Awesome Foundation - Проекти

Boulder, CO (Неактивен) – Yoga classes for Boulders Homeless youth

2012-09-12T00:00:00Z

Ally for youth is a partner non profit that offers food and support to homeless people between the age of 18- 24. I would like to offer a weekly yoga class to these youth. This would be the stepping stone to intreats participant in a meditation class and pranayma skills development. I would then have yoga therapists work with individuals.

New York City, NY – Illicit Couples Retreat

2012-09-10T00:00:00Z

The Illicit Couples Retreat is a guided adventure through an abandoned honeymoon resort a short distance outside of New York City. Twelve intrepid couples are taken on a Lynchian tour of a sexy, swinging 1970s getaway set in the current backdrop of the resort’s decay. This illicit event introduces the audience and the staff to a tragic site once was a hopping resort for romantic getaways that has fallen into ruin through family conflict. Guided through a series of buildings in the expansive complex by trained stewards, the couples both mingle with each other and have private time alone in one of the guest cottages. The experience is designed to deliver something unique to each couple. The full story is only be revealed when they compare notes in the bus on the way home. During their time in one of the kitschy suites, they receive a phone call with an audio recording produced by Project Wanderlust partner Audio Smut. The recordings are based on the documentary research on guests who stayed at the resort between the 50’s and 70’s. The project has been well-documented so everyone can enjoy what the attendees were able to experience first-hand. The Awesome Grant made possible numerous essential aspects of this project — from transportation to candles to champagne to extra-sheets at check-in.

Ann Arbor, MI – Field Trips For Tutoring Students At YMS!

2012-09-09T00:00:00Z

For the past three years, 826michigan has operated an after-school tutoring program at Ypsilanti Middle School. This program pairs trained volunteers with young people for an afternoon of sustained silent reading, homework help, snacks, and creative writing games. Tutoring occurs in a classroom at the middle school and runs from Monday through Thursday, 2:30pm-5:30pm. Students commit to attending at least once a week, although many choose to come more often. This program makes a real impact in the lives of the students. One parent told us, “I’ve seen a difference with my daughter. She had a glow in her face that she wanted to be part of the program, without hesitation, without us twisting her arm. She comes home and tells us what’s going on, and she speaks so highly of all the tutors. . .She likes the program because she sees improvement in her grades.” This fall will mark 826michigan’s fourth year at YMS, and we’re ready to make this program even more awesome. There are many benefits to hosting the program right in the school: it’s convenient for students and parents, it helps us build connections in the Ypsilanti public schools, and it works well for our Ypsilanti-based volunteers. However, one major drawback is that it means that students end up staying at their school for quite a long time. Once the program ends at 5:30, students have been in the same building since 7:15am -- a day of over 10 hours. This would be challenging for anybody, but for active middle schoolers it is grueling. 826michigan’s tutoring lab in downtown Ann Arbor is a colorful, comfortable space where students feel welcomed and excited to learn. (Not to mention our robot store, which has a magnetic attraction all its own.) Unfortunately, many of the students who participate in our program at YMS have never seen it! In the 2012-2013 school year, we want to connect our YMS students to this beautiful space with a series of field trips to 826michigan.

Sukhbaatar (Неактивен) – Youth Dental Education in Baruun-Urt

2012-09-06T00:00:00Z

After holding an essay contest in the spring to determine the winner of our first Awesome Sukhbaatar grant, we finally awarded the winning students with the grant on September 7th in front of their classmates! The 14 year old students designed a dental education program that they will organize and teach with the help of local hospital workers for the two schools in our town. The students started off their program in style, presenting their idea to their classmates after they received the grant. When they finished presenting, they asked when the next deadline is so that they can try to submit another project this month! We’re looking forward to seeing what they and the other students come up with!

Toronto – LITTLE FREE LIBRARY FOR TRINITY BELLEWOODS PARK

2012-09-04T00:00:00Z

The Little Free Library idea began in Wisconsin three years ago and has spread to 9 nations worldwide. Little buildings the size of a doll’s house have a sign that says: “Take a Book-Return a Book”. They are for the public’s pleasure. There are now probably over 1000 of them world-wide and growing fast. The first Library opened in Toronto 9 months ago. There are now 7 in Toronto with another 8 under construction. They are in front of public homes and in city parks. We are presently a committee of three of me and two others promoting the idea by presentations, operating booths at fairs and talking to city officials, business and private groups. We also have a builder who offers attractive libraries at a reasonable cost for those with no construction prospect. We offer whatever help we can from the inception to final installation of any Little Free Library. Our target is 20 libraries operating in Toronto by year end: either privately owned or in public parks and playgrounds. The response of the Toronto press and TV is exemplary, for example see http://torontoist.com/2012/07/a-new-chapter-in-book-borrowing/#more-180388 The response of city council members, parks and playground staff, business initiative associations and business clubs is very supportive and positive. We realize that we must pursue financial opportunities so that individuals and communities are able to install Little Free Libraries regardless of their financial limitations. We are now spending 15 hours a week supporting and assisting the public park and playground sector and in communities that may be financially challenged and who want to get involved. We are presently communicating with the people in one of Toronto’s largest parks: Trinity Bellwood. The park always filled with people of all ages has a very active “Friends of the Park” association. This is an ideal place for a Little Free Library. The project has the support of city councillors, park staff and the “Friends” association.

Toronto – Park Yourself Here

2012-09-04T00:00:00Z

‘PARK Yourself Here’ will transform a Toronto downtown street parking spot into a temporary urban park. Rather than a placeholder for a single car this installation will become a place for people to gather. Interacting under the floating silhouette of a car, the passerby will have a chance to escape the hustle of the urban core. This installation is to celebrate Park(ing) day, an annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists activate the metered parking space as a site for creative experimentation, political and cultural expression, and unscripted social interaction. On Friday, September 21, hundreds of cities around the world will participate in transforming metered parking spaces into healthier and more beautiful places for their inhabitants. In Toronto, the parking authority operates approximately 17, 500 metered parking spaces on City of Toronto Streets in the core commercial areas. Using the standard parking size in Toronto (5.9m x 2.6m), that is a total of 268, 450mô for the use of private vehicles, an equivalent of 66 Yonge-Dundas squares (4, 047m²)! We will transform one of these metered parking spaces into a colorful and interactive experience for pedestrians. Our proposal is to place a rectangular enclosure on a parking space. It has a full scale silhouette of a car cut out at the bottom. By lifting it up to the proper height, a public space is revealed. Showing how much of our actual environment is occupied by cars, as well as an invitation to pedestrians to enter. Once underneath, they will find themselves immersed under a canopy that made out of recycled pop bottles. Each person will be given an opportunity to fill one of these empty bottles with the color they like. Throughout the day, these colored bottles will be transformed into a colorful canopy. We like to call it the Sunroof. Note: The original idea of the canopy design is by Garth Britzman called (POP)culture: http://www.behance.net/garthitecture

Oahu, HI – Sound Project

2012-09-01T00:00:00Z

The goal of Sound Project is to create a Non-Profit Organization that strives to incorporate local youth into Hawaii’s thriving music industry. The project seeks to: 1. Involve students in the process of creating music on the professional level with guidance from established artists, producers, and experts in the field. 2. Educate students on the production and business aspects of the music industry through real life experience 3. Encourage artistic creativity and musical innovation in our islands youth through educational outreach, competitions, and hands on learning 4. Elevate musical aspirations and promote socially and culturally constructive uses of music 5. Connect reputable island artists, producers, and studios with up and coming musical talent to nurture and mold young musicians and pass along musical ingenuity to future generations. The project idea was formulated between myself and several other well connected members of the local music scene. Using our existing connections, distribution networks, and access to studios we came up with a simple method to achieve the above goals of the project. The basic concept is to hold bi annual or quarterly youtube competitions open to students k-12 around the state. Students submit a video as an individual artist or band and can be in the form of an acoustic performance, live performance, or a recorded track. Selected winners will be brought into the studio alongside experienced producers/musicians to create original songs that will be released on Sound Project Series albums for ITUNES & radio airplay as well as an opportunity to open at a concert event. The online competitions encourage students to not only continually practice and enhance their sound throughout the year but also allow them the time and comfort to produce quality music while even giving them exposure in an medium with massive viewership potential.

Houston (Неактивен) – Emmaus Ministries Houston

2012-08-31T00:00:00Z

When “J” got out of the hospital with 42 staples in his chest from being stabbed two days prior and couldn’t afford to buy a $15.00 medicine prescription, the first person he came to was me, knowing that Emmaus would help him out. When “B” got of jail and was finally ready to go to drug rehab, the very next day he came to our Monday lunch knowing that we could assist him in this process. Houston is an “awesome” city and I love living here. But Houston has a dark side as well, and one its many dark secrets is the issue of male prostitution. Emmaus Ministries reaches out to these men letting them know that there are other options apart from the current life most of them feel forced to live and that there are people who are willing to help them get out from the habits that are literally killing some of them. We currently have Monday lunches and Wednesday breakfast every week, and also provide toiletries, clothing, a place to do laundry, counseling, bus passes to run errands, and assistance to help obtain Texas ID, housing, or rehab. Emmaus Ministires Houston has been around for more than 8 years and in the past 18 months alone, we have assisted over 90 men who have come to us seeking help. A few stats we gathered about these men from their intake forms 49% Have Been Shot or Stabbed 32% Have Overdosed 82% Currently are, or were Addicted to Drugs 23% (at least) Are HIV Positive 55% Have Experienced Violent Crimes 36% Have Been Raped ...others wouldn’t say 55% Have Been Molested 84% Are Homeless We are unique in that we are the only organization in Houston that specifically reaches out to this population and we are also unique because we have a very positive and trustworthy reputation among the male prostitute community. Having been around for so many years has given Emmaus the chance to establish a solid presence with these men so that many of the new guys that come are invited by older ones who know that Emmaus really cares and can help.

Detroit, MI – I Am Young Detroit 2.0 & CitySpotters

2012-08-31T00:00:00Z

Using I Am Young Detroit's new web application CitySpotters, citizens are incentivized to "spot" young citizen entrepreneurs and play supporting roles; earning points simply by championing them as nominators, customers, mentors, and resource providers. We’re not only using civic engagement as a tool for data-gathering, we’re making it easier for everyday people to find and support the under-the-radar and next-gen businesses, and really get involved in creating the news! I Am Young Detroit successfully collected soft “data” for three years by accepting nominations through its website. CitySpotters is simply a next phase nomination system that allows us to gather more advanced data—still gathering informative content—but also finding new ways to share this data and new tools to allow citizens to champion local businesses. We’ve launched the beta version on July 2nd, 2012. We’ll be using IAmYoungDetroit.com and Google Maps API to populate the city’s “bright spots” of young entrepreneurs and movements, tell their stories, and encourage users to engage and interact with them online and off. We’ve also organized several drop-off locations that will allow people to “spot” in physical spaces around Detroit, and plan on introducing our mobile and SMS app in the near future. You can check out our newly launched app in beta at www.thecityspotters.com

Boulder, CO (Неактивен) – AwesomeBoard

2012-08-31T00:00:00Z

I want to set up a giant whiteboard in the middle of campus for students to brainstorm, collaborate, and ideate on. The primary focus of the whiteboard would be to promote the idea of entrepreneurship and innovation to students. By introducing them to the fact that their are groups like CUNVC and AwesomeBoulder, they could be inspired to write/draw ideas on the board. Another possible thing that could be written on the board is what they like about Boulder, and what they want to see improved. From there, the thought would be that there is a giant object right in the middle of campus that everyone can't help but stop for a second and check it out. Once we have their attention, the ideas on the board can only lead to more inspiration and better ideas. One of the other goals of the project for me is to inspire more involvement in entrepreneurship by students, so the whiteboard can be heavily promoted through pictures and social media after the event, and hopefully a few new Awesome Boulder or Startup projects can be started. This project was done by a friend of mine at NC State, the picture I uploaded is from the day they did it.

Austin, TX – Burnet-Ohlen Treescape

2012-08-30T00:00:00Z

We're planting a forest on Burnet! We've mapped out every location on Burnet from 2222 to 183 where a tree can grow. We know all about the utilities, the City's corridor plans, the businesses that are most likely to be supportive. Season by season, we're planting 10 to 50 trees until Burnet is transformed. The next tree-planting project is in October, when we will plant 50 trees near Steck and Ohlen.

Tel Aviv - קרן בקטנה (Неактивен) – Historical Building Preservation Posters

2012-08-30T00:00:00Z

Ilan's posters are kicking off Keren Baktana in Tel Aviv! Ever walked passed one of those neglected, sad looking buildings in Tel Aviv and thought to yourself - this building was probably once the king of the street! Well, Ilan has drawn these buildings in all their former glory and, with a little help from his friends at Keren Baktana, is producing massive sized posters to show off the beauty to all passers-by. You can't escape it now - this edu-street art is enriching the whole city with injections of beauty, reminding us how special our historical city really is.

Boston, MA – Rescuing Cold-Stunned Ocean Sunfish off Cape Cod

2012-08-29T00:00:00Z

The New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance (NECWA) is a volunteer nonprofit that focuses on marine wildlife off New England. Since 2005, we have maintained a community-sighting network for basking sharks and ocean sunfish in the waters off New England. Each fall, we now respond to stranded ocean sunfish along the north shores of Cape Cod or in back bay areas. Ocean sunfish are the heaviest bony fish in the world and can reach lengths of over 10 feet. They migrate to our cold waters each summer to feed on jellyfish. As winter approaches, they head south to spend their winters in warmer, more tropical waters. However, some individuals get trapped in the arm of Cape Cod and become cold-stunned as water temperatures continue to drop. For live ocean sunfish that strand, NECWA staff and interns push them back into the water. When responding to carcasses, we conduct a necropsy to learn more about their biology and eoclogy. NECWA now has the largest database on ocean sunfish off Cape Cod including the largest tissue bank that we share with other researchers worldwide. This fall we created a portable weighing tripod that allows us to weigh ocean sunfish carcasses that wash up on beaches. So far, we have been able to collect weights on 3 carcasses with weights ranging from 350 to 650 pounds. When rescuing live, cold-stunned ocean sunfish, the act of pushing them back into the water is not productive since they will more than likey re-strand sometime in the future. To assist these animals on their southerly migration, we need to relocate them to the southern side of Cape Cod or get them to the Cape Cod Canal. To do this, we need to make a portable sling that can be used to tow a live, cold-stunned ocean sunfish behind a small boat. Even though these fish are quite large, they can be easily moved given their hydrodynamic body shape. And since they are cold-stunned, they are not that active when handled. We also need to come up with a way to tag all rescued sunfish with some type of metal dart tag. Tags would display NECWA’s contact information to allow anyone finding a rescued sunfish to contact NECWA about its condition and location. This would help us determine the level of our success regarding the relocation of cold-stunned ocean sunfish.

Airdrie, AB (Неактивен) – Green-Lighting Creativity

2012-08-29T00:00:00Z

It was just another awesome night in Airdrie on Wednesday March 21, when ten Airdrie citizens (and trustees) listened to four pitches from the community on how $1000 could turn an awesome idea into reality. The winning idea, to turn 28 plain traffic signal boxes into 3D works of art, was the choice of the ten trustees who each committed $100 of their own money. “What really set our winner’s idea of traffic signal box artwork apart from the other entrants was the potential to start a movement, which was fantastic in all our eyes. We saw this as an opportunity for Airdrie to be reminded of our commitment to this awesome city and involve more people with each project, as artists, and as sponsors. We could see a tangible piece of artwork and feel “WE did that! That’s awesome!” said trustee Keith Wilkinson. He also noted that if Awesome Airdrie was recognized for helping the project get off the ground, it would encourage everyone to submit ideas. Called “Green-lighting Creativity” the project was pitched by Sherry Shaw-Froggatt based on conversations she had with the City Public Works Department. The City owns the boxes but could not cover the costs associated with the project. “Traffic signal boxes and utility boxes are painted in cities around the world, including Calgary,” says Shaw-Froggatt, “it just takes paint and an eager artist to turn a boring metal box into something beautiful to brighten up the community.” Shaw-Froggatt says the next steps are to put out a call for submissions from the arts community on a design for the first box. Once an idea is selected (with City and community input), special paints will be purchased and the box could be finished early this summer. Choosing the location of the first box is also a critical factor. “Once we have one completed traffic box, we then have a tangible piece of art to show to those who would like to invest in the arts community and from there we can sell the sponsorships of the remaining boxes to cover all of the costs. “The added bonus is we are employing our local arts community and showcasing their talent while beautifying our city,” Shaw-Froggatt added. Photo Credit: Airdrie Echo

Grand Rapids, MI (Неактивен) – The Best Prom Ever

2012-08-29T00:00:00Z

How much time, energy, or donation would you give to help a fellow human have the best day of their life???? Think about it! Well, that's what our mission is all about. What started out as a dance for the 16 special needs kids at the local high school has blossomed into a West Michigan event that had over 270 from several surrounding cities last year. We have outgrown our facility in the local church and want to keep the dream alive by renting out one of the nicest facilities in Grand Rapids. This event is so extraordinary to young adults with special needs, as this is their one opportunity each year to get together with others who share their unique gift, to get dressed up in formal attire, to socialize with new friends, to enjoy different compilations of music and to just have fun in a safe and supportive environment.

Boston, MA – The H.E.L.P. Foundation

2012-08-29T00:00:00Z

Wouldn’t it be awesome if any high school student who needed a private tutor could find dozens for free right at their school? The average cost of a high school student’s time for tutoring is around $30 an hour. Steep for someone without a job and parent busy paying the mortgage. Learning this fact just a now made me even more proud of my organization’s ability to provide well over 100 hours of free high school tutoring in its first year at only one location, pretty awesome right? Unfortunately, the program has reached its limits and then some, but don’t worry, you can help! With just this one grant we could run for more then two years at any number of schools and likely sustain ourselves indefinitely afterwards! The idea for the HELP Foundation was born from the peer tutoring program, called the HELP Club, that I started that brought the intelligent and driven students desiring community service hours and work experience together with hard working students struggling to learn a particular discipline from their teacher, a common problem in a school with 25 student classes and overworked teachers. The program was extremely successful, ending the year with over 80 members in a school with little over 1,000 students. Though I was extremely proud of the program it inevitably fell apart after my failure to receive any grant money or fiscal sponsorship. The fact of the matter was that no one was able to put in the immense amount of time required to operate the club without a website smoothly. For this reason I spent many 15-20 hour weeks working to find a way to build a cheap website to assist the organization process so that not only Somerville High would be able to smoothly run a peer tutoring program, but any other school. Once the website is acquired I plan to file for incorporation and a 501c3 for the HELP Foundation, a non-profit that would monitor the website and provide it to any school that had an individual who desired to start a HELP Club.

Chicago, IL – Milwaukee Avenue Mini Golf Course

2012-08-28T00:00:00Z

The Milwaukee Avenue Mini Golf Course is a one day event that will transform a series of public parking spaces on Milwaukee Avenue [from Kimball to Central Park] into a 9 hole mini golf course for one day; Friday September 21st, 2012. We have been working in partnership with Alderman Colon for the past year to rezone the above section of Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square/Avondale to allow for live/work artist storefronts and thus create a vibrate arts corridor over time in an area that is experiencing serial vacancy. In order to draw attention to the new zoning change, the potential of the new space to the community and building owners, we are proposing a one day activation of public space along this commercial strip. Each course hole would be designed by an invited local artist, creative business or individual with the funds going to cover material costs. The course hole would be located in front of a particular vacant storefront that has been rezoned. The date corresponds with PARK(ing) Day, an annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. The mission of PARK(ing) Day dovetails with the goals of Alderman Colon and the newly rezoned art spaces of generating critical debate around how public space is created and allocated and to improve the quality of the urban infrastructure at all scales.

San Francisco, CA – Sonic Kung Fu Battle

2012-08-28T00:00:00Z

I am applying for the Awesome Foundation Grant to create my project, “Sonic Kung Fu Battle.” For this project, I want to choreograph and orchestrate a street battle with vocal and sound performers. Instead of staging physical fights with bodies and prop weapons, the performers will use their voices and noisemakers to mimic the sound effects produced in a cinematic battle scene. So, rather then throwing a punch, the performers will vocalize “swoosh” of their sleeves and slap their thigh to signify their punch landed. The concept behind this project begins from a basic fact that most sound we hear in a film is not the actual noise recorded from where the scene takes action. They are usually created, added and manipulated after a film shoot. Most of the time, they are noise created by objects that are unrelated to the visual cue in the film or created through digital technology. By having performers “fighting” without contacts and only using voices and instruments, I intent to emphasize the importance of sound effects in filmic experiences, while at the same time, noting how the experience is also fabricated. I have recently created and directed this idea in my performance on a smaller scale, “Sonic Kung Fu,” for Southern Exposure Gallery. Please check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt7t4Se8UnU I have already secured a venue for this project to take place. I was invited to perform at ZERO1 Biennial as part of their Emerging Artist Network Outdoor Exhibition. The festival will take place between September 14th-16th. While I will receive a micro grant from them, the funding will only allow me to recreate a piece similar to the scale of “Sonic Kung Fu” from Southern Exposure Gallery, which incorporated 7 performers. For “Sonic Kung Fu Battle,” I want to create a larger-scale performance, but more importantly, an epic-physical-sound-performance outdoors.

San Francisco, CA – The Golden Hour

2012-08-28T00:00:00Z

WHAT: I want to produce a San Francisco version (The Golden Hour) of my established Oakland show (Oakland Nights...Live!). It will have all the fun elements of a talk show including a house band, an announcer, and regular guest spots. WHO: Collaborators include Julie Crossman, Christi Ginger, Marcus Philips, Patrick Ewing, Karina van Schaardenburg, and Lloyd Rivera. WHY: The aim is to highlight the artists, academics, activists, and communities of SF in a fun and entertaining way. The Oakland show has created a lot of interest / demand for a San Francisco version. WHEN: The show will be held every third Saturday of the month. WHERE / HOW: This is where we need help. We're currently booking guests and creating sets. But before we can start we need a venue. Depending on the venue we may need sound and projection equipment. An Awesome Grant would enable us to rent a space for our first show. BACKGROUND: The show I do in Oakland is performed live. That means no internet viewing, no podcast, no TV, no radio - it's all live! It's called Oakland Nights...Live! and has a monthly audience of about 100 - 150 people. It's a little bit Johnny Carson, a little bit Pee Wee Herman, and a lot Oakland. http://www.facebook.com/Oakland-Nights-Live OR www.oaklandnightslive.com

Melbourne (Неактивен) – Do it on the Roof

2012-08-27T00:00:00Z

In my vision for the future the rooftops of Melbournes’s CBD are transformed from the current grey, concrete landscape into a quilt of fully vegetated, natural parks & gardens that are some of our city’s best-loved, most used features. I am working right now to implement this vision. In February 2012, with Olivia Laskowski, I founded Do it on the Roof, a campaign which aimed to persuade building owners and facility managers in Melbourne’s CBD to create public, natural green roofs. Green roof technology is proven. Most of Melbourne’s rooftops are unutilized spaces. But the research demonstrating the financial benefits of green roofs in Australia has not been translated into commercial terms. Nor is anyone in Melbourne designing vegetated roofs which are natural in style, even though only natural green roofs realize the full benefits. Do it on the Roof translates research into green roof benefits into business cases tailored to the owners and facility managers of the buildings we identify as placed best to benefit from housing public green roofs. Secondly, Do it on the Roof provides conceptual designs for natural green roofs. Thirdly, we increase the financial benefits in creating natural green roofs by promoting green roofs to the public & running publicity campaigns. In February, we ran a workshop at the Sustainable Living Festival. In March, I posed a question about how to catalyse the creation of green roofs on the online forum, Our Say. My question received the most votes, which meant I discussed it with Cnr Cathy Oke. In May, City of Melbourne invited Do it on the Roof to the Growing Green Guide launch & introduced us as the sector's leading community organization. In June CoM asked my question of leaders at Rio+20. Today, Do it on the Roof has a team of 15. We are becoming a consultancy partnership. The Victorian Government dept of Sustainability is writing a study of Do it on the Roof as an exemplar of economic opportunities in climate change adaptation.

Calgary, AB (Неактивен) – CLOUD

2012-08-24T00:00:00Z

A large-scale interactive sculpture created from 5,000 re-appropriated domestic light bulbs, CLOUD invites the viewer to wander through a rain of pull strings, switching on and off lights to create the illusion of lightning on the cloud’s surface. (Nuit Blanche Calgary, September 15, 2012). On September 15th, Calgary will be hosting its first Nuit Blanche – an all-night public showcase of contemporary art on the streets of downtown Calgary. As part of Nuit Blanche, local multidisciplinary artist Caitlind r.c. Brown is building an 18-foot interactive electrical CLOUD – out of 5000+ light bulbs. Viewers will be invited to wander beneath the structure through a rain of pull strings, switching on and off lights to create the illusion of lightning on the cloud’s surface. Visiting CLOUD will be free, open to the public, and kid-friendly. Here’s the thing – only one in every ten light bulbs actually needs to glow. The rest are purely ornamental. Why waste fresh light bulbs when there are tons and tons of burnt out bulbs being discarded every day? In pursuit of inexpensive and waste-free materials, CLOUD is experimenting with community collaboration, asking the public to contribute materials by donating their burnt out incandescent light bulbs. Intended to create an awareness of usage and a reminder of the potential of items post-function, this experiment explores the ability of art to re-imagine the possibilities of functionless domestic objects (in this case, burnt out light bulbs). As you can imagine, while there are indeed thousands of burnt out incandescent light bulbs waiting in store for this project somewhere, it’s incredibly hard to get the word out to the broader public – especially to the restaurants, lighting stores, schools, etc. who go through handfuls of incandescent bulbs weekly. This is how the Awesome Foundation can help: with $1000, we can lend legitimacy to our experiment, and spread the Call for Burnt Out Light Bulbs all over the city.

Washington, DC – Connecting Communities Through Wireless Networks

2012-08-20T00:00:00Z

The community wireless networks in Mt. Pleasant and Columbia Heights are organized by neighborhood residents. These networks can help people communicate with neighbors, use local services like community TV and radio stations, and share the cost of an Internet connection. The infrastructure consists of Wi-Fi routers on rooftops that form a network supported by social relationships in the neighborhood. The network’s infrastructure is owned and shared by residents as a resource for the community. Residents participate in these networks as Neighborlinks through a variety of roles, such as hosting a router on their rooftop, sharing Internet bandwidth, creating local content for the network. The vision for the network is to use existing resources, including skills in the neighborhood, to leverage our social relationships into improving everyone’s access to modern communications. The networks are organized according to the principles of digital justice - access, participation, common ownership, and healthy communities.The rooftop wireless devices are routers with a “mesh” feature that allows every device to send and receive its own messages while also passing along data for others. If you attach one to a chimney or other structure on the roof, it can connect with other routers blocks away, as long as they’re mounted high enough. Then, any Wi-Fi enabled device, like a laptop or cell phone, can access the network just like in a public building or coffee shop. Websites coming soon!

Newmarket – Food for Thought

2012-08-20T00:00:00Z

At my school, my friend Kalina and I have been attending a group called "Food for Thought" which occurs once a week after school. Each week the members of the group get together and make lunches for roughly 30 students around the area who do not have lunches. This year, the leaders of the group graduated and needed someone to run the group or next year, so my friend Kalina and I stepped up and eventually were chosen to be the new group leaders.

Ottawa – Citizens Academy Ottawa

2012-08-19T00:00:00Z

August’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Caroline Andrew, Manjit Basi, Davis Carr, Mitchell Kutney, Judith Maxwell, Maureen Molot, and Ken Victor to support the establishment of a Citizens Academy in Ottawa. The Citizens Academy, they explain, will be a learning program for citizens, designed not only to teach municipal literacy but also to develop skills on how to engage, facilitate, ask questions, and present ideas. The participants will represent Ottawa’s age, gender, geographic, and ethno-cultural mix, and involve community groups, businesses and city officials. “By bridging the gaps between citizens and organizations, and educating both groups, we will catalyze civic vitality,” says Judith. “We live in an amazing city with talented people, a stunning environmental setting, and many economic opportunities,” explains Manjit. “Ottawa is a city with a lot of passionate people doing many amazing things. But we are also a city that is growing, complex, diverse, and changing. Some of the changes are cause for concern: the gap between rich and poor is growing, many people lack a sense of belonging, affordable housing is not plentiful, the divide between rural and urban communities is unsettling, and neighbourhoods are not equal for all our citizens. That future lies in the collaborative economy. To create synergies and intersections between government, non-government organizations, and business, we need to share perspectives, learn from each other, understand challenges, connect across silos, and collaborate on actions. The Citizens Academy will create the space, the tools, and the connections that will re-energize civil society and deepen democracy.” Judith, Manjit, and their fellow volunteers plan to hold a three-session pilot this fall — two sessions in English, one in French — to prove the design concept, get input from citizens on the experiential learning, test the on-line learning component, and evaluate design and resources. The award from Awesome Ottawa will help support that pilot, which will be focused on recreation and healthy active living. Next year, following the pilot, they plan to run series of eight sessions, with sessions focusing on the nitty-gritty of city decision-making such as planning, budgeting, and land use, as well as on strategic issues such as food security and affordable housing. They also envision holding reunions for participants to nurture new skills and enable engagement on issues of participants’ choosing. Caroline Andrew is Director of the Centre on Governance at the University of Ottawa, Manjit Basi is former owner of Ottawa’s The Body Shop, Davis Carr is a recent graduate from Dalhousie and King’s College, Mitchell Kutney is an associate at Knowledge Mobilization Works, Judith Maxwell is former founding president of the Canadian Policy Research Network, Maureen Molot is a retired professor at Carleton University, and Ken Victor is from the Edgework Leadership Group. To learn more, visit the Citizens Academy website at http://www.citizensacademy.ca.

Pittsburgh, PA – The Caldwell Project

2012-08-16T00:00:00Z

I do so many awesome projects. Recently I put out a book called "the Haus of Haunt: Watch Children" about underground Pittsburgh drag queens (one of whom, Sharon Needles, isn't so underground any more, June 12th was official Sharon Needles day in Pittsburgh). I do lots of other really awesome stuff as well. I photograph tons of performers and their performances, and let them use the images for their own publicity for free (most can't afford to pay for photos yet). I photograph queer weddings for free as a political statement. I document protests and marches and let folks use whatever images they want. I take pictures at parties and benefits and let people use whatever they want for future promotion. I take pictures of people with life altering disabilities and surgeries that they then use to inspire others to overcome similar setbacks and disabilities. I take pictures of people who think they are ugly that show them that they aren't and make them feel better about themselves. I photograph the artwork of struggling artists to help them promote their work. I do almost all this for free because I think people deserve good photos, and many of the artists and folks I work with, don't have the success they are striving for just yet, and can't afford a photographer. I do lots of other things as well. Right now most all of this is on hold because my camera broke, and the camera I am using now is very inadequate, and does not produce images of great quality. Sorry I won't have any images to upload, that wasn't on the last application, and I don't have time to prepare something because of work and a zillion other things I have deadlines for today. Refer to last months application and you can see some photos from my book

Seattle, WA – Community Paint by Number Mural

2012-08-14T00:00:00Z

I don't really know my neighbors and that's a problem. I don't mean the people that live across the hall or in the building next door, but rather neighbors in the greater Capitol Hill neighborhood. I think that this is a problem for most of the people that live in cities and I want to help fix it. I want to paint a community paint-by-number mural in Capitol Hill to encourage people to get outside, meet strangers, and each contribute to a cool art project. Myself and an artist would paint the white/black outline of a paint by number mural and then later that day we will invite strangers in the community to help paint in the colors. Each volunteer would be handed a brush and a cup of paint that corresponds to a specific number on the wall. At the end of the day, everyone who participates will have met some cool new people and contributed to a mural in their community with their community. I have been working with Urban Artworks (http://www.urbanartworks.org) to help coordinate painting the mural and as well obtaining any permits and finalizing any insurance issues. The Capitol Club at 414 East Pine Street has agreed to allow me to paint the mural on the side of their building. They have also offered to pay the costs to have an artist design and paint the outline of the mural.

New York City, NY – Concrete Safaris: Afterschool in East Harlem

2012-08-13T00:00:00Z

The Concrete Safaris Afterschool program serves forty 7-11-year-old children who will mobilize 1,200 children in East Harlem to exercise outdoors in 2012. Concrete Safaris’ 7-11-year-old Afterschool participants will: 1. Become healthy leaders as neighborhood change makers and outdoor fitness lovers during 5-day/week programming from 2:20 – 6 p.m. between September and June throughout the school year. Children will garden, run, cycle, swim, fish, hike local and regional parks, make nature or recycled art, eat snack, and finish their homework. 2. Design, install, maintain, and harvest organic produce as well as butterfly-attracting shrubs at the largest children’s gardens on public housing property, located in Washington Houses and called Mad Fun Farm, Paradise Garden, and Sunshine Slope. They will learn and teach gardening techniques as well as leadership skills to 1,200 peers from local schools and agencies. Children will beautify these formerly underutilized spaces into safe, healthy, living “classrooms” and exercise outdoors in them, teaching basic fitness techniques and gaining confidence. 3. Embark on weekly, local, outdoor field trips, which they will suggest and help plan. Examples are hiking the Brooklyn Bridge, cycling on the East River Esplanade, or visiting Central Park for bouldering and outdoor education. Concrete Safaris will work with our current participants as they move to the 3rd - 6th grades and add a class of twenty 4th and 5th graders. Concrete Safaris has a 1:10 (or smaller) ratio of staff:child for all activities. In 2011, just 7% of African American and 8% of Latino children in the United States participated in regular outdoor physical activities. It is our goal to arm the children who have created Concrete Safaris with the skills and knowledge to lead healthy lives and break the cycle of obesity in East Harlem.

Melbourne (Неактивен) – Handmade Dog Coats & Vests for Pounds and Rescues.

2012-08-12T00:00:00Z

My project is concerned with making some poor dogs waiting in cold pounds warm. I sew and make fleece coats to donate to pounds and rescues all around Australia. The pounds are so cold and the coats help comfort them. And I also make cotton 'adopt me' vests for rescues, which I have screen printed. These vests are great for people who have a dog they want to get adopted as it starts a conversation when they are out walking or at adoption days. I work full time, so all my spare time I use to sit and sew and try an make a difference to a pound dogs everywhere. I make up and design my own patterns too.

Los Angeles, CA – Ageless Art

2012-08-09T00:00:00Z

Greetings! I was lead to start an art therapy program for seniors living in assisted living facilities and having physical or memory challenges. Without having a background in teaching art, I was led to develop a unique program, using acrylics for our senior art students, that gives each of them to complete a wonderful composition in a one hour session. We launched Ageless Art three years ago, with our first student challenged wih neorological challenges affecting some of her motor skills but not her mind. We had great success with our first student Jerri and now have expanded Ageless Art to reach 200 senior artists each month and now serve senior centers and include all interested seniors 50+.

Los Angeles, CA – Sonic Trace and Stories about Immigration in L.A.

2012-08-09T00:00:00Z

KCRW is a public radio station and media organization whose mission is to create and disseminate news and cultural programming that informs, inspires, and stimulates. A community service of Santa Monica College, KCRW provides NPR broadcasts as well as a weekly schedule of more than 100 hours of original, locally-produced audio content through our broadcast signal, as well as online. KCRW is committed to embracing new forms of digital media that help build community and interactive connectivity with audiences. One of KCRW’s newest projects is Sonic Trace, a hybrid public radio, digital documentary, and social media project that will engage Latin American immigrants in Los Angeles to share and record their stories about immigration and community. Stories will be gathered in three spots/puntos de encuentro in L.A.: a church in South Central, Koreatown/Korexico, and a mobile recording booth installed in a local food truck. The project will develop a social media platform where participants can share stories, photographs, and experiences. Selected stories will also be featured in a public radio series on KCRW. What will ultimately be created will be a multi-platform oral history mosaic about immigrants and their lives in Los Angeles today. Sonic Trace will partner with community associations, local schools, parks, and restaurants to conduct outreach and gather stories. The Sonic Trace project team consists of seasoned radio producers, led by Anayansi Diaz-Cortes and Eric Pearse Chavez, along with KCRW staff, consultants/producers from NPR, Radio Diaries, and Radio Ambulante. Technical partners include Zeega, Voces Mobiles, and AudioBoo. Los Angeles has deep roots in America’s immigration debate. While migration from Latin America to the U.S. is not new, the cultural make-up of recent immigrants and their relationship with their home countries is changing in this age of mobile communications. Sonic Trace seeks to uncover the unheard voices of immigrants in L.A. and record their stories of arrival, survival, and struggle. This project will provide a platform for immigrants’ experiences and perspectives, and engage and empower them to document their own lives in their own words. By recording and broadcasting their stories, Sonic Trace hopes to broaden and amplify the voices involved in the immigration debate and expand knowledge and understanding about immigration in our community.

Sydney – Guerilla Dinner - know your food, know your farmer

2012-08-09T00:00:00Z

We’ve had some really great success with our past events such as pulping 300kg of tomatoes for Passatta Day (http://www.youthfoodmovement.org.au/events/passata-day/) and nailing the sold out inaugural Reel Food Nights (http://www.youthfoodmovement.org.au/reel-food-nights-highlights-reel-released/). But perhaps our most enduring and proudest project to date is the sell-out annual Ride On Lunch (http://www.youthfoodmovement.org.au/events/ride-on-lunch/). The project: On August the 26th the Youth Food Movement will host its inaugural Guerilla Dinner. The dinner will bring food issues to table by gathering friends and strangers with curious minds together in a secret space. With the National Food Plan just released by the Australian Government, we hope to get a range of views and opinions on what this means for Australia’s and Sydney’s food system – while being in a space where the only spin going around the table is that of the lazy susan! Guests will be treated to an artfully crafted degustation menu AND a specially-designed conversation menu, as well as a musical-chair-esque seating plan that will let them dip in and out of stimulating conversation and delightful sensory experiences. One thing you can be sure of: this is no exclusive ‘foodie’ event and there will no Masterchef-style ‘plating up’. This is a down and dirty, all-consuming food experience, cooked by people not chefs, the kind mama used to make. Rest assured it will be REAL FOOD at it’s best. True to YFM’s style and values, at the Guerilla Dinner you will get to know your food, know your farmer and we’ll put on an amazing spread of both food and food for thought. By documenting the night on paper and on film we will be able to give a collective voice to this influential group, while feeding this knowledge back to our local community to make them more aware active citizens. And we see the Awesome Foundation as a crucial part of this – creating a more socially aware society, empowered to act to create tangible and enduring change.

Toronto – Toronto Bicycle Music Festival

2012-08-08T00:00:00Z

This is the third year I've run the Bicycle Music Festival, a pedal-powered, mobile music festival. It's a free community event involving a series of outdoor concerts and performances on Sept. 15, all powered by bicycles! The P.A. for the event runs off of bike generators pedaled by the audience and all gear and instruments are moved between our park venues on cargo bikes and bike trailers by an awesome team of volunteer roadies. We ride as a group from one venue to the next and even have live performances along the way! The festival features independent musicians from a variety of genres performing in beautiful park settings to diverse audiences. Families make up a big part of the crowd and you can usually find at least half a dozen kids dancing in front of the stage. One of the best parts of the event is that it brings together people who you wouldn't normally find at a music festival. Our accessible and innovative format draws in almost as many passers-by as folks who had planned to attend. What could be more quintessentially Toronto than a taxi driver parking his cab to listen to electro-pop in a park? The festival has grown each year and we're determined to make it even bigger and better this year. I recently attended the San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival, which is powered by 20 bikes and features a 4' by 8' mobile stage, and I've returned with the inspiration to take our festival to the next level. There's a huge buzz in this city about all things bike-related and ever-growing interest in powering events by bike. Our festival has captured many imaginations and is poised to be the catalyst for a bike-powered revolution in Toronto. Here are some other things we're dreaming of: Imagine a group of bankers stumbling upon a bike-powered square dance on Bay Street, or politicians leaving Queens' Park and encountering a pedal-powered burlesque show! Bike-powered events allow access to unconventional venues and hold the promise of shaking things up all over the city!

Toronto – The Complete Street Band

2012-08-08T00:00:00Z

As this is the third, hopefully charmed time that I am applying to the Awesome Foundation, you may be tired of hearing about The Complete Street Band, the community street band open to musicians of all ages and musical abilities, dedicated to making Toronto’s public spaces more exciting and inviting places to be. So let me rather tell you what we’ve been up to and why I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to even resubmit an application to you for the last couple of months. 1. Playing for the Bells on Bloor mass ride to Queen’s park for the safer streets rally in June. The Complete Street Band gathered outside of Honest Ed’s at Bloor and Bathurst and played for the stream of cyclists riding by as well as those on the street, much to everyone's delight. 2. "A street band in search of a street piano". On the second Saturday in July, The Complete Street Band marched through Trinity-Bellwoods park, playing contemplative, park-like music, before setting up at the piano that was placed in the park as part of the fantastic “Play me, I’m yours” exhibit. At least that was the plan except there was no piano to be found when we arrived! We found out too late that the piano had been moved but that didn’t stop us from playing a set for a very appreciative crowd right there in the park. 3. Playing in the courtyard outside of St. Stephen in the Fields church in the north end of Kensington market many Saturday afternoons. The band rehearses every Saturday at the church but we often find ourselves lured outside to play for the folks on College St. The band is currently composed of 8-12 musicians though we continue to actively seek out more. Recently, I have been focusing on reaching out to younger musicians who may be looking for new opportunities to play.

Ann Arbor, MI – Ypsi-Arbor Unsung Musical Hereos

2012-08-05T00:00:00Z

I would love to evocatvely photograph as many musical artists and personalities, both young and old, as I can that have a local connection to the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor (MI) area (minimum of 40) . I would interview them and tell the story of their musical lives combined with the image(s) I have captured to create a commemorative photographic biography. With the shrinking educational budgets and the reduction in funding to the creative arts, I see this as a way preserve a peice of our current events that will someday become our history. Please find a sample image of a local artist as a precusur to the type of images that will embody this project.

Ann Arbor, MI – Spontaneous Art Washtenaw County tour

2012-08-05T00:00:00Z

Life is a temporary event. As the quality of our lives is based on the quality of our slipping moments, Spontaneous Art aims to bring strangers together for moments of authentic social connectivity and flashes of creativity. We create interactive performances in which bystanders become part of the act and strive to offer opportunities for spectators to shape the direction of our pieces. To reach its full potential, Spontaneous Art’s performances both investigate and depend upon the inventiveness of strangers. With the assistance of the Totally Awesome Foundation we would like to create 2 in five towns (Chelsea, Dexter, Saline, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti) for a total of 10 performances in two months. We would make a surprise visits to downtown areas and infuse the crowds with joy, laughter, strangeness and sincere interpersonal connections using a variety of performances and costumes. The key here is variety. We would not want to do the exact same performances for all the towns in case any of the performances got media coverage- we would rather keep the locals guessing what costumes and skits would be appearing. *How do I upload more than one image to this application? All our projects can be seen at spontaneousart.org.

Seattle, WA – Auto Repair DIY Space

2012-08-03T00:00:00Z

My awesome project is teaching automotive repair and maintenance workshops to people who generally feel taken advantage of in the automotive industry. I hope to teach beginer to intermediate level clases on topics from Safety, basic maintenance, and beyond. Our mission at Repair Revolution to is to "revolutionize your automotive repair experience" by empowering people around their car care.

Melbourne (Неактивен) – The World's First Comfort Zone Calculator

2012-08-03T00:00:00Z

I have build the world's first comfort zone calculator, to heighten people's awareness of their professional, lifestyle, and adrenaline comfort zone. The tool has been psychologically approved by professors in psychology at Deakin University, and has been used by over 10,000 people via its web application.

San Francisco, CA – OuterBody Games

2012-07-31T00:00:00Z

How much does the location of our eyesight influence the location of our sense of self? Can we relocate our sense of self, our consciousness, out of our bodies simply by moving our sense of sight (in a fully immersive way) into an external device? 17 years ago I built the first prototype of this system using video goggles and a surveillance camera to see myself from a third person perspective. In this visually disembodied state I lived in a gallery space for a week without removing the goggles, learning to function normally while only being able to observe myself and my actions through the camera. The sensation is like watching a live sitcom starring yourself, or like starring in a video game, or like having a remote controlled human being puppet that'll do whatever you make it do. The relocation of the sense of self does happen, and it's mind altering! In the past few months I've rebuilt the gear and redesigned the interaction so that it is a participatory activity instead of a spectator activity: I want other people to experience this in a strong, memorable, efficient and mind blowing way. I've been fortunate enough to present and set up the activity at the Lost Horizon Night Market, a Black Rock Arts Foundation fundraiser, 2 local augmented reality conferences as well as opening my studio/lab to the public. So far I've been focusing on the 'fun' aspect, designing very specific games that accentuate the out of body feeling by offering activities requiring so much visual concentration that the other sensory cortices go temporarily dormant, leaving the mind with a disembodied point of primary reference for the location of self. There is a lot of recurring interest in designing activities for educational environments, therapeutic practices, wellness applications, and collaboration oriented group games. 2 videos showing how much fun the games are, how it bonds people together, and another about the development and history. http://outerbody.org/video

Boulder, CO (Неактивен) – Ellis Youth Garden Club

2012-07-31T00:00:00Z

Two years ago our school had a garden donated. It is a beautiful space with a tiled area for gathering and several beds. The teachers at our school were very excited the first year and very quickly lost interest when our drip system was vandalized and summer break came. The next year the garden sat virtually empty. Many of the beds were given to community gardens. I have managed to hang on to 4 garden spaces: 18x30 space and 3 3x30 spaces. Through a couple of local gardening programs, a single volunteer, and myself we have managed to design a beautiful and educational garden. Since much of this has happened during the summer months our students are not very involved, though they would like to be. During the 2012-2013 school year I will be starting an after-school gardening club. This will serve two purposes: getting students involved in the garden and providing after-school enrichment programs necessary for our population. Through the gardening club students will be engaged in science, the natural world, art, and literacy. I have included a link to the Wordpress Site we will be using to share our garden with the world. I hope this site will become a place where not only pictures and descriptions will exist, but students' writing and art work can be displayed. Food grown in our garden will be used not only in our school cafeteria, but will also be donated to a local food pantry.

Austin, TX – Urban Nature. Urban Kids.

2012-07-30T00:00:00Z

It started with a theft. Bernadette Noll had several bikes stolen from her yard. She recovered one of them right down the street when she spotted the 12 year old thief at the Boys And Girls Club. “Of course my first reaction was incredible anger," she said. “How dare they! This same pack of kids were wrecking havoc on our neighborhood vandalizing, tipping over motorcycles, stealing and more. The whole neighborhood was pissed.” Nolls turned the director of the neighborhood Boys and Girls Club for help. He admitted their open campus policy for adolescents was somewhat difficult but he was sure they could do something to engage the kids. She decided anger wasn’t fair - it wasn't these kids’ fault. Nor was it their parents. It was what they were born into and with the neighborhood changing they were feeling more and more segregated and seeing more and more wealth that was out of their reach. So the idea was born! “Let’s bring in people from the neighborhood to form a nature club – to get the kids exploring and tending to the natural parts of the neighborhood – the creeks, the waterways, the wildlife. Let’s get binoculars in their hands and field guides and let’s give them a feeling of connection both to the natural world around them and to the people. Let’s work hard with the kids, not against the, to clean things up and make them feel that they are an integral part of the solution, rather than just a part of the problem. Says Bernadette: “We want them to feel connected, to feel ownership of this place, this town, this world and feel a responsibility to help protect it.” To do this, Bernadette plans to start an urban nature club for teens. She’ll be building a program to explore the city's creeks and waterways exposing the neighborhood kids to birds, reptiles, plants and clean water. “We'll do creek clean ups and we'll work hard to make these kids feel that they are an integral part of the solution rather than just a burden. I am hoping to meet with them bi-monthly for a segment of time and to bring in naturalists from Austin to walk with us.” She’ll be using the $1000 grant to purchase equipment such as high powered magnifying glasses, field guides, binoculars and also to provide snacks for the outings. “We are finding more and more that when kids are engaged to nature they are smarter, healthier and happier. I am excited about bringing this urban nature which surrounds us in Austin to the eyes of these kids. I have led other nature clubs but always to kids who came from places where exploring nature was a given. For these kids it could be a whole new world!”

Houston (Неактивен) – East Side Social Center

2012-07-30T00:00:00Z

East Side Social Center is a community social center that is a library, bookstore and soon to be internet lounge. We also host a variety of events that range from discussion groups, workshops/presentations, film screenings, letter writing nights to prisoners and performances from local and touring musicians and many more types of events. More importantly… we believe that, by relying on and caring for one another, we can resist and create alternatives to the consumer-driven, alienating culture that engulfs us. We are committed to opening our space not only to the neighborhood in which our building is located, but to anyone and everyone who feels strongly about strengthening and empowering community. As far as logistics about the space, it is volunteer run, organized horizontally and operated based on consensus. This means that everyone most heavily involved makes decisions together in a meeting setting and therefore, all concerns are addressed. These decisions are mostly centered around finance, book orders, promotion, and other logistical topics involved with maintaining the space.

Calgary, AB (Неактивен) – Urban Stationary

2012-07-30T00:00:00Z

"Urban Stationary" is a project where we put out a city-wide call for proposals targeted at local artists to create semi-permanent art installations for a Calgary Transit station in early August. These could be murals, installations and so on.

WHY IT'S AWESOME:

We expose the work of local artists, and make them want to keep creating art in a city where they feel appreciated. We have a very open application process.
The idea will bring life to public spaces. Public transit is an everyday part of life for many Calgarians - we want to bring an unexpected and exciting experience to an otherwise ordinary experience.
Make Calgarians feel proud of their city and the talent that exists in it.

WHY WE ARE THE RIGHT TEAM TO DO IT:

We love our city! And we know so many talented artists here - we want to see them succeed and help them substantiate Calgary as the Culture Capital of Canada in 2012.
We are also super committed - we meet once a week with lots of work in between.

Detroit, MI – Belle Isle to 8 Mile

2012-07-30T00:00:00Z

As the first comprehensive, printed guide to the city in more than a generation, Belle Isle to 8 Mile: An Insider’s Guide to Detroit will feature positive reviews of a carefully curated selection of more than 700 of our favorite Detroit attractions, sites, institutions, events, restaurants, bars, and curiosities from the essential to the obscure. Our vision is for the book to showcase well-known establishments and organizations for first-time visitors while bringing much-needed attention to their more obscure counterparts for everyone, from first-time visitors to long-time residents. In this vein, the book will offer reviews of a wide array of cultural attractions, from beloved institutions like the Detroit Institute of Arts and off-the-beaten-path destinations like the African Bead Museum, to obscure curiosities such as the Curtis Museum, a storefront museum dedicated to George Washington Carver’s assistant. Currently being researched and written, the guide is edited by siblings Andy and Emily Linn (of City Bird and Nest) and Rob Linn (of Mapping the Strait), lifelong, seventh-generation Detroiters, with written contributions from more than 30 of their favorite authorities on the city and incorporating suggestions and ideas from more than 300 local residents. In addition to reviews, the book will feature intricate hand-drawn illustrations, detailed maps, insightful categorical lists, and rich narrative neighborhood descriptions. With a combined 1,000 years of diverse experience in Detroit, the book’s large and growing team of authors will put contemporary Detroit in a rich context by painting portraits of the city’s historic neighborhoods, sharing stories of its history and traditions, and detailing the people and culture that have made – and continue to make – the city great. We are proud that our contributors represent every corner of the city, from Jefferson Chalmers to Berg Lahser, and from Warrendale to Osborne. Along the same lines, our current group of wr

Pittsburgh, PA – Happy Smiles for Hilltop

2012-07-26T00:00:00Z

The children of our community have a problem - cavities! Our awesome kids are sometimes spending the night at the Children’s Hospital for intravenous antibiotics and mouth surgery to fight the infections these cavities have caused. Some kids stop growing because it hurts too much to chew with teeth destroyed by cavities. Thankfully, there is a simple solution - Fluoride! Pediatricians across the country are starting to apply fluoride varnish to young children’s teeth. Simply put, kids have a hard time getting to the dentist. But nearly all kids come to the pediatrician’s office for their check ups. For pediatricians, this is an incredible opportunity to do more to improve the lives of our amazing children. We want to be the catalyst for change for the teeth of Hilltop. Not only will we apply fluoride varnish to teeth, we will take this opportunity to educate parents and children about the benefits of fluoride toothpaste, floss and the dentist. We will teach about the devastation caused by pop, candy and cavities. We want our kids to succeed in every way - keeping them in school, healthy and out of the hospital. With only a modest amount of funding, we can launch a major Dental Health initiative for truly desperate kids. We believe that with data collected from a pilot study proving that fluoride varnish is cost-effective, we can convince health insurers to step up and fund this preventative health measure permanently. The pediatric literature already confirms the benefits of fluoride varnish. We would like to demonstrate that with this simple intervention, patients will be more likely to schedule a dentist appointment and less likely to be admitted to the hospital for dental procedures. These are outcomes that would save insurers the costs of hospital admission, intravenous antibiotics and pediatric anesthesia. But without the funding to get started, this initiative will never launch.

Halifax, NS (Неактивен) – Demetreous Beals Project

2012-07-26T00:00:00Z

In 2007 this small community endured a huge loss as a 14-year-old boy named Demetreous Beals passed away from a drowning accident. By the age of 14 Demetreous was already a leader within his community as he secured funding to repair the community basketball court. Using Demetreous as inspiration the Demetreous Beals Project seeks to explore the theme of leadership with the children within the community and put together a mural entitled “What leadership means to me,” to be displayed at the basketball court that Demetreous cared so much for. Children will have the opportunity to come to the community centre and design what leadership means to them on a 12X12 piece of card stock, they can do this by drawing, painting, poetry or any other artistic means, there will be no limitations. There will also be discussion on what leadership is. In partnership with First Baptist Church, the HRM Police Community Constables and the Demetreous Lane Tenants Association we will reflect on Demetreous as a community leader, and how we can all be a good example for our community. We will have all the art pieces designed into a plaque to be placed at the basketball court. Demetreous Beals is such a positive role model, one that this community cared so much for. It was a tragedy what happened to Demetreous, but now we have the opportunity to use Demetreous’ life to empower the children of the community, that’s what makes this project so awesome. It has been five years since Demetreous lost his life, The Awesome Foundation could give us the opportunity to celebrate Demetreous’ life, and his legacy. We can empower the children of Demetreous Lane, and prove that no age is too young to make a difference and be a leader within your community!

Newmarket – Spinal Cord Injury Youth Awareness Project

2012-07-23T00:00:00Z

Walk It Off Spinal Cord Wellness Centre provides an exercise-based recovery program and supportive environment for those who have sustained a SCI. We would like to expand our focus to educate the community on accident prevention. One of our goals is to develop a prevention program for our youth, who are unfortunately most at risk of SCIs (approx. 80% of all SCIs). Recently, 3 grade nine high school students took an interest in our organization and completed a school project on SCIs. They presented at their school assembly, with guest speakers from our organization. I was amazed by the effort they put in and genuine interest in this subject. I brought up the idea of applying to the Awesome Foundation to expand on their project and create a presentation for youth in the community. They were very excited to take on this project. Who better to educate our youth but their peers. These students would be able set up displays at community events and visit various youth groups: lifeguards, camp councilors, Scouts/Guides etc. and eventually deliver the program in schools during the school year. The presentation would include 1) information on SCIs: What SCIs are and statistics, how they are attained and what life is like with a SCI. 2) Basic dos and don'ts in an traumatic emergency 3) Prevention: Playing safe.

Portland, OR – Free the Billboards!

2012-07-20T00:00:00Z

What would the city look like if billboards weren't for profit? What would a city look like that used that space for public art, vertical gardens, or poetry? Free the Billboards is a project that facilitates a reimagination of public, visual space (currently dominated by corporate messaging), through two different types of interaction with the community: PART ONE: ONLINE COMPONENT I have created an online forum for people to submit pictures of what they would rather see in their communities instead of outdoor advertising (www.freethebillboards.tumblr.com). By using an old-fashioned optical illusion called forced perspective, (see http://www.thechobble.com/2011/02/angle-makes-perspective-pics.html for some awesome ones!) we can superimpose images we would rather see onto billboards, and then share them. PART TWO: STREET ART COMPONENT I will be attaching viewmasters to stands to create “viewing stations” that will be placed around Portland across the street from billboards. I am creating custom reels for the viewmasters—each with 7 different images. The images in the reel will be photographs of the billboard across the street, but I will replace the ad with the pictures people submitted on the website. Therefore, each viewing station will be a collective imagining of what could be in that billboard space- and will be a little portal into a different possible world! I have created a lo-fi version of the viewmaster out of a box and transparency (see picture of what it's like to look through)! If this project gains enough momentum, there will be sufficient support to take political action. I am writing a petition to the mayor of Portland to instate a ban on outdoor advertising, as has been done successfully in Maine, Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and most recently in Houston and Sao Paulo, Brazil! To dream even bigger, I would ask that the boards be turned over to the artists, writers, dreamers, in our communities. Let us decide what we want to look at!

San Francisco, CA – Cardboard Castle Building Workshop

2012-07-17T00:00:00Z

Hundreds of cardboard boxes have been painted to look like giant Lego pieces and strategically covered with velcro. At 12 PM in Dolores Park on September 29th, you can build anything you can possibly imagine with them. The event will be free and open to the public, and will last until people get bored (never) or the authorities intervene! We want to give a creative outlet to people who have outgrown their building blocks but still remember how awesome it is to create your own castle. Defy Euclidean geometry, construct an epic fortress and recapture your childhood love of buildin' stuff. Kids can play too! The boxes are sized so a child or an adult can easily work with them. As the boxes were made using a latex-based paint, we advise anyone with latex allergies to avoid coming into contact with the cardboard castles. We politely request that you refrain from damaging the building blocks or knocking over anyone else's castle. Please do not take too long a turn building; we want the largest number of people possible to play! Volunteers will start moving the boxes over at 11 AM, and we'll cordon off the construction zone so things don't get too crowded. Please get in touch with chedword@gmail.com if you are interested in getting involved!

Ottawa – Karen Community Farm Project

2012-07-16T00:00:00Z

July’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Meaghan Kenny for the Karen Community Farm Project. “The Karen are one of the largest ethnic minority groups of Burma, and have been persecuted for decades,” explains Meaghan. In 2006, the Canadian government announced that it would accept 3000 Karen refugees, over a two-year period, for re-settlement in Canada. In September that year, the first group of Karen refugees arrived in Ottawa from a refugee camp in Thailand. About 200 refugees settled in Ottawa.” “Many of the Karen are highly skilled farmers,” Meaghan continues. “Farming has been their subsistence and their livelihood from their villages to the refugee camps. However, for the most part, these cultural assets and aspects of their identity lie dormant in Ottawa as the Karen now have no outlet for their extensive knowledge, skills, and culture.” Community volunteers have worked since the arrival of the first group of Karen in 2006 to establish a place for them to farm. In 2007, the Karen were given the use of a three-acre field in rural Kanata by a couple who heard the story and offered their idle land for no charge. They welcomed the Karen to their farm, bought tools, cleared fields, and offered advice and the use of their pool, trailer, and storage areas. The Karen were dedicated to their farm and took the bus to the limits of Stittsville (a 45-minute commute) and walked the remainder of the distance to the farm (about 30 minutes). They produced tomatoes, corn, coriander, lettuce, cabbage, and hot chile peppers. They sold surplus to three apartment buildings in Kanata, a restaurant, and at the Carp Farmers’ Market, and the Karen students had a one-day vegetable sale at their high school. They also donated produce to Bruce House, a local hospice. Unfortunately, in the spring of 2011 the Karen were advised by the owner of the land that the property had been sold. That summer, a few of the Karen grew food in their backyards – “if they were fortunate enough to have a backyard,” says Meaghan. So for this summer, the all-volunteer Karen Learning, Education, and Opportunities (KLEO) Support Group worked with Just Food to arrange for the Karen to farm on an acre of National Capital Commission land. “Since we have started our new farm project,” says Meaghan, “the Karen have worked tirelessly to make the soil soft and workable by rotatilling, and have been weeding by hand. They have planted many pumpkins (pumpkin flowers are a delicacy in their traditional cuisine), tomatoes, basil, eggplant, coriander, carrots, beets, cucumbers, watermelons, honeydew melons, parsley, and many varieties of lettuces and greens. We also recently, hosted a Karen summer school field trip. The students learned about the work of their elders and had an opportunity to engage with the sights and sounds of nature. Many of the students brought sketch books to express what nature and farming means to them.” The award from Awesome Ottawa will allow the purchase of much-needed supplies and tools for the farm, such as fencing (to keep the deer and groundhogs out), row covers (to keep the insects off), a wheelbarrow, and rain barrels. The award will also help to cover insurance costs, and some seeds for next season. “Having the support from Awesome Ottawa has renewed our inspiration, courage and efforts,” says Meaghan. “These people have spent a lifetime feeling placeless but now I am honoured to bear witness to the transformative power produced by creating a place to practice the Karen way – a place to call their own.” Meaghan is a master’s student at Carleton University.

Chicago, IL – The Great Fire: A Traveling Truck Show

2012-07-15T00:00:00Z

“The Great Fire: a Traveling Truck Show” is a community event that will tour Chicago this October! Reviving the form of early American traveling shows and referencing Chicago neighborhood histories after the Great Fire, we playfully spin a tale that engages audiences with storytelling, music, comedy, multimedia dioramas, and magic. Our overarching storyline is inspired by historical characters and memories from each neighborhood, including vignettes about Ignaz Schwinn, August Spies, Riverview Park, and the changing street-scape of West Town (our main character, Denim Dennis is a Union Stone Mason turned swamp thing that freezes in Humboldt Pond and comes back every 30 years or so)—just to name a few. In addition to the scripted parts, we have some local performers joining us: a rhythm and revival musical duo, a throat singer, a classical tenor, a wandering accordion clown, a bellydancer and her snakecharmer, a fire breather, and a magical mind bender. Sideshows will include fire poi, tarot readings from a custom deck of cards, an old-fashioned photo booth manned by the bee-bearded lady, and much more to come! We have a show scheduled for every Saturday in October: October 6—Logan Square: on the Illinois Centennial Monument October 13—Roscoe/North Center: Clark Park Playlots October 20—Ukrainian Village/West Town: TBA (potentially Esperanza Community Services) October 27—Pilsen: Growing Station Community Garden Before the tour, we are working with each site to connect with the area, spread the word about the project, and involve the community in-the-making. We are participating in the Milwaukee Ave Arts Fest in July with a “Make Your Own History” booth. In Pilsen, we have planned community days in the garden. For Roscoe/North Center, we are collecting memories of Riverview Amusement Park to use in an animation.

Kitchener-Waterloo – The Smile Epidemic

2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

The Smile Epidemic is a very simple concept with very complex scientific support. We have learned that the mind has a limited number of resources, attention is limited. The subconscious mind is trained through adaptive processes to scan the world for different, threatening or negative items; this process was intended to be a protective measure to assist us in the wild. Recent research is demonstrating that what we focus our attention on has an incredible impact on our moods and is a habit forming process. Result: if we learn to scan the world for negative things, then that is what we see first and because attention is a limited resource, we will often miss the more positive aspects of our environment. Separate scientific findings have shown that our memories are interconnected in a system of Nodes interconnected by all of our senses and emotions. The more recent, and the more interconnected a memory is, the more easily it is accessible and the closer it is to our attention, the more likely we will integrate it into our daily engagement with the world. Example, think of the last time you went to buy a car, you started to attend to the details of that vehicle, you built new sensory connections to its node and attached emotional responses to it as well. All of a sudden it seemed like everyone in town or on the highway was driving that car! The Smile epidemic is a simple, fun, quirky little social project that draws our attention to the present moment and helps us to scan the world for smile catalysts. The theory is that if we get present, pay attention to what is making us happy, lay down some emotion, and engage with that person, place or thing in unique ways, it will be elevated to a higher level of our conscious and subconscious mind. This reinforcement tells our brain to look for the things that make us smile, and limits the available resources for what doesn't make us happy. Simple concept. Wonderful goal. Complex scientific support.

Rio de Janeiro (Неактивен) – Dojo Social - Hackeando Telecentros.

2012-07-11T00:00:00Z

Hacking telecenters is awesome! Rio's new Awesome Foundation chapter has chosen its first project. Of 47 proposals, the winner was “Social Dojo - Hacking Telecenters”, sent in by Luiz Bruno Vianna, a volunteer at the NGO Fabricando Empresários. Luiz's idea is to use the NGO's computing spaces in Rio's low-income bedroom communities, for periodic meetings of programmers interested in solving real-life problems in the city and its neighborhoods. The focus is on open, low-cost solutions that use free hardware and software. He intends to stream the meetings live over the Internet to expand the project network. An incredible idea, don't you think? Diogo Biazus, a local Awesome Foundation trustee, traveled out to Campo Grande to see the project up close and deliver the prize (and will be posting the details of his adventure soon). To learn more about Luiz Vianna's project, in Portuguese: http://www.fabricandoempresarios.org.br/blog/?p=939 --- Selecionamos o primeiro projeto a receber o prêmio do recém-lançado capítulo da Awesome Foundation no Rio. Das 47 propostas inscritas, a vencedora foi “Dojo Social- Hackeando Telecentros”, enviada por Luiz Bruno Vianna, voluntário da ONG Fabricando Empresários. A ideia do Luiz é usar os espaços de telecentros da ONG, espalhados pela baixada fluminense, para fazer reuniões periódicas com programadores interessados em solucionar problemas reais da cidade ou do bairro. O foco está em soluções de baixo custo, abertas, que usem software e hardware livre. Ele pretende ainda transmitir ao vivo pela internet todos os encontros, para ampliar ainda mais a rede ligada ao projeto. É ou não é uma ideia incrível? O Diogo Biazus, trustee da Awesome Foundation, foi conferir de perto e entregar o prêmio (e logo deve postar logo mais um relato detalhando a aventura). Para saber mais sobre o projeto do Luiz Vianna: http://www.fabricandoempresarios.org.br/blog/?p=939