4/26/10
Help These Non-Profits with a Simple Online Vote!

Instead of pumping 20 million into Super Bowl advertising, Pepsi spent just one million and are putting the other 19 toward community grants through loan intermediaries in their Pepsi Refresh Challenge Grant. Here are two that are near and dear to our hearts that we think are worth your votes. You can vote every day until April 30 — the ones with the most votes win the grants:

  • Help Build Playgrounds for Power: WaterPowerPeace.org developed a playground that harnesses the kinetic energy of children (think self-propelled merry-go-rounds). They recently brought their playground to a village in Tanzania. Prior to this, young girls had to walk three miles early in the morning to get water before they went to school, often being accosted and even raped on the way. Now, a well has been dug in that village that uses the playground’s energy to pump and store the water. They’ve even been able to build an orchard. In order to expand and reach other communities in the developing world, the Play for Power Project has applied for a $250K Pepsi grant so please vote every day this week (only the top two get funding and they’re only in 50th place as of today!).
  • Save an Old School Movie Theater: Dinner and a movie at the local multiplex sounds about as romantic to us a couples’ trip to the dentist. But dinner and a movie at your local old-school theater? Now that’s a date! When Eve Waltermaurer (director and producer of the film First that we featured here last year) discovered that the community theater in Rosendale, NY, was up for sale, she banded together with a group of folks and formed a non-profit to save it. They are currently fundraising like fiends to raise the downpayment by the end of May, but the 50K grant they’re in the running for would help. Click here to vote for them. And, hey, if they win (top ten by the end of the month get the grant), maybe you and your loved one can plan a romantic road-trip to the Rosendale Community Theater