In July of 2013, a group of art graduates called WHALE is returning to the northernmost parts of Manitoba to continue their adventures with Canada’s beluga whales. Their project: Becoming Beluga, to create a suit of wearable artwork that resembles a beluga and allows the wearer to don the whale’s appearance. Can a human be accepted into the pod? Can we break the barriers of communication? WHALE will construct the suit using underwater cameras, a speaker on the top of the head, and hydrophones for ears, among other things. The experience can be recorded for later. AF Winnipeg is excited to award WHALE $1000 for their April grant, and look forward to hearing all about their adventures come summer.

On Thursday, 18 April, Awesome Foundation – Kingston hosted its monthly pitch party at the RCHA Club on Ontario St! We heard three great pitches from the community and had a guest presenter and guest musician to round out the night. Read about how it all unfolded – and who won!

April showers got you down?  Re-energize with Awesome Kingston’s April Pitch Party and Awesome Hours!  Come out to the RCHA at 6:30PM on Thursday, 18 April and see what cool new ideas want a $1,000 microgrant to make our city even more awesome.  RSVP on the Facebook Event so we know how many people are going to be partying with us on the 18th!   Never been before? No worries! It’s really simple and rather informal. Every month, people apply to the Awesome Foundation for a microgrant. We select the ones that we think are the most awesome for the month and invite them to give an ‘elevator pitch’ to the audience, for which they have 90 seconds. Following that, they take 7 minutes of Q&A from the audience. Once all the pitches have presented, the ten trustees go and “scrum” – or, decide who walks away with the cash this month. It’s not only a free, fun, and inspiring event, it’s also a great place to meet and network with Kingstonians who are passionate about community and the continual improvement of our city. Invite your friends and come on out to the RCHA by 6:30PM to grab a drink and mingle before the pitches… read more →

One in five Canadian moms struggle to provide clean diapers for their children. Kristina Prins has organized a city-wide diaper drive to address the need and bring awareness to the issue, and she has won Awesome Foundation – Calgary’s $1,000 no-strings-attached micro-grant for March 2013.

March has some great days like Pi Day and the Ides of March, but the most awesome of them all is pitch night! Come out to Lone Star at 6:30PM on Thursday, 21 March and see what projects want $1,000 cash to make Kingston an even more awesome place.  Lone Star is generously waiving the requirements for us to rent the upstairs space, so if you don’t already have dinner plans, we invite you to come have supper there beforehand!  RSVP on the Facebook Event so we know you’re coming – it’s free and open to all.   If you’ve never been out to a pitch night before, the format is similar to Dragon’s Den: each project gets 90 seconds to make an “elevator pitch”, followed by a 7-minute open Q&A from the audience. After all the pitches have presented, the trustees ‘scrum’ to pick one project that’ll walk away with $1,000 cash in a designer paper lunchbag. Check out last month’s pitch party wrap-up!   But that’s not all!  Stick around after the microgrant is given away for Awesome Hours – a time to hang out with trustees, volunteers, past pitchers, and enthusiastic community members to chat about the Awesome… read more →