Awesome Foundation - Calgary

Something Awesome: Baby Bottoms!

2013-05-10T09:40:00.002-06:00

What's awesome? Cute, bubbly, happy and healthy babies!

What's not awesome? Babies that are forced to spend extended periods of time in soiled diapers because no clean ones are available.

1 in 5 Canadian mothers struggle to provide clean diapers for their children. For families who struggle financially to make ends meet, they have to sacrifice necessities in order to afford new diapers, and the average baby will use 2,800 diapers in their first year alone, costing an average of $850. Furthermore, daycare facilities often will not accept children without a full day's supply of disposable diapers, which further increases the pressure on families in need.

Our March 2013 AF-Calgary Fellow Kristina Prins aims to change that and bring awareness to the need with her Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive.

What: The Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive
Where: North end of the Calgary Zoo (by the Penguin Plunge)
When: Saturday and Sunday May 11 and 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A self-funded project from Kristina's own pockets, she's teaming up with the Calgary Zoo to provide a diaper drop off this Mother's Day weekend in support of the Calgary Food Bank, who distributes a limited supply of diapers in hampers to families in need but is unable to spend any money on purchasing new ones as their mandate dictates that any funding has to go towards food. Citizens can drop off dollars or diapers at the zoo this weekend in exchange for a 2-for-1 admission for a future visit to the zoo.

All sizes of disposable diapers are needed, particularly sizes 5 and 6, and new or opened packages will be accepted.

If you can't make it down to the Zoo this weekend, donations will also be accepted year-round at the Calgary Food Bank, Food Bank donation stations at various supermarkets around town, and at all Community Health Centres (Shaganappi, South and North West Community Centres have year round collections).

Other locations may accept diapers throughout the year as well. For all the latest, follow Kristina's project on Facebook and Twitter, or if you'd like to learn more or how to organize a diaper drive of your own, send her a message by email.

So help a family in need this Mother's Day weekend by donating some dollars or a diaper or two to the Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive!

The Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for our Second Anniversary!

2013-04-22T08:05:00.000-06:00

Only a few days away now until we celebrate our Second Anniversary, so without further ado, here are our Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for April 2013, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists

Pavo Concertus by Isabel Chan: "Transform a pickup truck into a peacock pipe organ with pitch-synchronized LEDs."
Dartwars by Ryan McEathron: "A one-month long non-stop Nerf fight."
Give A Mile by Kevin Crowe: "Give a Mile is a Not-For-Profit looking to enable people to visit terminally ill friends and family through micro-donations of travel points."
24 Hour Clarkson by Seth Leon: "One Band (Jeremy Clarkson, Ben and Seth Leon), 24 consecutive performances in 24 different locations in 24 hours."

Honourable Mentions

Sprout by Stu Mason: "We educate and enable Calgarians to make greener everyday purchases! We're striving to make Calgary a future sustainability leader!"
Sharing Stories by River Wearmouth: "Sharing personal stories and creating a connected community."
Fair Trade Calgary by Janalee Morris-Wales: "Fair Trade Calgary will host a fair trade film screening and fair trade market to promote World Fair Trade Day."
Roller Ball or Pedal Ball by Kevan Leycraft: "A seven-foot globe a person a person gets inside, sits down and pedals!"
Yarn Wristband Machine by Jason Bedard: "I want to build a machine that makes event entry wristbands from yarn and then automatically ties this fibre creation to a person's wrist."
THE REGENERATOR by Michael Kho: "A generator that requires no gas!"

Please join us as we celebrate two whole years of awesomeness in our city. We'll have a few of our past winners helping us with the festivities, live entertainment, and of course, what kind of a birthday party would this be if we didn't have a little cake?

What: Awesome Calgary's Second Anniversary $1,000 Thursday Bash!
Where: Endeavor Arts & Event Space (1290 - 1 Street SW)
When: Thursday, April 25, 2013. Doors open at 6 p.m. Program starts at 6:30 p.m.
RSVP: Facebook and Yelp

A reminder that we're now accepting submissions for the month of May. If you'd like to submit an idea to Awesome Calgary for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form! The May submission deadline is Friday, May 10, 2013 at 11:59 p.m.

And finally, there's still time to be a Guest Trustee for our Second Anniversary! A Guest Trustee gets all of the voting rights that our normal full-time Trustees get, but only for one month and we still have a couple of slots available for this occasion. If you're interested in participating in this very special role at this month's event, let us know! (PS: We're also on the look out for full-time Trustees too, plus a bunch of volunteers to help us dominate year three!)

Help us kick off Year Three with a BANG! Come Join Us!

2013-04-18T16:22:00.001-06:00

Our chapter of The Awesome Foundation wouldn't be where we are today without the support we've had from the community.

Of course, we wouldn't be anywhere if people didn't submit their awesome ideas for consideration each and every month. So to anyone and everyone who's ever done so in the past, or will do in the future, we thank you.

Every person who attends our Pitch Nights helps us further the cause of awesomeness in the universe as well, as we're able to help promote and expose some of the great ideas that pass through our doors every month. Connections have been made, and many projects have gotten one step closer to completion, even if they didn't win our monthly prize.

We also wouldn't be anywhere without all of our wonderful volunteers. Our volunteers help to run our monthly events or help keep things going behind-the-scenes so that we can continue to spread awesome in Calgary.

None of us get paid for what we do. In fact, our AF-Calgary Trustees pay out of their own pockets to help fund our monthly gift. We're entirely self-funded, and we wouldn't have been able to fund $23,000 in awesome projects during the last couple of years without the support of those who are willing to take the ultimate step and donate financially to our monthly micro-grants.

No, we do it because we love what we do, we love Calgary, and we all have a sincere desire to try to help others make the city as awesome as it can be, in whatever way they choose to do so.

As we say farewell to year two and greet year three here at Awesome Calgary, a number of our full-time Trustees have or will be finishing up their terms in the next little while, so we're looking for people who might be interested in helping us to continue to fund awesomeness in the city as full-time Trustees of Awesome. In fact, we would love it if we had enough Trustees to start funding more than one prize a month.

We're also debuting something new at this month's Second Anniversary event. Starting next week, every month we'll have a limited number of Guest Trustee slots available. Guest Trustees have the same voting rights as full-time Trustees (i.e. they get to help narrow down the monthly short lists, and get to vote on the winner at Pitch Night), but without the full time financial commitment. It's designed to give those who are thinking about becoming full-time Trustees an opportunity to try it out, or for those who've indicated in the past that they wish to make a one-time financial contribution to help keep things going.

Finally, we're always on the lookout for good volunteers too in a variety of areas and skill sets. Social Media, logistics, communications, you name it. In fact, some of the best positions are the ones we've never thought of, so if you're the type of person who feels like they have something to contribute to our awesome movement, then we want to hear from you.

In other words, if you have a passion for helping others achieve their potential, then you're the type of person we're looking for! So help us kick off Year Three here at Awesome Calgary with a BANG and join our team as a Trustee or Volunteer.

If you're interested in learning more about our Trustee or Volunteer opportunities, or wish to be a Guest Trustee at our Second Anniversary event, fill out this super simple application form and one of our Ninjas of Awesome will get back to you.

And in the meantime, feel free to check out our Second Anniversary Bash happening next Thursday, April 25 at the Endeavor Arts & Events Space. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program starts at 6:30 p.m. and everyone's invited.

Thanks Calgary for two really awesome years, and here's looking to Year Three!

Announcing our Second Anniversary $1,000 Thursday Venue!

2013-04-09T16:20:00.001-06:00

Citizens of Awesome, has it been two years already? It doesn't seem so. But it's true. We've given away $23,000 to help enable Awesomeness of all kinds in our city. We've funded everything from cool art projects, wicked documentaries, farewell bashes for long standing Calgary landmarks and nerdy robots.

Without your support, we couldn't have made it this far. Every idea that you submit to The Awesome Foundation for consideration, every minute of time you donate to our organization to help us keep things running, every person or organization that's offered space for us to host our events, every person that volunteers to be a Trustee and throws in their own money out of their own pockets each month to help enable awesomeness in the city, and every tweet, share or good word you say to friends, family and strangers to help us spread the word has allowed us to showcase as much awesomeness as we can and has helped the people who come through our doors make connections to help make their ideas a reality, despite, perhaps, not winning our monthly $1,000 micro-grant. All of it has allowed us to grow leaps and bounds in such a short time.

So for that, Citizens of Awesome, we here at AF-Calgary proudly tip our hats to all of you and thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for all your support over these last two years.

And with that, we would like to cordially invite you to come celebrate two whole years of Awesome in the city with us as we award Awesome Calgary grant #24 at our Second Anniversary $1,000 Thursday event on Thursday, April 25.

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What: Awesome Calgary's Second Anniversary $1,000 Thursday Bash!
Where: Endeavor Arts & Event Space (1290 - 1 Street SW)
When: Thursday, April 25, 2013. Doors open at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Facebook and Yelp

Yep, we're returning to where it all began for us two years ago, the Endeavor Arts & Event Space. Shannon and Maria Hoover, the owners of the gallery, have been such great supporters of the Awesome Movement in Calgary, and we can honestly say that if they didn't volunteer to provide us a space to host our very first event back in April 2011, we probably wouldn't be where we are today.

So please, come join us as we say farewell to Year Two and greet Year Three here at AF-Calgary with as much awesomeness as we can muster, and see four great ideas on how to forward the interests of awesome in Calgary (and the universe!) get highlighted.

And if you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit for consideration, please fill out our handy-dandy web form. There's one more day to get your application in for our second anniversary event, as the deadline for submissions is tomorrow, Wednesday, April 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Finally, we're looking for some great Volunteers and new Trustees to help us move forward in Year Three. If you're interested in signing up in whatever capacity, or just want to learn more about what kinds of opportunities are available, come down to our Second Anniversary event this month and meet the team, catch us at one of our Awesome Hours events (they're like Office Hours, but more Awesome) around town (keep an eye here and on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to see when and where we'll be holding them), or fill out our super-simple application form and one of our Ninjas of Awesome will get back to you.

In fact, we'll have a few Guest Trustee slots available for our Second Anniversary event. If you've ever wanted to try being an AF-Calgary Trustee but weren't sure about the time commitment, taking on a Guest Trustee role for a month might be a great way to dip your toe in the water, and help us fund as much awesomeness in the city as we can. If you're interested, make sure to select the Guest Trustee option on the application form.

Hope to see you out this month at Endeavor, and Stay Awesome!

Something Awesome: WRECK CITY

2013-04-08T12:25:00.001-06:00

Our February 2013 winning project WRECK CITY: An Epilogue for 809 is slated to start on Friday, April 19, and things are slowly ramping up.

Entirely self-initiated and self-funded, the project involves over 100 local artists, musicians, performers and curators, and an initiative this massive could always use a bit more help.

If you'd like to help out, there are a couple of ways you can do so.

First, the WRECK CITY team needs volunteers of all sorts to help pull the event off. They're looking for enthusiastic and reliable people to assist with everything from gallery-sitting, tour hosts to guide audiences safely through the project, assistants to help the artists complete their work and support with cleaning up the spaces for hazard-free public interaction. Volunteer dates range from April 13 to 27, with the majority of volunteers needed between April 19 to 27.

If you're interested in helping out as a WRECK CITY volunteer, e-mail your expression of interest and your contact information (including e-mail address and phone number) to wreckcitycalgary@gmail.com by Friday, April 12 and make sure to put "RE: Volunteer for Wreck City" in the subject heading to make sure your message doesn't get missed.

Second, if you can't afford to volunteer your time, but can afford to throw a few dollars their way (especially in return for some really cool rewards!), check out WRECK CITY's project page on Calgary's culture crowd funding platform InvestYYC. Every little bit will help make the event even more awesome, and InvestYYC will also provide matching funds for any donations totalling $100 or more. You can also use the site to pledge time to the project as a volunteer as well.

WRECK CITY runs from April 19 to 27. For more information, make sure to check out their website at wreckcity.wordpress.com and give them a follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Something Awesome: Speed Gaming!

2013-04-05T14:07:00.000-06:00

Who needs golf when you have board games?

I have to admit, I'm a bit of a board game nerd myself. So when I found out that Awesome Foundation - Ottawa had funded a group back in January who wanted to throw Speed Gaming events in their city, not only did I think "Wow, that's Awesome!" but I also figured that it was such a super-simple idea, that Calgary should have some of these events as well.

I searched on Google, but couldn't find anything resembling the like in Calgary. Mind you, I'm also a bit lazy so I didn't search too hard, but all the same, I figured that it wouldn't be too hard to pull off a version of it here (sans $1,000 micro-grant). Thankfully, two of my fellow Awesome Calgary Trustees (and self-professed board game nerds themselves), Elizabeth Buchanan and Vanessa Mactavish, agreed with me and decided to help me host one.

So with that in mind, we'd like to cordially invite you to our take on a Speed Gaming event this Sunday, April 7 at Gamer Sunday at Dickens Pub (and it's completely FREE!).

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What: Calgary's First Speed Gaming Event!
Where: Gamer Sunday at Dickens Pub (1000 - 9 Avenue SW)
When: Sunday, April 7, 2013 from 1:30 - 5:30 p.m.
RSVP: Eventbrite, Meetup, Facebook or Yelp

If you didn't know, every Sunday, the entirety of Dickens is open to gaming of all kinds. Video, tabletop, board, card, you name it. Bring your own or there are house games behind the bar that you can borrow to play. They even have a set of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Seriously, it's an awesome way to spend your Sundays.

How it'll work: There'll be three 30 minute gaming sessions scheduled throughout the afternoon. The schedule is as follows:

1:30 - Registration. Grab a drink, get comfortable.
2:00 - First Session begins with intros/icebreaker/rules.
2:15 - Start your game!
2:45 - End game. Break/grab a drink/chat.
3:00 - Second Session begins with intros/icebreaker/rules.
3:15 - Start your game!
3:45 - End game. Break/grab a drink/chat.
4:00 - Last Session begins with intros/icebreaker/rules.
4:15 - Start your game!
4:45 - End game.
5:00 - Wrap Up. Feel free to hang out and play more games with some friends new and old.

Everyone will be randomly assigned to a table. After an icebreaker and a brief introduction of the game at hand, people will have 30 minutes to play. Once done, the cycle repeats.

The list of games we'll be playing is as follows (but sadly, no Baywatch):

All of the games above were selected because they force people to interact with each other, often in hilarious ways. And what better way to meet new people than everyone making fools of themselves? Trust me, it works. By the end of the ordeal, everyone can be considered comrades in arms.

Liz, Vanessa and myself will also be holding informal Awesome Hours during our event (they're like Office Hours, but more Awesome) where you can talk to us and learn more about The Awesome Foundation, what we're all about, and about the various Volunteer and Trustee opportunities that we have available.

We're also looking to recruit a batch of new Trustees and Volunteers to help us kick off Year Three here at AF-Calgary, so if you're interested in joining up or learning more, then please do come chat with us (and play with us!). And if you can't make it down, feel free to fill out our handy-dandy application form and one of our Ninjas of Awesome will get back to you.

After our event, feel free to stick around and continue playing with all the cool people you'll have met. The pub is open to gaming until closing (in fact, a group of friends and I have closed out the bar a couple of times).

Hope to see you out this Sunday, and GAME ON!

Our Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for March 2013

2013-03-25T12:51:00.002-06:00

The Ides of March have long since past and yep, we're still kicking, so that means there's no excuse to not keep moving forward with our goal of forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe and decreasing the amount of world suck.

So without further ado, here are our Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for the month of March, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists

Papergirl Calgary 2013 by Sunshine Frere: "An artistic exhibition and gifting process for the Calgary community completed via bicycle."
Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive by Kristina Prins: "Diaper drive to support the Food Bank and families in need."
The Zine Machine by Jeffrey Wood: "Two travelling vending machines that dispense literary and visual art in the form of 'zines.'"
Chic Geek by Kylie Toh: "Increasing diversity in Calgary's startup community by educating, engaging and empowering more women."

Honourable Mentions

Japanese Music Concerts by Marco Lienhard: "Soulful concerts of Japanese music performed not he shakuhachi."

A reminder that this month's AF-Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday will be held at the National Music Centre on Thursday, March 28. Doors open at 6 p.m.

What: March 2013 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
Where: The National Music Centre (134 - 11 Avenue SE)
When: Thursday, March 28, 2013. Doors open at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Facebook and Yelp

Thank you to everyone who submitted an idea this month. It's always a tough decision to narrow down the short lists and we definitely encourage people to resubmit their ideas for future months. In fact, we've had ideas who didn't make a monthly short list come back and win it all later on, so you never know what'll happen. It's all relative.

Speaking of which, we're now accepting submissions for our April 2013 micro-grant, which also has the distinction of being our second anniversary grant and will help us kickstart Year Three here at Awesome Calgary. As always, if you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form.

Finally, speaking of Year Three, many of our Founding Trustees are wrapping up their initial two year terms and are choosing to pass the torch onto others who would like to have the opportunity to make Calgary more Awesome. Thus, we're on the lookout for new Trustees (and Volunteers!) to help us make 2013 and beyond more awesome. If you're interested in joining up or learning more, we've made that even easier.

Hope to see you out on Thursday!

Announcing our March 2013 AF-Calgary $1,000 Thursday Venue!

2013-03-09T12:13:00.002-07:00

And we're Bach! It's time to face the music as we're ready to announce our March 2013 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday venue.

This month, we're pleased to announce that our March 2013 Thousand Dollar Thursday event will be held at the National Music Centre in Calgary's East Village.

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What: March 2013 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
Where: The National Music Centre (134 - 11 Avenue SE)
When: Thursday, March 28, 2013. Doors open at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Facebook and Yelp

The National Music Centre's collection features more than 2,000 artifacts that tell the stories of music in Canada. Other significant artifacts include one of the first pianos ever made in North America, the ARP 2500 synthesizer used in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind to communicate with the aliens, and Elton John's former songwriting piano! There's just so much awesomeness in the NMC's collection and if you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, you should try to drop in on one of their public tours which they hold every Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon. The NMC is definitely one of Calgary's (and Canada's!) cultural gems.

With four great ideas pitching for a chance to win $1,000 of no-strings-attached cash to make their idea a reality, who will walk away with the lute this month? Can we possibly keep the piece? Make sure to come down this month and find out!

The Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for February 2013

2013-02-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

Only a few more days until this month's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday and without further ado, here's this month's AF-Calgary Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists

The Big Green Puppet Bus by Sean Fraser: "A travelling Puppet Theatre teaching environmental conservation to families and school kids."
Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day 2013 by Richard Link: "Mountain bikes, little kids and a party. What could be better?"
Play It Forward Projects by Darlene Fedyna: "Free Sport Spectacular Summer Camp."
The Neighbourhood Project: An Epilogue for 809 Gallery by Caitlind Brown: "A community-based experiment re-imagining domestic spaces, eight curators and 30 artists are transforming 11 houses scheduled for demolition into temporary art, installation, and performance spaces at the end of April 2013."

Honourable Mentions

Hip Hop Innovation by Rebecca Dawn: "Indie rock meets Hip Hop: multi-element, multi-media event for all ages."
YYC Burger Week by Sabahat Naureen: "A week-long friendly competition between YYC's best burgers!"
Gotwood Field Invitational by Tony Grimes: "Five hand-made, laser cut Settlers of Catan game boards, each given as gifts or tournament prizes to local gamer groups."

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A reminder that this month's Thousand Dollar Thursday is presented in partnership with the Calgary Public Library and the Calgary Public Library Foundation, and will be at the Memorial Park Library, second floor on Thursday, February 28. Come see the Top4 Finalists for this month pitch their ideas for a chance to win a $1,000 no-strings-attached micro-grant to make their idea a reality! Doors open at 6 p.m. and we hope to see you there.

What: February 2013 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday presented in partnership with the Calgary Public Library and the Calgary Public Library Foundation.
Where: Memorial Park Library (1221 - 2 Street SW), Second Floor
When: Thursday, February 28, 2013. Doors open at 6 p.m.
RSVP: CPL, Facebook, Yelp

Also, we're officially recruiting again for 2013! If you're interested in joining the team or simply want to learn more about becoming an AF-Calgary Trustee or Volunteer, send a message to kevin@awesomecalgary.org. We'd love to hear from you!

Finally, we're now taking submissions for our March 2013 prize. If you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form.

Announcing our February 2013 AF-Calgary $1,000 Thursday Venue!

2013-02-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

For our final Thousand Dollar Thursday event of 2012, we hosted it in partnership with the Calgary Public Library at their Central location as part of their One Book, One Calgary program. If you missed it, check out this Awesome story that the Calgary Journal did last year, or our recap of it on Storify.

This month, we're pleased to announce that we're teaming up with the Calgary Public Library and the Calgary Public Library Foundation again to throw another one, this time at the Memorial Park Library, located in the heart of Calgary's Beltline.

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What: February 2013 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday presented in partnership with the Calgary Public Library
Where: Memorial Park Library (1221 - 2 Street SW), Second Floor
When: Thursday, February 28, 2013. Doors open at 6 p.m.
RSVP: CPL, Facebook, Yelp

Calgary's Memorial Park Library opened on January 2, 1912 and was Alberta's first major public library building. Now over 100 years old, what better way to help kick off year 101 than with showcasing four Awesome Ideas and awarding one of them $1,000 in no-strings-attached cash on the spot?

Like our November 2012 event, a few of our previous submitters will be on hand showcasing some of their Awesome Success (whether they won the $1,000 or not), and we'll be holding Awesome Hours before and after the event where you can meet some of our Trustees and learn more about the AF movement (as well as sign up if you're interested in joining Team AF-Calgary as a Trustee or Volunteer), and the library will also be providing some light refreshments as well.

As always, our events are 100% open to the public, so we hope to see you there!

Finally, we're now accepting submissions for our March 2013 prize. The application deadline for next month is Sunday, March 10 at 11:59 p.m. To submit an idea to AF-Calgary for consideration, simply fill out this handy-dandy web form!

Something Awesome: The Charity App Challenge!

2013-01-28T14:03:00.001-07:00

Scroll, click, code. In the computer world that’s akin to ready, set, go. Over two-days in February that’s exactly what Calgary software developers will be doing to help create mobile apps that benefit Calgary charities.

We’re proud to announce that Awesome Foundation - Calgary is working with the Calgary Herald, Digital Alberta and Place2Give to find out what Calgary’s IT talent can do to help 12 Awesome Calgary charities with a two-day Hack-a-thon taking place on Saturday, February 2 through Sunday, February 3, 2013 at the Calgary Herald as part of the Charity App Challenge.

While 48 hours isn't a lot of time to develop a fully-functional gold release, the winning team will receive a chance to work with the charities to further develop and refine their apps with a $37,000 contract to be awarded after the Hack-a-thon on Sunday evening.

If you or someone you know is up to the challenge, there’s still time and room to get involved, whether as an app developer, a volunteer or as a sponsor.

If you're an app developer or part of a team and wish to enter the Charity App Challenge, fill out the entry form here.

If you're interested in helping out as a volunteer, fill out this form.

If you're on Twitter and just want to help spread the word, you can keep up with the developers at either @YYCCharityHack or using the hashtag #Hack4Good.

For more information, check out the Calgary Herald website or contact Ann Huskinson, Calgary Herald Christmas Fund Manager at AHuskinson@calgaryherald.com.

Back in the saddle again with a six-shooter and a bag o' cash

2013-01-25T16:36:00.003-07:00

The start of a new year means it's time to bring back everybody's favourite fourth-Thursday-of-the-month event. I'm talking about, of course, Awesome Calgary's Thousand Dollar Thursday.

This month, you can find our recap of the event on Storify, which is also embedded below for your reading pleasure.

The winner for this month was Neil Egsgard with Kensington Interaction, a space built by Neil to showcase local knowledge and to connect community in the neighbourhood of Sunnyside. You can see Neil's project submission on the main AF website here and read our micro-grant announcement on the International AF blog here.

Thank you to everyone who took time out of their day to join us at our event yesterday, and thank you to all of our Top4 Finalists for the month of January. We hope we were able to bring you some exposure to your Awesome Ideas, and you never know who's out there watching…

Big thanks to Chinook Centre for graciously hosting us this month as well.

And thank you to everyone who submitted an idea for consideration this month too. It's always hard to whittle down all the monthly submissions into our short lists, and we encourage you to resubmit your idea if you wish. We're currently accepting submissions for our February prize; if you'd like to put forward an idea, simply fill out this handy-dandy web form. The deadline for submissions this round is Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 11:59 p.m.

Finally, we're on the look out for new Trustees and new volunteers across a wide variety of positions. If you feel that you have something to contribute to the Awesome Movement in Calgary (or if you're a venue interested in hosting one of our events this year), send a message to kevin@awesomecalgary.org.

Until next month, Stay Awesome!

Important Information regarding this month's Thousand Dollar Thursday event at Chinook Centre

2013-01-23T19:12:00.001-07:00

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Just a reminder that our Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday event for January 2013 (our first of the new year!) will be held at Chinook Centre.

This month, we'll be on the lower level of the shopping mall at Target Court (formally Zellers), near the escalators and the Starbucks kiosk.

What: January 2013 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
Where: Chinook Centre, 6455 Macleod Trail SW at Target Court, Lower Level (formally Zellers, beside the escalators and Starbucks kiosk)
When: Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 6 p.m.

Important Information for Calgary Transit Users

If you're a transit user (like the author of this blog post) or planning to take transit to this month's venue, please note that the Chinook LRT station is closed for construction for the next eight months for modifications to accommodate four-car CTrain cars in the future, and that you won't be able to board or disembark from the CTrain at that station.

Alternative route information can be found at Calgary Transit's website, but if you're a CTrain user and want to take that to the venue, shuttle buses to Chinook station are available at the 39 Avenue CTrain station.

The Chinook bus terminal has been relocated to 3 Street SW as well and all buses that normally would have stopped at the Chinook LRT station can be caught there.

For the most up-to-date information regarding alternative transit routes at Chinook, make sure to check out Calgary Transit's website.

Finally, the new year means we're on the look out for bold ideas and new ways of thinking. We're looking to bring on many new Trustees and volunteers in a variety of fields for 2013, so if you've ever thought about (or if you're interested!) in joining Team AF-Calgary, now's the perfect time to send an email to kevin@awesomecalgary.org.

Hope to see you this Thursday!

Top 4 Finalists For January 2013!

2013-01-17T23:49:00.003-07:00

This is it! It's time for the first Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday of 2013.

First off, here are Awesome Foundation - Calgary's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for January 2013, in no particular order:

TOP4 FINALISTS

Calgary Repair Cafes
Wood Book Auction Workshop
Kensington Interaction
Puppet Power

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Fish Creek Terrain Park

All Charity Festival

BIG Congratulations to all of our Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for January, and thank you so much to everyone who submitted an idea for this month! (Tip: Did you know that you can still submit your ideas for future months as well? Just resubmit the form!)

January's AF-Calgary Pitch Night is held at Chinook Mall!

Where: Chinook Centre 6455 Macleod Trail SW
When: Thursday, January 24. Doors open at 6 p.m., pitches at 6:30 p.m. and AF-Calgary Awesome Hours/Meet & Mingle reception afterwards.

AF-Calgary Trustees will also be around before and after the event holding an informal Awesome Hours session where you can pick our brains about all things Awesome Foundation. If you've ever had a burning question about how the whole Awesome movement works, or need some inspiration about what projects or ideas are eligible for funding through our chapter or have been funded around the world (To date: 59 chapters, 12 countries on 6 continents!), feel free to ask us or to speak with previous Top4 Finalists and AF-Calgary Fellows for advice at our event!

Finally, we're accepting submissions for our February 2013 micro-grant. If you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit for consideration for the new year, fill out this handy-dandy web form!

Hope to see you out tomorrow!

Our FINAL set of Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for 2012!

2012-11-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

This is it! It's time for the FINAL Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday of 2012.

First off, here are Awesome Foundation - Calgary's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for November 2012, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists

Locked into Calgary by Sarah Hbeichi: "Love padlocks adorned to public art that declares 'I Love Calgary.'"
Make Fashion by Shannon Hoover: "Make Fashion - Showcasing wearable technology by local designers."
End of the World Music Festival by Kenna Burima: "The question posed to all Calgary musicians: If you had one last show, what would you do?"
The Dybbuk-A Modern Day Dance by Jenna Shummoogum: "Incorporating interactive media projection, contemporary dance fused with the technical grace of ballet, and opera in an immensely theatrical presentation, La Caravan's newest awesome creation, set to premiere in January 2013, "The Dybbuk" is a hypnotic journey of love, obsession and surrender, that illustrates the importance of transcending our belief systems and revealing what is left beyond the body and beyond our thoughts."

Honourable Mentions

Battle City YYC by John Nguyen: "The first ever city-wide battle of the quadrants, i.e. the Stanley Cup of Calgary breaking (breakdancing)!"
LUNCH'OUR' LAUGHTER by Noelle Rees: "Host massive lunch hour laughter yoga sessions for lots of downtown corporate stressed out folk in a convenient central space."
UAS White Dwarf Gallery by Sally Raab: "United Art Society launches a brand new exhibition space featuring community-oriented programming."

BIG Congratulations to all of our Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for November, and thank you so much to everyone who submitted an idea for this month! (Tip: Did you know that you can still submit your ideas for future months as well? Just resubmit the form!)

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November's AF-Calgary Pitch Night is held in partnership with the Calgary Public Library's One Book, One Calgary program and as part of their Centennial celebrations. The book this year: The Book of Awesome.

What: The FINAL Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday of 2012, held in partnership with the Calgary Public Library's One Book, One Calgary program!
Where: Calgary Public Library, Central Branch (616 Macleod Trail SE), Main Floor - South Open Area
When: Thursday, November 22. Doors open at 6 p.m., pitches at 6:30 p.m. and AF-Calgary Awesome Hours/Meet & Mingle reception afterwards.
RSVP: Eventbrite, Facebook or Yelp

Everyone is invited to come and watch the pitches and stay afterwards for a Meet & Mingle reception. Some refreshments prior to the event will be provided courtesy of the Calgary Public Library, and some of our previous Top4 Finalists will be in attendance to showcase some of their AWESOME SUCCESS, whether they won the $1,000 grant or not.

The Central CPL also has a Community Art Wall where people can submit art pieces for inclusion. The wall will be on display for the entire month of November, and for this event, the library will have a table set up with various art supplies that people can use to create some AWESOME art either before or after the event. So make sure to add your mark to this awesome art exhibit!

AF-Calgary Trustees will also be around before and after the event holding an informal Awesome Hours session where you can pick our brains about all things Awesome Foundation. If you've ever had a burning question about how the whole Awesome movement works, or need some inspiration about what projects or ideas are eligible for funding through our chapter or have been funded around the world (To date: 59 chapters, 12 countries on 6 continents!), feel free to ask us or to speak with previous Top4 Finalists and AF-Calgary Fellows for advice at our event!

So read up on The Book of Awesome, tell the library you did so, and help us end 2012 here at AF-Calgary with an Awesome BANG!

Finally, we're accepting submissions for our January 2013 micro-grant. If you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit for consideration for the new year, fill out this handy-dandy web form!

Hope to see you out tomorrow!

Plaid, Rocks, Saxophones and Affirmations

2012-11-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

October 2012's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday returned to its normal schedule of the fourth Thursday of the month, and we headed back to class as we held it at the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University.

The emcee for the night was Brian Singh, a Founding Trustee of AF-Calgary. He had the privilege of hosting four super-awesome ideas, all attempting to convince the Trustees and audience why their idea deserved AF-Calgary's November $1,000 no-strings-attached micro-grant.

Pitch 1: Gratitude Rocks!

First up was Gratitude Rocks! by Susanne Alexander-Heaton.

Susanne's idea was to get artists at the Calgary Drop-In Centre (who are also residents) to paint one of 26 different powerful words (Examples: Harmony, balance, love) on approximately 450 rocks. A pay-it-forward process, these rocks would then be given away to people who they feel most needs the words on the rock. The person must then share their story when they give the rock away. This way, the artists at the Drop-In Centre can see the impact they have on people with their creations.

The $1,000 would go towards paying the artists at the Drop-In Centre directly for their time in painting the rocks as well as for materials and supplies to pull off the project.

Pitch 2: I am. We are. We will.

Second was I am. We are. We will. by Kaitilin Roth.

An enthusiastic Calgarian herself, Kaitlin's idea is to create a wall of affirmations from fellow Calgarians highlighting who they are as a person, who they are as a group of Calgarians, and what they will do as a city to continue in their Awesomeness.

Three large canvases would be decoupaged with written affirmations, as well as with various photos taken around the city of Calgarians in action, serving their fellow Calgarians through various AWESOME acts of humanity. Finally, a mirror would be placed in the middle of each canvas so that no matter what you look at, your awesome self will be reflected as you contemplate on how you have and can serve Calgary better.

The majority of the $1,000 would be used to pay for the materials needed to pull of the project. Any leftover money would go towards light refreshments and other goodies to be given away at the official Hanging Ceremony where the completed project will be displayed.

Kaitlin would love for the project to be ultimately displayed at City Hall or one of the universities, and would aim to have the project completed by July 2013.

Pitch 3: A Song for Westwinds

Third was A Song for Westwinds by the Westwinds Music Society, accompanied by a lovely performance from one of their saxophonists.

This year is the society's 25th anniversary, and they hoped to commission pianist Matt Harris to write a piece of music to commemorate the special occasion. The piece would be premiered with a Big Band Dinner Dance at the end of the year that would be open to the public to enjoy. The piece of music would be kept in the society's music library, and possibly made available to school and community bands everywhere.

The $1,000 would go solely towards the commissioning of the piece.

Pitch 4: The 2nd Annual Log Driver's Waltz Gala - A Plaid Party!

Last was The 2nd Annual Log Driver's Waltz Gala: A Plaid Party! by Karilynn Thompson on behalf of the GIRAF Animation Festival.

A Plaid Party! is a wholesome plaid-themed party hearkening to the days of National Film Board animations on CBC television in the 1960s and on. The Log Driver's Waltz Gala is a family-friendly event featuring GIANT retro-animations projected onto the five-storey tall side of the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, along with fire-pits, lots of free hot chocolate, animation workshops, DJs, food trucks and more.

The name of the gala was inspired by the famous piece of Canadiana, Log Driver's Waltz, an animated short by the NFB created in 1979.

The $1,000 would be used towards helping to pay for the projection equipment needed to run the event. That way, Karilynn would be able to ensure that the event could be kept at low-cost to no cost for the public to attend.

And the Winner is…

AF-Calgary's October 2012 no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant went to Karilynn Thompson and her Plaid Party. Congratulations, Karilynn!

This month, each of our AF-Calgary Top4 Finalists received an Awesome Foundation - Calgary T-shirt as well as a $250 gift certificate from Gilmour Photography that the finalists can use towards highlighting or showcasing all of their awesomeness, in whatever form it takes.

Thank you to Mount Royal University for allowing us to host our event on campus.

Also, a BIG Thank You and heartfelt thanks and appreciation to ING Direct for sponsoring our latest batch of AF-Calgary T-shirts. The only way you can get one is if you're a Top4 Finalist or a Trustee/Volunteer with Awesome Calgary, so they're super-extra limited edition.

If you'd like to relive the night's events as they happened, check out our recap on Storify.

And with that, we look forward to our FINAL Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday event of 2012, being held in partnership with the Calgary Public Library and their One Book, One Calgary program on Thursday, November 22. For more details, see here, and if you're coming, make sure to RSVP on Eventbrite, Facebook or Yelp!

Photo Copyrights: Brett Gilmour / Eleni Tsaprailis

The FINAL Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday of 2012!

2012-10-29T19:30:00.000-06:00

As we don't typically hold our Thousand Dollar Thursday events in December (as the fourth Thursday of the month brings us too close to the holidays), we'll be ending 2012 with a BANG. An AWESOME BANG!

The Calgary Public Library is celebrating 100 years this year, and all year long, they've had special programming at all the branches around the city to commemorate it.

This year also sees the return of One Book, One Calgary, a city-wide library initiative designed to ignite community dialogue and enrich community connections through a shared reading experience. All Calgarians are encouraged to read the same book and to connect and engage with one another.

The book chosen this year: The Book of Awesome.

Which we believe is an apt choice around these parts. ;-)

As such, we're happy to announce that our FINAL Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday of 2012 will be held in conjunction with the Calgary Public Library's One Book, One Calgary program, and will be hosted at the Central branch of the Calgary Public Library on the main floor.

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What: November 2012 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
Where: Calgary Public Library, Central Library (616 Macleod Trail SE), Main Floor - South Open Area
When: Thursday, November 22, 2012 at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Evenbrite, Facebook or Yelp

We'll also have an area highlighting past Awesome participants who have AWESOME SUCCESS to showcase so come down and meet some of our previous AF-Calgary Fellows, Top4 Finalists, Honourable Mentions, fans and supporters!

We're currently accepting submissions for our November 2012 no-strings-attached $1,000 prize. If you'd like to submit an Awesome Idea for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form!

A BIG Thank You to the Calgary Public Library for including us in this AWESOME initiative, and we wish you a very Happy 100 years!

We hope that you can make it out to our final event for 2012, and make sure to check out a copy of The Book of Awesome from the library or elsewhere and then take part in the conversation!

A shout-out for AWESOME SUCCESS in the city!

2012-10-24T13:39:00.000-06:00

While it's true that October 2012's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dolllar Thursday is tomorrow evening (6 p.m. in the first floor main atrium of the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University), it's never too early to start planning for next month's Pitch Night!

November is our final event of the calendar year (some may argue it's the last one before the Mayan apocalypse, but we hope that isn't the case; end-of-world = not awesome), and Awesome Calgary is celebrating with our biggest Pitch Night yet! We're hosting our end of the year pitch night on November 22, 2012 at the Central Library in conjunction with the Calgary Public Library's One Book, One Calgary program, and we're inviting everyone who has ever submitted an idea to Awesome Foundation - Calgary to come out!

We would like to make a special request that if anyone has any AWESOME SUCCESS and is interested in showcasing their success at the event to please let us know! We will have a limited number of tables available, and want everyone to be given the opportunity!

If you have ever submitted an idea to us, whether it made our Top4 Finalist or Honourable Mention lists or not, and have made progress on your Awesome Project, we would love to hear about it and we want to help you to show it off to the world!

If you'd like to take advantage of this opportunity to showcase your AWESOME SUCCESS, feel free to give Tristan Bauer, part of our Awesome Success Liaison team, a shout with your Success Story and let's make November 22 a night to remember for everyone!

And whether you're planning on coming down or presenting in November, please sign up on our Eventbrite for that night!

Thank YOU for your dedication to making Calgary Awesome!

Announcing October 2012's AF-Calgary Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions!

2012-10-22T07:30:00.000-06:00

The Awesome Foundation - Calgary Trustees have met, fought over, and subsequently made up with each other, to select this month's short lists from the pool of October AF-Calgary submissions.
So without further ado, here are October 2012's AF-Calgary Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists

A Song for Westwinds by John Evans: "Westwinds has the opportunity to commission pianist Matt Harris to write a piece for Westwinds Music Society's 25th Anniversary."
The 2nd Annual Log Drivers Waltz Gala: A Plaid Party! by Karilynn Thompson: "GIRAF Animation Festival welcomes the return of The Log Drivers Waltz Gala (Nov. 4th) a wholesome plaid-themed party hearkening to the days of National Film Board animations on CBC television in the 1960s."
I am, We are, We Will. by Kaitlin Roth: "A wall of affirmations from fellow Calgarians highlighting who they are as a person, as a group of Calgarians, and what they will do as a city to continue in their Awesomeness."
Gratitude Rocks! by Susanne Alexander-Heaton: "Spreading encouraging words while making someone's day."

Honourable Mentions

32 by Jeff Miguel: "32 is a dramatic short film aiming for a 2013 film festival run."
Bishop's Board Shop by Jennifer Therens: "Bishop's Board Shop - Custom designed skate decks….fully functional, one of a kind, and always a work of art."

A reminder that this month's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday will be taking place in the Main Atrium on the first floor of the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University.

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What: October 2012 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
Where: Mount Royal University (4825 Royal Gate Mount SW), Bissett School of Business, Main Atrium
When: Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Facebook or Yelp

It's completely open to the public, so we hope to see you there and make sure you bring your friends!

This is how The Awesome Foundation works

2012-10-06T14:43:00.001-06:00

Ever wonder what it is we do exactly here at Awesome Foundation - Calgary or how it all works?

Check out this super-awesome piece that recently aired in the Arts & Culture portion of TELUS Optik Local's myCalgary program, featuring August 2011 AF-Calgary Fellow (and now current AF-Calgary Trustee of Awesome) Matthew Hamel with his YYC Mobile Movies project, and AF-Calgary Founder Lori Stewart shot during the summer of 2012. It sums it up quite nicely!

The full myCalgary episode features Calgary kayakers on the Harvie Passage, a primer on Pickleball and much more! You can check it out at any time on Optik Video-on-Demand or here.

A BIG Thank You to Laura O'Grady from Spotlight Productions for taking time out of her day to do this piece on us.

Finally, we're still taking submissions for October's $1,000 no-strings-attached prize. If you'd like to submit an Awesome Idea for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form! The deadline for October submissions is Wednesday, October 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Announcing our October 2012 Thousand Dollar Thursday Venue!

2012-10-02T07:30:00.000-06:00

September's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday was on a SUPER SPECIAL Saturday, but in October, we're bringing it back to its normal day and time of the fourth Thursday of the month at 6 p.m.

In October, we're hitting the books and heading back to class as we'll be holding our October edition of Thousand Dollar Thursday at Mount Royal University!

Specifically, we'll be in the main atrium of the Bissett School of Business at the Mount Royal main campus, which is awesome as we've always wanted to hold more events at various post-secondary institutions around town.

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What: October 2012 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
Where: Mount Royal University (4825 Royal Gate Mount SW), Bissett School of Business, Main Atrium
When: Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Facebook or Yelp

We're still taking submissions for October's $1,000 no-strings-attached prize. If you'd like to submit an Awesome Idea for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form! The deadline for October submissions is Wednesday, October 10 at 11:59 p.m.

And if you're a fan of the Calgary Public Library's One Book, One Calgary program, then you may have already noticed that we'll be holding our November 2012 Thousand Dollar Thursday (and FINAL one of 2012!) on Thursday, November 22 at the Central branch in the main floor! Since the book chosen for this year is The Book of AWESOME, it's only fitting that we close out the calendar year with our friends from the Calgary Public Library and we're honoured to be a part of not only their One Book, One Calgary program, but their Centennial year as well.

A more detailed post will come closer to the event, but in the meantime, feel free to RSVP for November's event on Facebook, Yelp or Eventbrite as well.

We hope to see you at both events and remember: Be proud and Be Awesome!

A SUPER SPECIAL Night with Four Super-Awesome Ideas!

2012-10-01T14:31:00.001-06:00

September's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday was SUPER SPECIAL, being held on a Saturday (instead of the normal fourth Thursday of the month) to coincide with Alberta Culture Days, Doors Open at King Edward and the milestone We Should Know Each Other #100!

There were so many things happening at the King Edward Arts Hub and Incubator during the weekend, and Awesome Foundation - Calgary was excited to be a part of it all! Our Pitch Night event was sandwiched in-between speeches from Alberta's Minister of Culture, the Honourable Heather Klimchuk, and a performance by Calgary's first-ever Poet Laureate, Kris Demeanor.

Our emcee for the night, AF-Calgary Trustee of Awesome Sue McMaster, had her work cut out for her, and it was with that backdrop that the Top4 Finalists for September 2012 took to the stage to try to convince the Trustees and the audience why their idea should win the $1,000 no-strings-attached micro-grant.

Pitch 1: PODPLAYS: Downloadable Art for Your Ears

First up was Natalie Meisner with PODPLAYS: Downloadable Art for Your Ears.

Created by Natalie and her students, these free PODPLAYS are downloadable plays designed specifically for your ears that anyone can access. Some are best listened to in a certain location or site, some ask you to be a spectator on the move and listen while you walk or run a certain route, and some ask you to simply download, plug in your earphones, and close your eyes.

Natalie wishes to develop these plays to highlight unused or neglected spaces in the city core to the public. This project would also allow Natalie's students first-hand experience working with professional directors and actors.

The entirety of the $1,000 would go towards hiring actors and directors instead of props and other high cost items. Any leftover money would go towards promotion of the project.

Pitch 2: 52 Weaks Strong

Next up was 52 Weaks Strong by Jason Hagen.

52 Weaks Strong is a project to help build stronger marriages through journaling. The way it works is that every week for one year, the husband in the relationship would be encouraged to ask his wife one question, and then the husband then has one week to create an experience or gift based on her response. One side of the page of the journal entry for the week would contain the question and the answer, and the other side would contain the wife's account of the experience that he created for her.

The idea of the project would be to create a program that would try and help encourage stronger relationships one week at a time.

The $1,000 would go towards developing a template for the journal that anyone can access and download, as well as to start up a website where men can blog about their experiences.

Pitch 3: Start-up of a Community Food Security Strategy

In third was Start-up of a Community Food Security Strategy by Quentin Sinclair.

Quentin's idea is to lead community events and workshops that teaches people about Food Security and the benefits of locally-sourced and sustainable foods centred around a new monthly winter farmer's market located in the Hillhurst-Sunnyside area to compliment the one already held during the summer. A new monthly winter market would allow the existing summer farmers a break while still allowing them the opportunity to sell things that are available locally in winter.

10-15 vendors are already signed up for the program, and Quentin would use the $1,000 to promote and host supporting events leading up to the new farmer's market, to develop the workshops centred around cooking with food available locally over the winter months, as well as investigating other ways to develop programs that aim to reducing food insecurity in the long term.

Pitch 4: Kmitt (a.k.a. Homesewn)

Last was Kmitt by Nick Meehan, formally known as Homesewn.

Inspired by the TOMS' Shoes initiative in Chicago where for every shoe purchased from their website, a pair of shoes is donated by the company to a person in need, Kmitt aims to create mittens from scratch in a one-for-one model for the homeless to help keep them warm and to create awareness for homelessness in Calgary, as well as to strengthen community bonds by engaging many people such as seniors groups to gather and knit together on a volunteer basis for a worthwhile cause.

The mittens would be easily distinguished from normal mittens through an accent piece with a simple colour contrast, promoting awareness of the issue of homelessness in Calgary (similar to how those popular red mittens raised awareness of sport and Canadian athletes during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics).

One ball of yarn is enough to create one pair of mittens, and 100% of the $1,000 would go towards knitting supplies to use in the project.

And The Winner Is…

Another tough month to decide on a winner, but Natalie Meisner wins our SUPER SPECIAL September 2012 no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant for her PODPLAYS project. Congratulations, Natalie!

Make sure to check out www.PODPLAYS.ca in the coming weeks to learn more about how you can participate in the project.

A BIG Thank You to Mark Hopkins for including us in the We Should Know Each Other #100 extravaganza, and to cSPACE for allowing us to participate in Doors Open at King Edward. The King Edward Arts Hub and Incubator will be an AMAZING collaborative space when it fully launches, so keep an eye out on that!

And if you missed this edition of We Should Know Each Other, keep an eye on WSKEO.com for details on the next one and meet someone new!

Finally, we're still accepting submissions for our October 2012 prize. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, October 10 at 11:59 p.m. and if you'd like to submit an idea or project for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form!

Thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy evening to come down and watch, and we hope you'll join us next month as we return to our regular fourth-Thursday-of-the-month Thousand Dollar Thursday schedule!

In the meantime, relive the events of our SUPER SPECIAL Thousand Dollar Thursday by checking out our Storify piece!

Reminder: This month's Thousand Dollar Thursday is SUPER SPECIAL!

2012-09-26T00:56:00.001-06:00

Just a quick reminder that our Thousand Dollar Thursday for September is taking place on a SUPER SPECIAL Saturday (i.e. NOT tomorrow!) as a part of Alberta Culture Days, We Should Know Each Other #100, Doors Open at King Edward (itself a part of Doors Open YYC Naked), and a whole whackload of other things!

What: SUPER SPECIAL Saturday September 2012 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
Where: King Edward Arts Hub and Incubator (1720 - 30th Avenue SW)
When: Saturday, September 29 (Note the date change!) at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Facebook and Yelp

Also, a quick programming note: September 2012 AF-Calgary Top4 Finalist Joe Vipond with his "Hillhurst-Sunnyside Harvest Fair" submission has decided to bow out. Why? In his own words:

Last year we pulled off the Fair with a $150 budget. Not great, but it got us through. This year, however, we applied to you, and to gigYYC for a grant. As fate would have it, gigYYC honoured us with a $1200 grant in the last month competition... we will put it to good use.

Because they're already getting $1,200 from Calgary 2012's super-awesome Grassroots Inspired Grants program (you should definitely check it out; only a few months to go!), Joe has chosen to step aside and allow someone else a chance to win AF-Calgary's no-strings-attached $1,000 prize in his place.

As we only had two Honourable Mentions this month, we flipped a coin and "Start-up of a Community Food Security Strategy" by Quentin Sinclair won the toss up.

So, the four people who'll be pitching their Awesome Ideas this Saturday are:

PODPLAYS by Natalie Meisner: "Downloadable Art for Your Ears."
HomeSewn by Nick Meehan: "One for one, locally knit mittens for Calgary's homeless population."
52 Weaks Strong by Jason Hagen: "The project is building a marriage. Its a marriage journal. Every week you ask your wife one question (52 weeks in a year means 52 questions). The husband then has one week to create an experience based on her response. On one side of the journal is the question and response. On the other side is the area where the wife gets to document the experience that was created."
Start-up of a Community Food Security Strategy by Quentin Sinclair: "Lead community events and workshops centred around a new monthly winter farmer's market."

Big thanks to Joe Vipond for his noble gesture and good luck to everyone pitching this Saturday!

In the meantime, we're still accepting submissions for our October 2012 prize. If you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit for consideration, the deadline for that is Wednesday, October 10 at 11:59 p.m. To submit an idea, simply fill out this handy-dandy web form!

Hope to see you out this Saturday and make sure to sample the wealth of events happening this weekend as part of Alberta Culture Days!!

Something Awesome: Laughs, Laughs and more Laughs!

2012-09-23T15:07:00.001-06:00

You may think this is funny, but when it comes to comedy, Calgary is no laughing matter…

…okay, that was was lame. But you can't blame a guy for trying!

Actually, Calgary has a lot to be proud of when it comes to the world of comedy. Many famous comedians and improvisationalists have cut their teeth here in Calgary and were able to propel themselves into successful careers!

Some examples:

Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch from Kids in the Hall fame both started their comedy careers with Calgary's famous Loose Moose Theatre Company.
Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring were both born in Alberta (Pat from Calgary and Peter from Drayton Valley) and went on to work at YTV in Toronto as television hosts, as well as with The Second City comedy troupe in Toronto. They currently host This is That on CBC Radio.
Rebecca Northan was raised in Calgary, is a graduate of the University of Calgary and an alumna of Loose Moose Theatre and has gone on to guest on CBC's Being Erica and guest host This Hour Has 22 Minutes, among starring and touring in many other improve and off-Broadway shows.

Calgary has a lot to be proud of when it comes to contributions to the comedy industry, but the unfortunate thing is that most people here outside of that industry might not even know it.

The brand-new YYComedy Festival, running September 24-30 in various venues around the city, aims to change that and it's part of the reason why the YYComedy Festival was chosen to be a Top4 Finalist here at AF-Calgary in August 2012.

Conceived by Cory Mack, Harry Doupe and James Sutherland, the inaugural YYComedy Festival, coinciding with the 35th anniversary of Loose Moose Theatre and the 25th anniversary of Yuk Yuk's, hopes to showcase Calgary's best locally grown talent and those with a Calgary connection in the comedic field, paying tribute to the past, present and future of Calgary comedy.

And that's definitely Something Awesome.

Tickets as well as more information for the festival including a list of performers and show schedules are available at yycomedy.ca. For more information on the festival itself, check out these excellent articles by FFWD Weekly and the Calgary Herald.

Announcing September 2012's AF-Calgary Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions

2012-09-21T15:57:00.001-06:00

Pre-season professional hockey may be out of the cards for the moment, but there'll be no stoppage on the awesomeness on this end as we're ready to announce our September 2012 Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions!

So without any further ado, here they are, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists

PODPLAYS by Natalie Meisner: "Downloadable Art for Your Ears."
HomeSewn by Nick Meehan: "One for one, locally knit mittens for Calgary's homeless population."
Hillhurst-Sunnyside Harvest Fair by Joe Vipond: "Annual celebration of urban agriculture."
52 Weaks Strong by Jason Hagen: "The project is building a marriage. Its a marriage journal. Every week you ask your wife one question (52 weeks in a year means 52 questions). The husband then has one week to create an experience based on her response. On one side of the journal is the question and response. On the other side is the area where the wife gets to document the experience that was created."

Honourable Mentions

Start-up of a Community Food Security Strategy by Quentin Sinclair: "Lead community events and workshops centred around a new monthly winter farmer's market."
Westwinds Music Society by John Evans: "We are non-profit and celebrating our 25th Anniversary this year, we want to celebrate this milestone!"

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A reminder that this month's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday is a SUPER SPECIAL Saturday September edition, taking place at the King Edward Arts Hub and Incubator on Saturday, September 29 as a part of Alberta Culture Days and Doors Open at King Edward, and in conjunction with We Should Know Each Other #100 and a whack load of other events all happening at the King Edward that weekend.

What: SUPER SPECIAL Saturday September 2012 Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
Where: King Edward Arts Hub and Incubator (1720 - 30th Avenue SW)
When: Saturday, September 29 (Note the date change!) at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Facebook and Yelp

Again, please note the date change: This month's Thousand Dollar Thursday event will be held on a Saturday due to the special festivities. Sure, it's not exactly on a Thursday this month, but it's the thought that counts, right? ;-)

Hope to see you there!

And in the meantime, we're now accepting submissions for our October 2012 prize. If you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit for consideration, the deadline for that is Wednesday, October 10 at 11:59 p.m. To submit an idea, simply fill out this handy-dandy web form!