Library. We are collaborating with NoBo Art District to make this project happen. They put out the call for designs for sculptural little lending libraries. A jury picked four designs. We decided to pay the artists $1000 for each library which was a novel idea because usually artists are asked to do their work for free. We have made presentations to the Boulder Arts Commission, the Library Commission, the Planning Commission, City Council, Boulder Housing Partners and the Boulder Shelter about little lending libraries. In doing so, we learned from Boulder Housing Partners that they were willing to donate a space to us for a store front library as the next step on our way to getting a branch of the library in North Boulder. Now, we will ask for community input and we will survey our community to be sure we fulfill the needs of our fast growing neighborhood. This project is awesome. It is positive and not political. It keeps bringing us closer and closer as a community. The Little Lending Libraries are not only functional but they are works of art so we are able to promote art and community and learning.

Austin, TX – HONK!TX: Festival of Community Street Bands

2012-11-12T00:00:00Z

HONK!TX is a 3-day Community Street Band Festival that features some of the most exciting, original, and talented radical marching bands playing absolutely free in the streets and parks of Austin. After a successful debut and a wonderful sophomore encore, we are returning for our exciting third year March 22-24, 2013. For the past two years HONK!TX brought live music into Austin with unconventional style and flair, transforming everyday spaces into organic stages where the line between performers and the crowd dissolves. The response was magical, and performers and audience eagerly wondered aloud: when will the next HONK!TX be? Well, with your help - it's coming again in March 2013! For the duration of the Festival, more than 200 musicians will be housed by generous neighbors and friends; local restaurants will provide food for performers and volunteers. Scores of community members will donate hundreds of hours of labor to make HONK!TX a brass-tastic success. In return, 20+ bands will transform the city into a joyful sonic carnival and visual spectacle, at no cost to the public. The bands vary greatly in size and costume, each of them bringing a distinct sound and visual theme to the carnivalesque atmosphere This multi-day free and family-friendly event about music, community, and public space is imbued with the playful energy these bands are famous for. Did you know none of the bands will be earning any money for the festival? They travel and play free because to share the love and joy of street music and expression. The modest stipends some bands receive cover only some of their travel expenses. This is where you come in! Photo credit: Mike*Antares

New York City, NY – This is Not a Trash Pile

2012-11-12T00:00:00Z

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, communities in the most devastated parts of New York City began the process of rebuilding almost immediately, mostly through the work of volunteers and self-motivated individuals stepping up personally with very little infrastructure or centralized support. In the Rockaways, one of the areas hit hardest, a group of local artists and builders are collaborating on an alternative relief and resilience project called This is Not a Trash Pile. They have teamed up with Culinary Kids, a local organization working with youth to promote nutrition and self-sufficiency through local agriculture and aquaculture projects. Together, they have erected a tent built from salvaged material on NYC Parks Department property under the stewardship of Culinary Kids. With programming from The Whale Project, The Fixers Collective and Time’s Up, among many others, this tent will be a hub for the community and will host combination of youth educational programs, resilient community programs, and mutual aid and distribution programs. We’ve even heard that the tent is going to house a library! The funds from this month’s NYC Awesome Foundation grant will go toward materials and heating units for this tent, and more crucially to helping the community get back on its feet.

Ann Arbor, MI – YEP (young entrepreneurial people)

2012-11-04T00:00:00Z

i am a member of think local first and am a proud michigander...but there was something lacking among the networks in town. so, helen harding from eat catering and take-out and jean henry (formerly of jefferson market, now sustainability chief at zingermans) and i started an organization connecting young entrepreneurial people with one another for a guided monthly meeting tackling the very challenges of being a YEP.

Melbourne (Неактивен) – ideservetoo

2012-11-01T00:00:00Z

ideserveto will support street kids and children beggars to get access to other form of training and facilitate football coaching session that will enable them to explore more their potential trough football. Mission: My mission is to create an avenue where street children and children beggars in the street of Burkina Faso will feel appreciate and empowered with life skills through football facilitation and technical training linkage. Vision: I wish to see in the street of my country with no street children and no children beggars on the street of Burkina Faso, but children at school,growing through an education with the basics in life(food, water, shelter). Values: Team spirit, Sport for development, Human right, Learning by doing, Opportunity for all, respect and tolerence and Networking. Goal: Through a football platform, street children a children beggars will be able to paticipate in team sport, learn life skills and have opportunity to find a workplace suitable for their skills and interest. I shall forge new linkage with vocational training center that will refer the youth to get more technical skills like welding, carpentry mechanics etc. Objectives: Create a team for the street children and children beggars where I can coach them and provide them a safe training environment. Participate in football tournaments in the community that will create friendship and new networks. Enrol the street children and children beggars to vocational training center, who are interested in pusuing their studies in other fields. To enhance the reputation of street children and children beggars and motivate others(e.g futur employers and people that can teach the children a trade for exemple and more) to trust them. To sensitize the community about the street children and children beggars with hope that they will help and making a positive.

Oahu, HI – The Joyful Life Library

2012-11-01T00:00:00Z

The Joyful Life Library Project currently sponsors 8 PICUs across the country, Kapiolani Children's Hospital being the most recent. The Library Project provides new books specifically to children in pediatric intensive care units. We believe that reading a favorite story to a child is an act of love that's comforting to the child and the caregiver alike, and is especially important when life has been turned upside down because of a little one's hospitalization. We know the importance of being able to sit and read a book to your child, just like you would do at home, regardless of all the tubes and beeping machines. Individuals are able to purchase books from our Amazon wishlists with the books being shipped directly to the hospital. We include both hard and soft cover books on our wish lists, as a way to cover the needs of all patients/families.Hard cover books are used in waiting areas, play rooms, and shared amongst patients by being brought to individual bedsides for families to enjoy with their child. Soft cover books are used to bring comfort to children that cannot be exposed to germs carried by shared books. These less expensive books are given to those patients to keep as a special bedtime story of their own.

Melbourne (Неактивен) – Beerend - It's like a bookend for your beer

2012-11-01T00:00:00Z

I like to always have cold beers in the fridge. It means you can have one after a tough day at the office without planning for it or offer your father-in-law a peace gesture when he comes around for a surprise visit. The problem is storing beer in the fridge takes up a lot of space. You can’t stand bottles up because shelves generally aren’t high enough and as soon as you lie them down they roll all over the place, particularly if you try and stack them on top of each other. So I invented the Beerend. It’s like a bookend for your beer. Attached are two images. The first is a concept drawing and the first prototype cut out of balsa wood. The second is the Beerend in action, as you can see it holds the beer in place meaning you can stack beers on top of each other like a pyramid. Using the side of the fridge as a wall, previously where you could only store 3 beers, you can now stack 8. 4 becomes 11. 5 becomes 14. And it's all thanks to a simple clip that holds your beers in place like a bookend.

Montreal, QC (Неактивен) – Montréal Accessible

2012-11-01T00:00:00Z

*project description in French only* Le Regroupement des activistes pour l'inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ), un organisme œuvrant pour l'inclusion et la participation sociale des personnes handicapées, travaille pour améliorer l'accessibilité architecturale à Montréal pour les personnes handicapées. S’inspirant de certaines initiatives mises de l’avant en Europe et en Amérique du Nord, le comité fondé par le RAPLIQ a décidé de mettre les développements en matière de données ouvertes sur l’accessibilité architecturale au service des personnes handicapées et à mobilité réduite. En janvier 2012, le projet Montréal Accessible a vu le jour. L’objectif du projet est de collaborer à l’information disponible sur l’accessibilité architecturale de l’espace collectif par le biais des données ouvertes et du crowdsourcing. Ainsi, par le biais d’un site interactif, on pourra connaître quels sont les commerces et autres lieux publics accessibles aux personnes à mobilité réduite. On pourra également contribuer directement au projet en ajoutant des données sur l’accessibilité. En plus de favoriser l’autonomie des personnes handicapées, ce projet permettra de répertorier l’état d’utilisation de l’espace urbain qui peut intéresser les travaux publics, la santé et la sécurité publique, le tourisme, etc. Montréal Accessible souhaite tirer parti des données déjà récoltées et étendre la cueillette d’information via les citoyens handicapés et toute autre personne intéressée par l’accessibilité architecturale.

Grand Rapids, MI (Неактивен) – chess for the kids

2012-10-31T00:00:00Z

as mentioned i am leading 3 chess groups for 3 different libraries (kentwood,wyoming and byron center.) the purpose is to teach chess and all that is involved in this activity. while play at the libraries is casual i encourage the kids to participate in tournaments held twice a month in grand rapids. one at calvin college and one at aquinas college. these tournaments are attended by some of the best players in michigan. but alas participation requires membership in the United States chess federation and membership in the michigan chess association and nominal tournament fees. because of their personnel economy many of my players would like to go and play at the tournaments , but they cannot. chess has been proven to improve skill levels in school. chess in the schools is a big promotor of chess. chess is also required subject in the schools in new york city. chess teaches the kids many things and promotes friendships and is an outlet for many who do not participate in regular sports. there are currently 8 major colleges that give full ride scholarships to talented players. you cannot become talented without playing and studying the game. you might watch the movies-- searching for bobby fischer and the knights of the south bronx-- for a very factual story of chess and kids. see also the website --holland chess-- in holland michigan. they say it far better than i. i just want the kids to have fun and learn at the same time and have another avenue open up to them to improve their lives. i volunteer at the jail and see many wasted lives because of lack of education and a lack of a way out. chess is another way out.

Pittsburgh, PA – Urban Stitches

2012-10-31T00:00:00Z

Urban Stitches is a youth sewing program for Pittsburgh area children and teens. The idea came about purely by chance when I recently inquired about sewing classes at my alma mater. Since I love teaching and I love working with kids, I thought I would put my bid in when the sewing teacher at my former school decided to retire. To my surprise, I discovered that Pittsburgh Public schools have discontinued sewing as part of their Home Economics program! Unfortunately, students are very limited in their exposure to the arts after grade school, and I have discovered that a genuine opportunity still exists for creative learning in a setting where students feel less intimidated than in a formal classroom. So, I started thinking: “How can I re-introduce sewing as a hip, cool activity for young people in our area?” Not only is sewing SUPER fun, but it brings out your crafty side, incorporates disciplines like math and mechanical skills, patience, independence, and the ability to follow instructions, too. Sewing also gives your self-confidence a boost! Urban Stitches' mission is to satisfy the need for impressionable young people to receive arts training, gain encouragement, and learn life skills, as well as provide a safe environment for them to gather, learn something new, and have fun! The Urban Stitches program will run for two hours per week for eight weeks. There will be no more than eight students in each class. Classes will run consecutively throughout the school year. To keep the program going, once the students complete the class, I plan on having them arrange a fundraiser (i.e. a small fashion or craft show), to present what they have created as well as generate funds to purchase supplies for the next class. Students who have become proficient at sewing once they complete the program may also volunteer to assist incoming students.

Chicago, IL – Free Art for the Residents of Englewood

2012-10-30T00:00:00Z

I submitted the following proposal this spring. John Carnwath suggested I re-submit my proposal in the fall. Please note that I have made significant changes. In March 2009 I began an art project to better my drawing and writing skills. I invented a town named Colorido and I set out to draw its eccentric residents and write their biographies. Less than a year after beginning the project I raised $1K via Kickstarter, which allowed me to frame 64 drawings. At two exhibitions in Chicago and Evanston, IL, I sold nearly all of the drawings. In December 2011, one of the drawings was even featured on the cover of the Chicago Reader. I’m still working on this project, though the place where everyone lives is now called the NINTH LODGE, and there are more than 200 residents. Should I have the good fortune to be awarded an Awesome Foundation grant I will frame as many of these drawings as possible and host a day-long exhibition where I give them all away, no strings attached, to the residents of the Englewood neighborhood. Englewood is plagued with a significant amount of gun violence. By hosting a free community event I hope to show that there are positive, communal, healing forces in making (and giving away) artwork. I anticipate partnering with CeaseFire to choose an ideal location and venue for the exhibition. I am confident that if I receive this grant I could use that momentum to raise additional funds on my own to make this a stellar event with art-supply giveaways and live music. Five years ago I lived in Guatemala. For three months I worked one-on-one with the children of the Guatemala City garbage dump community. Throughout that period I saw firsthand the effects that rampant drug and gun violence can have upon a community. It is my hope that this event will bring art, music, and inspiration to a Chicago neighborhood in need of support. An interview about the project: http://tiny.cc/kalpanainterview

Melbourne (Неактивен) – Good Cycles

2012-10-30T00:00:00Z

Good Cycles What Good Cycles is a start-up social enterprise that will provide training and jobs in bicycle mechanics to people experiencing long-term unemployment and disadvantage – including Indigenous Australians, refugees and at-risk youth. How Good Cycles will operate mobile bike mechanic teams across Melbourne. Each team will consist of an experienced bike mechanic paired with our trainees. Together they will cycle the city on cargo bikes (with tools on board) offering tune-up/repair services to workplaces and individuals – at office buildings, universities, events and on major cycling entry points into Melbourne’s CBD. Good Cycles will also offer educational courses in emergency bike maintenance. Why Good Cycles is a values-driven organisation, focused on delivering positive outcomes for the community and environment. We are committed to: - Providing jobs - Offering a high quality and hassle-free service to Melbourne’s cyclists - Giving people opportunities to volunteer with a social enterprise - Encouraging cycling as a safe and healthy mode of transport Our detailed market analysis and business modelling indicates a very strong opportunity for Good Cycles to meet both its financial and social objectives. Who Good Cycles has a highly skilled management team and a very strong advisory board. We have firm alliances with industry partners and the support of local government, universities and big business. We are ready to roll...

Tel Aviv - קרן בקטנה (Неактивен) – Life in Society (חיים בקהילה)

2012-10-30T00:00:00Z

Life within the community (חיים בקהילה) provides Be’er Sheva residents with first aid training – specifically CPR for children and adults. The courses are held by 2nd and 3rd year medical students, and are composed of frontal lessons followed by practical training. The students are selected with the help of the department of social services of the municipality of Be’er Sheva. The courses are free of charge, and any group interested may sign up for it. Upon finishing both meetings, the trainees receive an official certificate, signed by the dean of the health faculty. Main goals: Promoting health within the community by teaching first aid – CPR, the Heimlich Maneuver, identification and treatment of MI. Introducing Be’er Sheva to the group of Med students, in order to encourage them to stay in Southern Israel, and specifically in “Soroka” hospital. Secondary goals: Empowerment of the city citizens by their participation in courses within the university, at the end of which they receive official certificates signed by the dean of the health faculty. Preservation of the Med students’ first aid skills. All of our trainees work in facilities where they are in charge of other people – teachers in schools and kindergartens, students working in orphanages etc. A summary of all of the important information from the course is handed out, in order for the trainees to follow along during the course and take home to review. The students instructing in the project enjoy monthly recreational enrichment activities.

Washington, DC – The EarPhone Project

2012-10-26T00:00:00Z

The EarPhone Project is awesome! Simply put, it is a dial-in audio telephone line comprised of adult professional volunteers lending their voices to record stories from the DC Public Library’s reading list. Students dial in and access titles ranging from varying genres of titles allowing them to listen independently or with their families. They are further encouraged to visit their local libraries to check out the books from their selected audio recording. The EarPhone Project is available to 70k students in the District. It promotes volunteerism in the community, activism towards literacy, independence in reading and encourages family recreation. Without audio stimuli, listening skills become under-developed, impacting both language and, ultimately, literacy. Listening to spoken word improves a child’s grammar through vocabulary and elocution, both of which underpin literacy. Audio recordings allow children the opportunity to create images in their mind’s eye. By stimulating a student’s ability to imagine, their ability for lateral thinking is also greatly enhanced. These recordings allow children to hear adults read books on their reading list, articulate words and convey their own imagination towards the story. Children are then encouraged to visit their local library to check these books out. Each child is expected to read independently or be joined by a family member to enjoy the books they have selected. I've been asked numerous times how I came up with this idea, and my third-grade school teacher has explained it. Many years ago, on career day, I decided I wanted an EarPhone Project. Only then, as a child, I elected to have an ice cream truck and a loudspeaker to drive around the community reading stories. Assuming a third grader could drive AND read simultaneously illustrated illustrated the same creativity it took to create the EarPhone Project.

Boston, MA – Hydroponics for Elephants

2012-10-26T00:00:00Z

The Zenith Program is collaborating with Hope Elephants - a unique rehabilitation and educational facility for retired circus elephants in Hope, Maine (www.hopeelephants.org) - to create their educational programming for elementary school children in the district to learn about these incredibly valuable creatures who are now being cared for right in our back yard! Yes, elephants sure can live in Maine! The students will be creating interactive lessons and activities for children to learn about elephant anatomy, evolutionary adaptations, unique social structures, with a focus on the elephants' diet and nutritional needs. The Zenith students have taken a special interest and concern in the dietary needs of the 2 aging and insured elephants housed at the facility - Rosie (42 years old) and Opal (43 years old). The students have researched alternative ways of growing and providing high-quality vegetation to supplement the elephants' diet of Timothy-Grass hay. The students wondered if there was a way to grow fresh, nutrient-rich plants for elephants all year long right here on school property. There is! If we had the financial means, we could build a 16 x 32 foot greenhouse that would house a hydroponic system to grow fresh, green, nutrient-rich plants to supplement the diet of the aging elephants at the Hope Elephants Rehab facility. The hydroponic system would utilize a student-built drip system to administer the nutrient solution to flats of young, succulent plants. There could be a student-designed system of growing an on-going supply of fresh vegetation for the elephants. Once a week, the students would drive the 10 minutes to the Elephant facility to feed the elephants the greens. Awesome! High school students could also connect with elementary students during each phase of the project, which would provide the means for meaningful and memorable relationships between students of different age groups.

San Antonio, TX – Solar on San Antonio's Favorite Food Truck!

2012-10-25T00:00:00Z

To create the First Solar-Powered Gourmet Food Truck in Texas My project is to put solar panels on San Antonio's Favorite Gourmet Food Truck, Say.She.Ate! I have done market research on the food trucks in the San Antonio area, and have chosen one that has the most community support, unique offerings, and an extreme interest in the environment and our project! The solar panels will provide multiple benefits: 1. Eliminate or deter noisy, smelly, and harmful gas or diesel generators. 2. Eliminate or deter idling cars that produce noise and harmful emissions. 3. Eliminate or deter the cost of the generator and idling the vehicle for up to 8 hours a day! (Many have both running non-stop most of the day) 4. Serve as an educational model for all who enjoy the food. (Diagrams explaining solar in a non-technical, easy to understand way) 5. Serve as an example and educational model for other food trucks in the Area. 6. Serve as a promotion for the Awesome Foundation. (Can be taken to events, can be its own event) 7. Goodwill from the customers for not subjecting them to the torture of ordering delicious food next to a dirty power plant! Solar San Antonio is committed to this being an Awesome Project! We have a large (5,000) mailing list that we can promote the Solar Food Truck. I think the timeline is too short, but we have a Solar Fest on October 6th that we usually get around 4-5 thousand attendees (The Mayor makes a stop every year), and this would be a great event to "showcase" the Awesome Foundation and the project. We will most likely, if picked, get our friends at at the media outlets to do a few news stories on the solar truck and the new foundation that made it all possible!

Detroit, MI – Ocelot Print Shop

2012-10-25T00:00:00Z

Ocelot Printshop, a community print shop, is a for-profit printmakers collective and home to a number of Detroit-based artists. Our shop will have four distinct parts that create the whole. We will be focusing on shop rental time, education and community outreach, as well as being a full service printshop, and have a gallery space in the shop. Screen printing will be our main focus when we open, but we have plans to grow the shop to accommodate letterpress printing, etching and lithography in the future. For our shop rentals we will be offering full monthly membership to artists who need a base of operations to print from. Membership packages will also be available for organizations, and will be custom suited to fit their needs, depending on how they would like to be part of the space. There will also be hourly rentals for shop time for people with more limited or occasional usage. All types of membership will have use of a range of industrial printmaking equipment. In addition to our shop usage we will be hosting an open studio drop in day one evening a week, where anyone can come in and print, regardless of skill level and will be a good place for fun, exploration and meeting other artists. Additionally, we wish to work within the community and connect with organizations that are engaging Detroit youth or adults that are interested in making media. We hope to work with those organizations to create youth led (or adult led) projects that result in learning new skills, and the participants printing goods they need or want. We also plan to function as a full service print shop. We plan to connect working print artists with clients in need of handmade screen printed goods as a printers co-operative. The printers co-operative will help to increase the business, networking and sense of community for artists who are participating. Members will have the opportunity to become working members and join the co-operative.

Kingston – Pay-It-Forward Starter Kits

2012-10-25T00:00:00Z

Paying it forward is the tradition of reciprocating a good deed that is done to you by passing it on to someone else through more good deeds. Paying it forward instead of paying it back as it were. This act results in an ongoing cycle of good deeds being passed on from person to person. But how does the initial good deed start? It takes a spark of altruism, a catalyst, or an enabler to get it going. I propose we become that enabler with a "Pay-it-Forward" Starter Kit. The Kit will consist of a "goodie bag" filled with items that will be given away to people in a act of kindness with no expectation of pay-back. The Kit will be given to Kingstonians for free. Items that would be included in the "Pay-it-Forward" Starter Kit would include: A free coffee card, a quarter for a person's expired parking meter, a tulip bulb to secretly place in someones garden, an extra bus ticket for the next time some asks, a greeting card to give to someone who deserves a pick-me-up, a helium filled balloon, and a freecomplimentskingston tear-off sheet. All of these items are in the kit with the intention of kickstarting new streams of "Paying it Forward" A $1000 grant would be used to make up approximately 50-100 Kits.

Calgary, AB (Неактивен) – 2nd Annual Log Drivers Waltz Gala: A Plaid Party!

2012-10-25T00:00:00Z

I’m writing on behalf of GIRAF Animation Festival, a super awesome grassroots festival run by Quickdraw Animation Society (a local Artist-Run Center). This is our 8th year as a Festival, and we’re presenting an event that we think is awesome – hopefully you will too! We love retro Canadiana and nostalgic community bonding! In that spirit, GIRAF is pleased to present the return of Calgary’s most fun plaid-themed party of all time: The Log Drivers Waltz Gala! Based on the NFB short from 1979:

The Log Drivers Waltz Gala is a family-friendly event featuring GIANT retro-animations on the side of the Jubilee (5-storeys tall!), fire-pits, hot chocolate, animation workshops, DJs, honky-tonk bands, food trucks, and so much more. Prepare to laugh, learn, and re-discover your love of early NFB films, as played on CBC television in the 1960s. Audiences are invited to wear their plaid and bring their toques – animated fun awaits, snow or shine! The Log Drivers Waltz Gala is all about nostalgia and community. Do you remember “The Sweater”? What about “The Cat Came Back”? Many Canadians don’t realize it, but Canada is celebrated internationally for our amazing animations, and a lot of that has to do with the National Film Board. We want to create an excuse for families and friends to huddle together over a burn barrel, roast marshmallows, and watch nearly-forgotten animations from a Canada-past. The Log Drivers Waltz Gala is the perfect opportunity to create awesomeness for so many people – and $1000 from The Awesome Foundation would help us do just that! One of GIRAF’s primary goals is to make our festival accessible to audiences in all income brackets. The Log Drivers Waltz Gala is probably the cheapest event you will ever attend at the Jubilee Auditorium (outdoor events are FREE, indoor events cost $5). That being said, we don’t think inexpensive events should be cheap – not to toot our own horn, but we throw a hell of a party for the price of admission! $1,000 from the Awesome Foundation would help us pay for the huge projector we’re renting in order to show giant animations on the side of the Jubilee. This projector is approximately the size of a smart car, and requires its own box-truck and generator to power. I’m not going to tell you how much it costs to rent, but you can imagine… GIRAF Animation Festival is a non-profit festival run by an Artist Run Center. Our budget is unbelievably small, but we’ve never let our lack of money keep us from dreaming big. $1,000 would help us create an amazing event for a diverse community of Calgarians – and we think that’s pretty awesome!

Newmarket – HeadGames

2012-10-23T00:00:00Z

I see too many children playing sport without an essential peice of equipment -the simple helmet. My passion is cycling and I see so many kids riding their bikes without a helmet. I have also, a very long time ago, lost an uncle who died from falling off his bike and hitting his head on the curb. Helmets can also reduce the severity of concussions and I've had a few of these and I'm fully aware of the long term effects. Whether its due to lack of money or because the child's helmet isn't "cool", I want to see more children wearing a bicycle helmet. Using my ability to purchase cycling products at cost (not retail), my project is to get as many kids helmets as I can possibly purchase, work with a local non-profit and get the helmets to children and talk with them about cycling safety. Primarily to underprivileged families. Even though I do not live in the catchment area of the chapter I have selected below, my project would be for those who do do live in the chapter area - Newmarket, Ontario..

LA South Bay, CA (Неактивен) – Planet Orchestra

2012-10-19T00:00:00Z

Beacause I am an amateur orchestra violinist, since June 2010 I have volunteered to organize a youth orchestra in Lawndale. We started teaching 8 children at the public library and word quickly spread. The community responded so strongly that not only the number of children grew to more than 50 in less than a year, but also an outpour of support allowed us to grow. We now use space at the new Lawndale Community Center as well as the library and the lawn in front of City Hall, running 3 concurrent session at times, thanks to our volunteer and professional staff. Help comes in the form of volunteer musicians, free space at public facilities, organizers, and money to pay for professional string players and instruments. We have partnered up with a similar organization called Palos Verdes Strings and we have had two concerts at Marsee Auditorium where children from all over the South Bay, and of different backgrounds, have come together to achieve the common good of making music. I have a vision that by forming a nonprofit organization, I can help start other satellites in other communities where kids don't have enough quality constructive and recreational activities and then bring them all together to play in concerts. We plan to partner up with other similar groups in the Los Angeles area and include dance and singing to create an uplifting culture through fine arts, with an emphasis in reaching out to the most excluded children. We would like to partner up with school districts to include this activity in their after school programs. Also, I would like to work with law enforcement to help us connect with kids who still may be within reach and rescue them from falling into a life of crime. While all of this may sound too idealistic, this work has been done for the past 35 years in Venezuela and they are obtaining awesome results.

Seattle, WA – Postcards From Farr Away

2012-10-19T00:00:00Z

My organization, Postcards From Farr Away is an organization that asks people to write genuine and sincere messages on postcards, and then we send them out randomly. We hope to spread random acts of kindness. One evening I received a call. It was from a woman who had just been in the hospital. Her child was hospitalized for the past couple days and she had just arrived back at her house to start sorting thru life that had been temporarily postponed. As she was going thru her mail, sorting out the junk mail & bills, she came across a postcard. Now I don't know what the postcard said, but this woman called me to articulate that this simple piece of mail had a message written on it that lifted her spirits and was extremely timely. That it impacted her and it made a turbulent time in her life a little better and brighter. This was the work of Postcards From Farr Away. I aim to make as many people's days as possible, by using a very simple, yet meaningful gesture. Volunteers write these messages, and then sometimes by myself, and sometimes by the help of these volunteers I address them and send them out. Each postcard is branded with a simple URL (http://from.postcardsfromfarraway.org), which the recipients can come to a website and can understand how they got the postcard. People on the website can buy merchandise associated with the cause, submit addresses to have postcards sent to, and stay up to date with the current state of the organization. In the next couple months I plan to start to roll out a volunteer network across college campuses to help spread PFFA exponentially. With the assistance of the Gonzaga University New Venture Lab, we created an inexpensive plan to syndicate the organization, and allow it to function all across the nation. I have sent out thousands of postcards locally, nationally, and recently internationally (9 countries and counting!).

Boulder, CO (Неактивен) – Operaverse presents Trouble in Tahiti

2012-10-13T00:00:00Z

Operaverse is about creating musical art and developing musical artists. Our inaugural production is Trouble in Tahiti by Leonard Bernstein offered in Boulder, CO on 10/27/2012, Fort Collins on 10/28, and Broomfield, CO on 11/2. We are completely cast by local artists and all the performances will be free and open to the public. Opera is often branded as elitist and it is certainly not the cheapest art-form to produce or attend. As a result and despite its beauty, it is often named as one of the most disliked art-forms. Many, if not most of the "opera-haters" have never heard an operatic performance. The charm of this particular medium is that you get to experience the power of the human voice in a visceral way but only if you can afford to go. That's were I step in. I believe in the power of the human voice and I believe in humans so this is my community offering. The Opera: Trouble in Tahiti is a one-act opera in english that tells the story of one day in the life of an unhappily married couple, Dinah and Sam. It is a sublime piece of music that really speaks to the human condition. The work makes a social commentary about things that look perfect on the surface. It is also rumored that this work was biographical, a story about Leonard Bernstein's own parents. Trouble in Tahiti is very accessible for an American audience that may or may not have any experience with Opera. The story is an archetype and one we all know because we have lived it or seen it play out. There are elements of jazz in the score as well as a jazz trio (as a greek chorus) that help the audience navigate the work both aurally and emotionally. In conclusion, this project is awesome because it is a new approach. Operaverse is grassroots Opera designed for the community-at-large. To display the power of the human voice. This power should not be reserved for those who can afford it. It belongs, by right, to all of us.

Los Angeles, CA – Be The Match - On Campus

2012-10-12T00:00:00Z

Be The Match On Campus is a national program that targets minority students attending colleges and universities around the country to add more people who fall in the 18-24 year age range to the registry. This initiative will focus on recruiting minority students from 35 main colleges and universities in Southern California. Why College Students (18-24)? Research shows that cells from younger donors lead to more successful transplants because younger donors produce more and higher-quality cells than older donors. Why Minorities? The chances of finding a matching donor vary widely based on genetic tissue types and minorities are particularly at risk. Racially and ethnically diverse groups such as African Americans, Hispanics, and multiracial individuals have more genetic diversity in their tissue types, and this complexity can make it harder to find suitable donors. Because tissue types are inherited, patients are most likely to match someone who shares their racial and ethnic heritage. Although access to transplant is improving significantly, with the NMDP facilitating more than twice as many transplants for minorities than it did just five years ago, there are still patients who are denied access to treatment because a matching donor cannot be found. For multiracial patients, the chances of finding a match are significantly reduced. The genetic combinations are staggering, and only 3% of the donors on the registry self-identify as mixed race. Our criteria for success is to ensure that we have recruited healthy individuals between the ages of 18-24 Southern California universities who are well educated about the marrow donation process, understand what they are committing to, and are indeed committed to donating if matched with a patient. Together, Be The Match Foundation and the NMDP are the world’s leader in connecting patients in need with compassionate and generous donors who are willing to volunteer their time and cells to save a life.

Kitchener-Waterloo – Pandora's Box Grows Up

2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

Pandora's Box-The Puppet Show has been performed in school classrooms, outdoor festivals, libraries, and senior's centres. This is one version of this puppet show, an intimate and interactive version, which is entertaining but lacks the "pizazz" of a live theatre experience. With the help of the Awesome Foundation, I would like to provide university technical theatre students with a theatre design project. This is a chance for theatre technicians to have hands-on experience on a highly inspiring and challenging theatre piece. Pandora's Box is a puppet show designed to be performed onstage. There is no "puppet theatre". I perform what I call "Shameless" puppetry, where the actor performs in front of the audience shamelessly. This is why this show would make such a great design project. There are unlimited lighting, sound and special effect opportunities in a show that deals with a tale as large as a Greek myth, performed with one actor and multiple puppets. This is a excellent Awesome Foundation project because it comes at the final phase of this artistic enterprise. The show is already written, cast and well rehearsed. It is a fully professional show with a successful beginning, which now requires this final push to make it great.

Ottawa – Laser Musicbox

2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

October’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Christopher Smeenk to support his making music with lasers. Christopher, a physics PhD student at the University of Ottawa and the Attosecond Science Lab at the National Research Council, explains that his scientific work “focuses on applications of ultrashort laser pulses to control and image matter on the atomic scale.” But he’s also interested in, as he puts it, “delivering tangible outcomes that non-specialists can enjoy.” So he has developed a new method to make music that he calls the laser musicbox. “New developments in laser technology,” Christopher explains, “make it possible to use light to create and control sound – merging the sensations of sight and hearing into a single experience. By focusing an ultrashort laser pulse into air it is possible to simultaneously generate an audible sound and colours spanning the entire visible spectrum. By focusing a laser pulse into air we create a plasma, i.e., a gas of electrons and ions. When the hot plasma expands into the surrounding cooler air it creates a shock wave that you can hear. By controlling the frequency of the laser pulses we can manipulate the pitch of the note and play a melody.” So far, Christopher has used his laser music box to play back scales, as well as two pieces of music from Daft Punk. Next, he plans to connect a piano keyboard to the laser to transform it into a musical instrument, and invite musicians and composers into the lab to experiment with the technology. He hopes to eventually use the laser in performance, with a small ensemble of musicians. He also plans to open up the software he is developing to others interested in experimenting with music and light. To learn more about Christopher’s laser musicbox — he has written a short paper about how it works — and to follow his progress, visit https://sites.google.com/site/csmeenk/laser-musicbox.

Sydney – Hoopy Happenings

2012-10-10T00:00:00Z

The idea for Hoopy Happenings started when I was at Circus Fest 2009 in Tasmania and wanted more than just 2 hoop workshops during the training time. A few of us tried to pick a place & a date but everyone had different ideas & we all lived in different parts of Oz. I decided if it was going to happen we just needed to set a date & go for it. I decided on Sydney, chose a weekend, advertised it and searched for teachers. It kicked off in 2010 & after many hours of work I managed to cover costs, we had 29 participants. The next year, 2011, I learnt a lot from 2010 & made the changes to make it a success again & we had 39 participants. Every year though right up until the very last week I'd be stressing out and wondering if I'd sell enough tickets to cover the costs. Every year my sister Lisa who helps me & Bunny would tell me to breath and the hoopiverse will come through for me. Hundreds of hours spent to get this hoop community event up & running each year and its really beautiful when it comes to fruition and all the bills get paid and there may be a little left over for me too. I try to get a good mix of workshops together that covers top to toe hooping... this year we have workshops in contortion. foot hooping. salsa, belly-dancing, isolations, native american-indian inspired hooping, acrobalance, fire hooping, World Hoop Day Dance choreography, twin hooping plus I've added master classes where hoopers can develop their teaching skills & performance development. It's totally full of awesomeness! Plus this year I have a cameraman on board to do a DVD for us so that it is professionally done. Hoopy Happenings is a community happening. It accommodates for the circus styled hoopers and the hoop dancers. These 2 different styles of hooping don't always see eye to eye, the teaching & training styles are very different and there are still some who are just one or the other. I like to see HH as the bridge & inspiration for hooping creativity. Next step to grow.

New York City, NY – The Acoustic Guitar Project

2012-10-08T00:00:00Z

The Acoustic Guitar Project is music, creativity, inspiration, and a celebration of humanity rolled into one. The project’s basic premise is to set an acoustic guitar off on a physical and musical journey. It begins with a single musician, who has one week to record an original song with the guitar on a handheld recorder. At the end of the week, the musician signs the guitar and gives it to another musician to repeat the cycle. The guitar thus becomes a "viral memento" with its own path, until 20 musicians have contributed to a single guitar. There are already instruments circulating in New York and Helsinki and a third will soon set sail in Latin America. The songs, lyrics, pictures of the musicians, and interviews with them are archived on a website, and the ultimate aim is to bring the musicians together again in the real world for a concert. The Awesome Grant will help support all aspects of this project’s growth, as the website is revitalized and new guitars are added and the whole process is documented on video.

Austin, TX – Austin Sea Veggies

2012-10-06T00:00:00Z

Austin Sea Veggies is a seaweed farm in Austin TX started by Lewis Wells. Originally he was growing seaweed for scientific purposes. "Seaweed products are in many products most people don't know it. It is in many foods, cosmetics and medicines. The wild harvest of it is reaching unsustainanble levels," Lewis told us. He started growing in aquaria as proof of concept. It required years of research and experiments. "In an off handed comment I made a remark to my wife about eating it. Next thing I know I am running a booth at the sustainable food center's farmers market and my garage is full of tanks of seawater growing seaweed for culinary use." How cool is that?! Now Lewis has so many customers in grocery and restaurants that he has more demand than supply. With the awesome foundation grant Lewis plans on purchasing electronic probes to measure nitrogen and phosphate level in his farm tanks. "If I can graph in real time the rate the plants are taking up nutrients I can give them the exact amount of nutrients they need and have 0 waste," he says. He'll also be buying a UV sterilizing unit to eliminate bacteria and nuisance algae from the water supply to produce even better crops. This will allow Lewis plans to moving Austin Sea Veggies out of his garage and into a greenhouse at Agua Dulce aquaponics farm in southeast Austin. He'll be finally able to raise several fold the amount of seaweed and finally meet his customer demand. He will also be able to start growing more varieties beyond the one he grows now called Ogo. "My goal is produce amazing, fresh, healthy local seafood anywhere in world. I want people to have good food and for us to be able to leave the wild environment alone at the same time."

San Francisco, CA – 24/7 Bike Repair Vending Machine

2012-10-02T00:00:00Z

As an urban bicyclist, I am frequently stricken with flat tires and mechanical failures at times when bike shops are closed. Many bicyclists (myself included) have the know-how to fix their own bikes, but lack the access parts when they need them. I want to create the Bay Area’s first 24 hour bike repair depot. I want to take a vending machine and fill it with bicycle tubes, tires, tire levers, lights, and other assorted parts. I’ll decorate the outside with helpful bike repair information, such as how to change a tire, attach an air pump to the outside, and place it in a prominent, bike friendly location. With this, bikers will have an emergency repair option at any time of day or night.

Rio de Janeiro (Неактивен) – Open Mic - Primeira Base (TAKE 2)

2012-10-01T00:00:00Z

O Primeira Base Open Mic tem como proposta gerar uma oportunidade para aspirantes a humoristas terem uma plataforma inicial acessível para se lançarem no mercado, assim como abrir a possibilidade para humoristas profissionais testarem novos materiais para seus shows. Cria-se um espaço fixo no calendário cultural do Rio de Janeiro que, ao contrário de SP, carece de locais de apresentação onde a comédia stand-up possa criar alguma tradição e não um aspecto de evento sazonal. O evento foi realizado ao longo do mês de outubro de 2012 no La Esquina Teatro Bar e o prêmio concedido foi utilizado para adquirir um troféu e em cachês para os humoristas profissionais.

Oahu, HI – PermablitzHI

2012-10-01T00:00:00Z

Hawaii is dependent on food grown elsewhere and shipped to the middle of the Pacific. Less than 2 weeks of food inventory is on hand. Delivery stoppage, delays and costs increases would have a tremendous negative impact. Permablitz Hawaii allows people to create perennial food gardens at their homes with little money and no experience. Anyone is eligible simply by helping install three other gardens. In one day, a large group of people will come and transform your land into a Permaculture foodscape. Since it’s founding in the Fall of 2011, 39 Permablitz’s have been completed. Please read more here: http://permablitzhawaii.com/pages/what-is-a-permablitz As raindrops fall in to rivers and rivers into oceans we hope to naturally inspire more and more people to work together as neighbors for the benefit of all involved. PermaBlitz not only increases the island’s food security, but also allows people to create new, reciprocal relationships with a diverse group of “blitzers”. These symbiotic relationships increase everyone’s resiliency when faced with adversity. PermaBlitz started Oahu-wide and has grown to establish more local groups, like the Westside PermaBlitz in Waianae and 'Growing Together' on the North Shore. We aim to continue this trend to lots of neighborhoods and other islands. There are no restrictions limiting the growth to whoever wants to adopt the program. Nothing is more peaceful than helping others grow healthy food. We love striving to recreate what Hawaii once was, a community where neighbors help neighbors grow their own food, trade, eat together, share recipes and “talk story”. By doing so people care about each other more deeply. They are generally inspired to invite others to participate and share even more, creating peas (peace!) on Earth!

Sukhbaatar (Неактивен) – BOOK RESTORATION

2012-10-01T00:00:00Z

It has been a busy couple of months for Awesome Mongolia! First, Aldarmaa and I had an amazing time representing the Awesome Foundation by speaking at TEDx Ulaanbaatar about Awesome Mongolia, as well as another project we have been working on, the Good Father Project. You can catch the video at AwesomeMongolia.com and practice your Mongolian during the second half of the video, subtitles are forthcoming! The idea was well received by the audience and we are currently working with a group from Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, to start our second chapter (and potentially third) of Awesome Mongolia! The deans of the new group are going to work with students at the health sciences university, and hope to fund some great public health projects. We can’t wait to see what they come up with! Finally, we awarded our second project for Awesome Sukhbaatar in late October. The winning proposal was submitted by an entire class of 11th grade students at one of our schools. They will be working with the local municipal library to recover books that are severely damaged. The students also plan on starting a competition based on reading books!

Austin, TX – Color Squad: Youth transforming public spaces

2012-09-30T00:00:00Z

Since I have been working in public schools serving specifically low-income communities, I have noticed these schools target STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) based education with an eye towards college and trade school, and a very low focus on the arts or creative education. I will occasionally come across youth with a genuine talent and interest in art, but have no way to substantially encourage them to pursue a career in art or to show them ways to do so. With an Awesome Grant, I would use it as seed money to start a program for youth in low-income, under-served communities who are interested in art to come together and create murals in their community. It would be a group of four to eight teens that would submit portfolios and be accepted on a competitive basis. My goal is to give them a sense of what it is to be a real working artist, and the challenges and rewards of creating art in a group for their community. They will learn composition, execution of design, and come out of the program with experience working with the community and completing public art projects that can be put toward a portfolio for college or more professional work. It will also hopefully create a sense of engagement in their community and be a beautiful addition to a part of the Austin community.

Washington, DC – Wangari Gardens

2012-09-28T00:00:00Z

Wangari Gardens opened in early spring 2012 as a community garden project for DC residents, honoring the work of Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist. The garden includes 55 plots, which will be nearly doubled this fall. Additionally, we have communal education gardens and an orchard which are open to the general public. We plan to build Wangari Garden into a civic education center, a place where students can come year-round to learn about growing food, where fresh food can be grown for service projects, and where people can come together to enjoy a beautiful floral treasure tucked within the big city. Though we've been working for less than a year and not even one growing season, our team is organized and ready to take on new projects. We plan to build a pumpkin patch for the fall, a rainwater collection garden (so we can be entirely self-sufficient in water use!), a composting facility, and a rehabilitation garden in partnership with a local hospital.

Seattle, WA – Graffiti Defense Coalition's Sticker Machine

2012-09-28T00:00:00Z

GDC wants to introduce street art and our mission to Seattle by offering a nomadic street art sticker vending machine. We feel that we can promote street art, street artists and our mission in an effective way through the GDC’s street art vending machine. We are collaborating with local artists to have sticker designs donated for a diverse variety of street art stickers. The sticker machine will change locations from neighborhood art walks, to galleries and events around Seattle. We also plan to give the vending machine a life of its own by building an online persona through social media sites such as Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Four Square and the like. This will be a fun way to update fans/friends of its current whereabouts and available selection. GDC believes this benefits Seattle because street art lends itself to community building and inspires creativity. By creating the online persona we will be inviting everyone to contribute to, interact with and promote street art. This will allow Seattle to be inspired by street art and get involved with the street art movement. Plus awesome street art stickers will be available to Seattleites for $1! GDC will gain a dynamic startup tool in the vending machine. It will open a forum for us to promote street art and our mission. Through the vending machine we will build the community support to include GDC and Seattle in the global street art arena. It will also be a helpful contribution to our fundraising efforts for upcoming goals. Projects on the horizon for GDC include a youth program and Stunning Seattle a mural event. GDC is developing a syllabus for youth to better understand the difference between vandalism and street art. We are building a curriculum around different styles of street art and will be offering it to youth centers. GDC’s Stunning Seattle is a large scale mural event coming in 2013. We plan to join local property owners and local/international mural artists to beautify the empty walls in Seattle.

Grand Rapids, MI (Неактивен) – The Urban Tech Farm Project

2012-09-27T00:00:00Z

Our project is going to integrate farming to downtown locations by revitalizing abandoned industrial buildings. In doing so, we'll be developing high tech, indoor urban farming facilities, which will operate sustainably. Growing indoors allows for year-round production, much higher efficiency than traditional farming methods, greater yields, and minimal transportation costs. Using aquaponics (growing vegetables with fish), food can be grown in a symbiotic closed loop system without the use of herbicides or pesticides. With the integration of engineering, robotics, and computer control systems the bottom line of this project is to produce ZERO WASTE and utilize off-grid energy. To start scaling towards creating an entirely sustainable farm within a building, we're going to design and construct a self-sustaining farm within a 20 foot shipping container. Inside the shipping container, we're going to develop our proprietary system to grow high-end restaurant greens in which we'll be able to sell directly to downtown restaurants. With the shipping container being located in a downtown setting; we'll be able to virtually eliminate transportation of fresh produce and all the costs associated with it, including the carbon footprint. Using this proof-of-concept, we're going to demonstrate the positive effects of farming in the city and scale the technology we develop in the shipping container to a full sized farm. Our project is becoming increasingly integrated into the Grand Rapids entrepreneurial ecosystem. We've already developed a great relationship with the Start Garden team, and we're communicating and collaborating with additional GR companies including: Thinkbox Creative, the Elemental Project, and the Urban Renaissance Group. By 2050 there will be over 9 billion people on the planet. There isn't enough arable land on earth to feed that many people. We are creating the solution, we are starting now, and we want to do it in Grand Rapids.

Houston (Неактивен) – Texas Spirit: Homecoming Mums

2012-09-27T00:00:00Z

Our project will be centered around the production of 12, large-scale versions of the traditional Homecoming ‘Mum’ created by 12 Texas artists. While we will provide the basic, standardized wooden backing for the works, we are asking each artist to create a work inspired by traditional ‘Mum’ designs but with new takes on motif, theme, or message. The provided material will consist of a plywood round cut to have a diameter of two feet, and with pre-drilled holes for later installation of hanging materials. The traditional ‘Mum’ consists of two main parts; first is the corsage itself, a large silk-flower made to resemble the chrysanthemum which is pinned to the shirt. Many choose to add to the center of the corsage by adding things like stuffed animals or plastic cartoon characters as a way to display personal style and tastes. The Mum is applied to a cardboard backing that also houses the ‘flair’ of the accessory. What is perhaps the real show-stopper of these adornments are the ribbons flowing from behind the flower, these wisps display your favorite team or your sweetheart and boast bells and charms that jingle loudly much to the dismay of many a high school teacher. Many Texas crafters know that when Summer rolls around, local craft stores will boast aisles and sections completely devoted to the phenomena; the supplies come varied and in a wide selection of tastes. This money-making venture is more tradition than fad in Texas. Mothers and Daughters spend energy, time and resources on creating these spectacular showcases of spirit. Our project would celebrate this tradition by asking artists to re-visit the ‘Mum’ and give a breath of fresh air to this tradition sometimes reserved for the spirit-filled cheerleader, or football star. Homecoming Mums have become a tradition in Texas, an example of folklore cultivated by the people and continued by generations of spirited high-school aged young people. This exercise in ritual through a seemingly silly or juvenile tradition hopefully will produce results that are reflective, matured, and insightful, much like we hope our participants are regarded. As part of bringing the Homecoming Mum into the mature sphere we will be collecting, documenting, performing interviews and synthesizing a catalogue that would chronicle this tradition. As part of the preparation we were surprised t find that very little academic writing on this extremely regional tradition. Hopefully by creating the pieces as well as archiving the regional folklore we can highlight something many people may never have experienced. The finished pieces would become temporary public art installations, on display in cultural centers that agree to house the piece and understand the importance of this project. The display process would be modeled after the CowParade project here in Texas, where the painted cows represented a sense of pride and excitement about living here in this large and varied state and simply resided within open spaces in office buildings, museums, government centers, and cultural destinations. These creations will be recognized by many Texans as a tribute to past days and can impart the creativity of an artist’s hand to those who may not see the connection between family crafts and fine art. These pieces produced by the artists would be on display in the Fall of 2013, during Football season, as a celebration of Houston’s great arts and sports community. At the beginning of 2013 we would began our initiative by creating a website and having a launch party that would display two prototype ‘Mums’ and celebrate a Texas tradition. From this time on we would have our artists working on the pieces in their studios, preparing for the coming football season. By July, we would like to have all the pieces completed, allowing time for a Grand Reveal of all twelve of the pieces, as well as time to install the pieces in their semi-permanent homes. The pieces would be on display until December 31, 2013.

Airdrie, AB (Неактивен) – Club Cre8

2012-09-26T00:00:00Z

Laurin's awesome idea is to develop Club Cre8, a Pay It Forward type of non-profit group where they will do fundraising to hand out gift cards or supplies to children across Canada who have an idea to Pay It Forward in some way in their community. The Club Cre8 team will also include a group of local youth, who will help develop the ideas and run the program. The $1,000 will be used to kickstart the first idea, and the group targets teens aged 13-18 and will incorporate fundraising and social media marketing to plan and execute pay-it-forward initiatives. While the group is open to anyone interested in participating in the pay-it-forward campaign in the community, Laurin is teaming up with the Airdrie, Crossfield & District Youth Justice Committee to try and instil a positive focus in at-risk youth and help change their lives. Kids will spend their community service hours working with Laurin and Club Cre8 to help implement these Pay-It-Forward campaigns. Photo Credit: Discover Airdrie

Melbourne (Неактивен) – All Of The Numbers

2012-09-26T00:00:00Z

It's basically a community radio station for Melbourne - but on the Internet. I've always enjoyed listening to the radio to find out about cool things happening around my city, new music, news, and general discussion. The problem is, amongst all of the many devices I now own, a radio isn't one of them. These days, the only times I hear the radio is when it's being broadcast in a shopping centre, or if I'm in a car, and even those interactions with the medium are becoming fewer. My project is called All Of The Numbers. It's Melbourne specific community radio, delivered online. It's curated content created by all kinds of Melburnians - designers, comedians, entrepreneurs, musicians, commentators, story-tellers. The barrier to entry to access and create content for All Of The Numbers is low. To create a show, all you need is an idea and a voice. To consume the content, all you need is a wifi connection and ears. There will be a content grid. Different shows stream at different times throughout the week on a schedule. Each show will be delivered as 8 episodes of 15-30 minutes in length, on a weekly basis. Eventually the content schedule will be full-time. Listeners can browse content by theme, schedule, presenter. Sponsors and advertisers can give their support to the whole station, or to a specific presenter or show or series. Information, knowledge, stories, and entertainment will be delivered to Melburnians by Melburnians. It will be a way to re-engage the young Melbourne community with the medium. It will be interactive. It will be creative. It will be so very Melbourne. Think "RRR for geeks", if you must compare it to something. Think "endless possibilities for sharing and growing communication within local communities" if you're feeling as excited as me. I'm very confident and very excited about this project's enormous potential to do great things. Sorry, I mean - to do AWESOME things.

Boston, MA – Union Square Public Benches

2012-09-26T00:00:00Z

we're located on the corner of the busiest intersection in union square, with a bus stop directly in front of the studio and a busy cafe next door. as we are committed to a lively pedestrian and street culture, we were saddened by the disappearance of the adam singha-designed benches that used to grace the sidewalk in front of sherman cafe. the benches, donated by mks design, had rusted though and were discarded. in front of our studio, we built an integrated bench / planter, but the demand for outdoor public seating is high, and the traffic from local pedestrians, MBTA riders, farmer's market-goers, and the cafe's customers is such that often one finds people sitting on the ground or moving along in search of adequate seating elsewhere.

Tel Aviv - קרן בקטנה (Неактивен) – Halev - Independent Living Program, Social cinema

2012-09-25T00:00:00Z

Halev helps these youngsters at risk who are in the worst possible circumstances negotiate crucial phase of their lives. It helps to maximize their own interests and capabilities by providing learning tutoring, educational counselling, psychological therapy, skills development and empowerment by cinema workshops. Social cinema project: Film program – Empowering youth at risk. This program is designed to allow participants to express themselves through learning of cinema, watching movies and making a short documentary. Participation in this framework would lead to empowerment in terms of enhanced self-esteem, enhanced cooperation with others within a social framework, establishing social contact through chalanges bearing of frustrating conditions and enhanced capability of influencing one's environment. The workshops include a set of exercises that focus on the empowerment aspects in all stages of film production: scriptwriting, production, directing, acting, shooting and editing. At the end, making a short film by youth. Making the film teaches them to take responsibility, to develop self-efficacy, to place an internal locus of control, working as an individual within a group, to manage time effectively. Empowerment throughsocial cinema workshop may bring personal change in the aspect of preparation for independent living.

Portland, OR – The Old Apple Tree

2012-09-25T00:00:00Z

The oldest apple tree in the Pacific Northwest is located six miles from downtown Portland in the middle of a highway interchange. This tree was planted circa 1826 and marks the beginning of western expansion in what is now Oregon. We have been granted permission from the Urban Forestry Commission to take ten cuttings and carry forward the legacy of this relic tree. With support from Awesome Portland, we will lead a participatory art project in which local families and residents graft their own apple trees from the 1826 apple tree cuttings. We will work with each participant to plant a tree at their home and install a placard that contains information about the participants and the project. To celebrate The Old Apple Tree project, we will host a public tour around Portland to visit each tree. We will also design and distribute a map of the tree locations. These will be printed and also published on the project's future website. This project will not only commemorate the rich fruit culture in the Pacific Northwest, it will also ask people to consider their own agency in creating history. The trees we plant will live on as permanent and growing records of the 1826 apple tree. They will act as a series of living sculptures that illuminate Portland's past and educate its future.

Newmarket – "You are not alone"

2012-09-25T00:00:00Z

"You are not alone" - is a program where we are able to help students with anticipatory grief or bereavement through there peers and teachers. The staff at Doane House Hospice are inspired daily by the art making processes of the children who visit the Hospice each week and the courage and strength of families impacted by cancer and other serious illnesses. We see the benefits of being able to communicate with children and teens who become warriors, who valiantly fight cancer on behalf of an ill parent. We would like to be able to work more closely with the York Region School Boards, so that the guidance counselors and teachers are able to understand and support any child or teen dealing with the issues of anticipatory grief, loss or bereavement. DHH is already in discussion with the school boards and they are certainly open to us partnering with them. Further meetings will establish the use of this therapeutic modality in workshops to train both teachers and the psychology teams in the area of trauma and traumatic events.

Berlin (Неактивен) – wOhm - a robotic pet

2012-09-22T00:00:00Z

Chicago, IL – Jurassic Geriatrics

2012-09-22T00:00:00Z

This past May, I was invited to a retirement community. At the retirement community I visited, the residents were extremely receptive, to the point that this could almost have some therapeutic benefits as well. The staff told me afterwards that there were two individuals at the presentation who were normally quite reclusive. Though it took some coaxing, they agreed to come. It turns out that, as I was passing the fossils around to the group, both of the women became very engaged and active in the conversations. The staff was really impressed by what they saw. I was told that it was such a unique and different form of entertainment to what the residents are used to that it really took the staff by surprise (in regards to the residents' positive reactions). Word has spread, and more retirement communities are requesting that I give them a visit. I always ask for a donation of some kind. I don't pay myself, but instead I use the money to cover any traveling costs (a dollar or two in gas), and the rest goes towards increasing the fossil collection. Budgets are extremely tight at some of these communities, and they have told me they can't afford to pay anything because they have no money left in their entertainment funds.

Calgary, AB (Неактивен) – PODPLAYS: Downloadable Art for Your Ears

2012-09-22T00:00:00Z

Podplays are downloadable plays designed specifically for your ears. Simply choose your play and download, find the "set"/ public location on a map and head out there to discover your city in a new way.! Some are best listened to in a certain location or site, some ask you to be a spectator on the move and to listen while you walk or run a certain route, and some ask you to simply download, plug in your earphones and close your eyes. Myself and my students will be discovering some currently unused or neglected spaces in the city core in Calgary, AB. We will be creating podplays that repurpose and/or uncover these spaces for the public. The locations will be mapped and high quality pieces of sound art in the form of MP3 files will be posted on the site, and freely available to the public.

Detroit, MI – The People of Detroit Photodocumentary

2012-09-21T00:00:00Z

The People of Detroit is a media project that uses vivid portraiture and engaging essays to change how people think about living in Detroit. Since its inception in April 2012, TPOD has received national and international attention. Portraits from the project have appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Fast Company and other national publications. In early 2011, a creative director saw the project on flickr.com and hired TPOD founder Noah Stephens to shoot an ad campaign for McDonald's Corporation in Shanghai, China.

Pittsburgh, PA – Zip Line: Mt. Washington to the North Shore

2012-09-20T00:00:00Z

The goal is to connect Mt. Washington to the North Shore with a zip line. Here's a video of what the zip line style will be https://vimeo.com/48903726 A zip line alone is great. A zip line off of one of the most picturesque urban vistas in the world is fantastic. Imagine riding the incline up, zipping over to a field trip at the Carnegie Science Center, a concert at Stage AE, Casino, or a Steelers / Pirates game. The seat (as opposed to a harness) will allow a greater audience to use the zip line and the automatic retrieval system increases throughput. (80-90 riders per hour with 4 zip lines)

London (Неактивен) – upReach – improving access to the professions

2012-09-19T00:00:00Z

I want to improve access to the professions for undergraduates from less-privileged backgrounds. My vision is to achieve this in partnership with employers, universities, and policy makers by running a targeted, three-year professional development programme. The on campus programme will empower participants with the non-academic capabilities critical to realising career potential. Evidence shows that equal achievement at university does not translate into equal progression into the professions. What’s more, those graduates from less-privileged backgrounds who do access the professions earn less. These academically talented undergraduates often lack the mentoring, soft skills, knowledge and professional experience critical for entry. As recruiters increasingly value these non-academic capabilities, fewer graduates from less-privileged backgrounds enter the professions, leaving their potential contribution unrealised. (Briefing: ow.ly/cfjja) To improve access to the professions I aim to run a professional development programme that empowers these undergraduates to realise their career potential. I am therefore seeking funding for a six-month pilot, which will precede the launch of the full programme. The pilot and full programme will run concurrently with participants' degrees in collaboration with employers, and universities. Workshops, networking events, professional mentoring, and internships will provide participants with the knowledge, contacts, role models, and relevant experience that they tend to lack and struggle to build. My objective is to empower students from less-privileged backgrounds to achieve graduate outcomes that they may not otherwise have attained. For the wider community, this delivers improved social mobility and greater economic output. A report commissioned by the Sutton Trust revealed that ‘failing to improve low levels of social mobility will cost the UK economy up to £140 billion a year by 2050’.

Ottawa – Ottawa Mini Maker Faire

2012-09-19T00:00:00Z

September’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Remco Volmer and Britta Evans-Fenton to support a Mini Maker Faire in Ottawa. Maker Faires, they explain, “have been called everything from a digital quilting bee to the greatest show and tell on Earth. In the last six years, since the first Maker Faire was held in California, this futuristic arts and crafts fair has become a global phenomenon. The World Maker Faire in New York City draws over 100,000, while small, community driven “Mini” Maker Faires have moved from North American suburbs to Europe, Asia, and even as far as Cairo.” Their Mini Maker Faire, which will be held on the weekend of October 13-14, will brings together families and individuals who celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, food, music, sustainability, and science — and those who embrace the Do-It-Yourself or “DIY” spirit. “At Maker Faire,” explains Remco, “the focus is on the process of making — not just the finished product. The real story is the curiosity, vibrancy, and passion of the Makers themselves — individuals and communities drawn together by a common delight in the magic of tinkering, hacking, creating, and reusing materials and technologies.” Remco and Britta are organizing the Mini Maker Faire through Artengine, an Ottawa-based collective of artists, technologists, and interested members of the general public with strong ties to the local, national and international community of technologically-based artists. Artengine board member Luc Lalande is supporting Remco and Britta as a volunteer and consultant. To learn more about the Mini Maker Faire, which will be free and open to the public, visit makerfaireottawa.com.

Sydney – Pop up Ping Pong at Green Square

2012-09-12T00:00:00Z

Community is the most important element for cities. Our project builds upon this premise and will provide the Green Square community with 2 pop up ping pong tables. The outdoor ping pong tables are relatively cheap, light weight and will be moved around Green Square activating previously dead spaces. The project is simple - foster community spirit through the best game ever invented- ping pong! This activation reflects the communities need for visibility and self expression. It will also help bridge language barriers between existing residents, some of whom may be from other backgrounds, and new residents, 30% of which are from China. To ensure longevitiy I'll be engaging with local businesses to 'look after' the tables and where possible bring in at night for safety and weather protection. Community Benefits: - knowing your neighbours - healthy living and sport - excitement and interest - improved liveability It would be great to have the Awesome Foundation support this project and help foster great community connection at Green Square. Thanks for the opportunity to submit this application. John