On Thursday, 21 Feb 2013, Awesome Kingston gathered at the beautiful Renaissance Event Venue to hear some great pitches from the community and host Awesome Hours. Check out how it went!

The New York chapter is proud to announce that our February grant has been awarded to local artist Bundith Phunsombatlert to fund his project “Wayfinding: 100 NYC Public Sculptures.” Bundith’s plan is to install graphic signposts showing the direction and distance of 100 pieces of public sculpture in eight parks scattered across New York’s five boroughs.  Tourists and locals alike will be guided by these signposts to take fuller advantage of New York’s wealth of existing public art — and the signposts will be a work of art themselves, in both a visual and participatory sense. Read more on our February project page!  And don’t forget to follow Awesome NYC on Twitter and Facebook.

Need some more awesome in your February?  Join us at 6:30PM, Thursday, 21 February at the Renaissance Event Venue for our February Pitch Party!  Pitches kick off at 7:00PM, so grab a drink and a front row seat before then.  Spread the word, and make sure you RSVP on the Facebook Event so we know you’re coming!  Everyone is welcome, and the event, as always, is free.   Stick around after the event, because we’ll be having Awesome Hours after the $1,000 no-strings-attached microgrant is given away.  What are Awesome Hours?  They’re like office hours, but way more fun.  It’s a time for anyone to sit down with trustees, volunteers, past winners, and like-minded people to talk about anything – the Awesome Foundation, a pitch idea you’ve had, getting involved, or just chat about whatever’s on your mind. Awesome Kingston has been around for over a year in the Limestone City, having held its inaugural pitch party in November 2011.  Since then, we’ve funded some great projects geared toward making Kingston even more awesome.  We give away $1,000 no-strings-attached microgrants funded by 10 trustees from the community.  Got an idea yourself?  Come out to the pitch night to see what we’re all about, and apply through the website!… read more →

The South Bay Awesome Foundation is uber excited to name SKYvision as the latest recipient of an awesome grant.  Students Karing for Youth Vision (or SKYvision) was founded in 2005 by a group of optometry students hoping to make an impact in their local community.  They have certainly done just that and this group seems to be on their way to great things.  Beginning with just two students and an idea, the group has grown into a structured organization with a treasurer and Faculty advisor.   SKYvision’s goal is to provide quality glasses for young people who otherwise could not afford it.  Imagine you are a 3rd grade student who struggles to stay focused in class and is falling behind in school, all because you can’t see the chalk board and you do not have the means to get glasses.  Where do you go?  What do you do?  That’s where SKYvision comes in.  The process starts with the donation of frames through the Optometric Fraternity Omega Delta.  Next SKYvision uses at-cost lenses from their school lab.  Finally, it’s a matter of matching up those in need with a fresh set of spectacles, which happens at the school‘s (South California College of… read more →

We’re always getting tons of questions about whether a specific project or idea is eligible for a monthly microgrant – and let’s be fair, awesomeness is pretty hard to define specifically!  We all have different ideas on what that means, so we’ve tried to narrow it down a little bit based on what we prefer (read: always exceptions to be made!) to see from applications to Awesome Foundation – Kingston.  We want you and your project to succeed, and we also want to be realistic about expectations.  When in doubt, get in touch with us!   Is Your Idea Awesome? We’re looking for awesome ideas – whether they come from companies, organizations, teams, or individuals. The project should be something new, exciting, and unique; not an existing, ongoing, or recurring project. It should have impact on the local Kingston community, and the more people it involves or affects, the better!   We’re not looking to fund fundraisers, long-term established projects, overhead, marketing, or administration. We’re looking for small, agile undertakings where $1,000 is all that’s needed, or at least the majority of it – not a drop in the bucket of a massive budget. $1,000 is not a huge sum of money,… read more →