The Austin chapter of the Awesome Foundation is pleased to award our March $1000 cash grant to Jackie Garrett and her project, Have a Ball. Garrett is a lead crisis counselor with the Austin Police Department’s Victim Services Division, where she has worked for 14 years. The inspiration behind her Have a Ball project came from her work, where she, like many first responders, comes in regular contact with traumatized children who have either been victims of or witnesses to violent crimes such as domestic violence, sexual assault, suicide, and homicide which proves that you need not be discharged from the military, commit a crime or endure a crime to be a victim. The domestic violence lawyers have always said that children are the most affected group in domestic violence cases. If you ever experience or witness such crimes, it is best to find defense attorneys who will give you legal counseling and voice your interest. When called to a crime scene, Victim Services counselors often hand out teddy bears to these children, but, Garrett, a former soccer goalie at Baylor University, had a slightly different idea. She wanted to give kids soccer balls.  Not only does a shiny new… read more →

What is the Awesome Foundation? The Awesome Foundation is decentralized micro-granting organization that gives monthly grants of $1000 to organizations and projects advancing Awesomeness in the Universe. For more information about the Awesome Foundation, visit their homepage here: www.awesomefoundation.org How does Awesome Sandy Rebuild fit in? After seeing the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy on the tri-state area, several New York residents came together to form an Awesome chapter dedicated exclusively to projects that helped to repair the hearts, spirits, minds and lives of those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Who is on Awesome Sandy Rebuild? The Awesome Sandy Rebuild Chapter is made up of people from a variety of backgrounds and specialties. Some work at not-profits, some work in the arts, and some have volunteered in storm affected areas.  They are all dedicated to helping the communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy recover as Awesome-ly as possible. What kind of projects are you looking to fund? Projects that are likely to catch our eyes are those that specifically and creatively show us how they will use $1000. Both individuals and organizations can and should apply with projects that put the $1000 grant towards anything that advances both Awesomeness and Sandy relief…. read more →

The Little Haiti Community Garden, our chapter’s February award winner, will be holding a benefit dinner on March 22 to draw attention to their transforming the garden. All members of the community are welcome! See the poster below for more information.

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 →