In November, Awesome Seattle granted $1000 to Sand Toys for Seattle, a project aimed to equip sandboxes throughout Seattle’s neighborhood parks with sand toys for children to use and play with. In the past several months, our grantee Karen West has purchased 836 toys…all while using only about a quarter of the funding! The toys have been distributed to parks throughout the greater Seattle area, and it’s wonderful to see kids swarming to previously neglected sandboxes. Karen has also let us know that she’s seen a domino effect in the parks – the toys have inspired parents and caregivers to also bring and leave their children’s toys in the sandbox for communal use. Karen’s goal is to purchase and distribute three or four thousand toys total, and we at Awesome Seattle are so excited to be able to help her in reaching her goal!
Jerry D. Holland Middle School in the city of Baldwin Park graciously accepts one of our biggest donations toward a pinewood derby program for the school. The pinewood derby program is designed for interested students in the fields of STEM and helps them apply knowledge from their core classes into something tangible for real life application. The funding will go toward our fall inaugural race with the purchase of an electric timer and 500 cars. This funding is designed to be a start-up, and the pinewood derby program will be a sustainable program with students and local businesses maintaining the event for the next 10 years. For individuals who do not know what a pinewood derby is — students will receive a basic grab bag of parts and will be instructed to build the fastest moving object that will roll down a 32-foot ramp. The hope of this program is to get students interested in STEM fields and introduce a possible future career pathway for middle school students. https://hrvatskafarmacija24.com
The Awesome Foundation of Los Angeles is pleased to award its most recent grant to Strive Kitchen. Strive is an after-school academics and arts program operating in the Watts community of South Los Angeles, with the mission of educating well-mannered, academically prepared, individually responsible children who do not allow their lives to be defined by personal circumstances. As part of Strive’s efforts to educate students about nutrition and health, the program is introducing the Strive Kitchen and Cafe, where students can have a nutritious meal and buy daily homemade treats. This month’s grant will go towards Strive’s goal of transforming their kitchen into a classroom and training facility, where students can not only learn about healthy eating and lifestyle choices, but also develop skills as cooks, servers and managers. As the Strive program approaches its 25th anniversary next year, the Awesome Foundation is proud to contribute to their efforts to make physical health the basis for academic success. Learn more at www.strive-la.org, and congratulations to Strive Kitchen!
Calling all dreamers. The Awesome Foundation is raising the bar and doubling our normal cash prize to $2,000 for a project that SCREAMS “awesome!” and makes Baltimore an even more awesome place just by existing. We want your wild schemes, your spectacular flights of fancy, your semi-deranged space-monkey rocket launches. We’re looking for Snark-hunters, white-whale stalkers, and King-Kong conquistadors. Something so explosive it’ll make the gunpowder plot look like a pop-gun, so off the wall it’ll bounce off the plaster like Tigger on crack, so far outside the box that right angles start to weep and cry for mercy. Something like … “I want to build the world’s largest hammock.” “I want to start a fashion line for diabetics with a cheeky name that makes wearing an insulin pump hotter than toting a Fendi bag.” “I want to recreate the boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark in an urban environment so people can run screaming through back-alleys with a giant plush ball rumbling after them.” What we don’t want: NOTHING BORING. The usual suspects will be rounded up and shot. No gallery exhibitions unless you’ve found a way… read more →