We’re throwing a party on March 23 and we want you there! Word on the street says it’s going to be AWESOME! The Awesome Foundation DC has been around for a few months now, we’ve funded a handful of spectacular projects, and have been overwhelmed with all the awesomely enthusiastic applications we have received from our community here. You guys are truly… well shucks… you know. So now it’s time to share that awesomeness with the rest of the District. We hope will join us to officially launch the Awesome Foundation DC and celebrate just how awesome you all are. Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011, 6 – 10 p.m DISTRICT, 2473 18th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009  (in the heart of Adams Morgan) Get in and grab your ticket now: http://dcawesome.eventbrite.com/ Your $10 Ticket to Awesome includes: 1 drink and 3 Awesome Tokens to donate to a selection of people who will be demo’ing their awesome ideas! ($15 = 8 Awesome Tokens, $20 = 13 Awesome Tokens…) There will also be opportunities to share your very own awesome ideas, and of course, awesome DJ’s, drinks and dancing. Hope you can make it! Tell your friends. All welcome. It’s going to be…… read more →

Spring is in the air and we’re excited here in DC.  In fact, we’re toe tapping, booty shaking, finger clicking excited. You could say we’re just totally jazzed to announce our February grant recipient. A huge Awesome Foundation DC congratulations to Tom Pipkin (who tries to be awesome, often), and his project, The Pentworth Jazz Festival – a monthly jazz performance in the local park for the residents and neighbors of Petworth to enjoy, and an excuse for people to meet and interact. The performances will take place about an hour before dusk on Saturdays, once a month over Spring and Summer. Tom told us that “I believe it will show folks how easy it is to bring arts and music to local communities.  There is tons of talent in this city, and loads of people who are thirsty for it. Without this Awesome Grant, I wouldn’t be able to fund the project.” We were particularly impressed with Tom’s ability to describe how his skills and experience would make this a viable and achievable project. He was able to clearly explain how he would spend the grant money (to pay musicians and purchase some AV equipment), and he has already… read more →

A big welcome to our newest board member – the remarkable Mr Danny Harris. Danny is the founder of Peoples District, the blog where he collects the fascinating stories of strangers from around the District of Columbia. People’s District was my way of meeting the people I saw every day, but never stopped to introduce myself to: Carolyn, the crossing guard on my street; Cedric, who ran by my office most days, spinning in circles while yelling ‘HOOT, HOOT’; Dave, who rides his bike up and down my street in a finely tailored suit and fedora; and Josh, who checks my ID at the 9:30 Club. I saw these people more often than I saw my own family, yet I had never exchanged more than a ‘good morning’ or ‘thank you’ with them. During one of those proverbial wake-up moments in July 2009, I stopped my first person to ask, ‘So, what’s your story?’ Joe, my first interviewee, spoke passionately about growing up on U Street and his first experience of going downtown after the end of segregation. After Joe came Andrew, talking about overcoming homelessness, then Eric and Maddie, discussing the D.C. hardcore music scene. Each story shed light… read more →

There’s some new* blood in the Boston Chapter of The Awesome Foundation. Christina Xu 2nd Tim Hwang** Chair for Higher Awesome Studies (July 2010) In addition to being the Multitasker at Breadpig, Christina is the co-founder of ROFLCon, one of the proprietors of a coworking space in Cambridge called p.irateship, and a DJ for a weekly radio show called Global Frequency. She tweets about all of these things and more here. Doc Searls 3rd Matt Blake** Chair for Higher Awesome Studies (September 2010) Doc is Senior Editor of Linux Journal, co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, an alumnus fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, a fellow with the Center for Information Technology and Society (CITS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, one of the world’s most quoted bloggers, and a photographer committed to enlarging the sum of images in the public domain. Chris Marstall 2nd Emily Daniels** Chair for Higher Awesome Studies (October 2010) Chris is a programmer and creator of the concert alert service tourfilter.com. He’s the Creative Technologist at The Boston Globe charged with establishing their Media Lab, and a fixture on the local music technology scene to boot. Word on the… read more →

Hey DC, you’re really finding your awesome groove! Maybe it’s this great article from DC’s own awesome board member Alex Howard in the Huffington Post, or maybe you heard yours truly and a few of our “arbiters of Awesome” on WAMU 88.5, (it’s also even possible that you may have started to hear rumors about an Awesome party coming your way…). Whatever it is, the submissions for the January grant were so chock-a-block with awesomeness that we have chosen to reward THREE (3) AWESOME PROJECTS. Congratulations Ward 8 Market Master! After much deliberation, we have awarded the January grant to the Ward 8 Farmers Market. I spoke to the folks over there who said: Our market is for and about our community.  For example, Ward 8 has a higher diabetes rate than ANY COUNTY IN THE UNITED STATES.  Ward 8 Farmers market offers an alternative:  a junk-food-free environment, a kid-friendly place for young ones to touch, taste, and enjoy good food and develop good habits.  Our markets have a partnership that brings a nutritionist to every market, offering samples and answering the all important question of “how do you cook an eggplant anyway?” What does winning the Awesome Foundation DC… read more →