The Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive was a huge success!

The Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive, our March 2013 winning project by Kristina Prins, took place over Mother's Day weekend and was a complete success!  Over the weekend, 23,434 diapers were collected in support of the Calgary Food Bank to help families in need, and over 30,000 since the drive began in earnest in April.

The diaper drive culminated at the Mother's Day weekend event at the Calgary Zoo, and here's a photo recap of that weekend's events from our Photographer of Awesome, Saudah Chan.

Meet Emmit, Kristina's son and inspiration to start Calgary's first diaper drive, raising over 30,000 diapers since April 2013.

Winning $1,000 at Awesome Calgary's Pitch Night on March 2013, Kristina Prins launched her campaign at the Calgary Zoo for diaper donation drop offs.

With family pitching in and volunteers working many hours in shifts, Day One saw over 8,000 diapers collected.

While 8,000 diapers was impressive, Day Two of the Mother's Day weekend Diaper Drive saw even more contributions, including a reunion with a childhood friend.

With the increased awareness of the fact that 1 in 5 families struggle to provide clean diapers for their babies, many Calgarians pitched in to support the cause.

Donating diapers is as easy as 1-2-3.

The generosity of local businesses, individuals and churches helped to raise thousands of diapers for families in need, making the diaper drive a huge success.

Day Two nearly tripled the previous day's success, collecting over 23,000 diapers over both days for the Calgary Inter-faith Food Bank.

Helping hands make for easier work.

We did it, Calgary! See you again next year!

For more photos, check out our Flickr slideshow:

And here's a quick message from Kristina about her experiences over the weekend:

Just because this year's edition of the Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive is now over, it doesn't mean you can't still contribute! The need is ever-present and the Calgary Food Bank accepts diaper donations year-round. If you have diapers that you'd like to donate, you can drop them off at their main location or at one of the many Calgary Food Bank donation boxes located at grocery stores across the city. The Food Bank will happy accept opened boxes and unused disposable diapers.

May's Top4 Finalists, Honourable Mentions and Venue

As we say goodbye to year two and start on the road to year three here at AF-Calgary, this month we'll be awarding our 25th $1,000 micro-grant on a special date: Wednesday, May 22.

With that in mind, here are this month's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists

1. BuckTeeth: Oral Hygiene with a Social Conscience by Kyle MacQuarrie:  "Receive a new toothbrush to your door every three months while making a philanthropic donation of four toothbrushes to a chosen charitable organization."
2. Pavo Concertus by Ravi Mani:  "Junk Yard Wars + Pickup Truck + Peacocks + Pianos = Peacock art truck with an array of lights and sound."
3. Largest Potluck Challenge by Anneke Scholten:  "To promote the importance of Eating Together, we will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for Largest Potluck!"
4. 2013 People's Poetry Festival by Shannon McClennan:  "A free, three-day celebration of poetry in Calgary for young and old, amateur and beyond!"

Honourable Mentions

• Song of Life by Daniel Okpala:  "Music for a Cause."

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Again, please note that this month's Awesome Calgary Pitch Night takes place on a special date:  Wednesday, May 22 at the Endeavor Arts and Events Space.

• What:  Awesome Calgary May 2013 Pitch Night
• Where:  Endeavor Arts & Events Space (#200, 1290 - 1 Street SW)
• When:  Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Finally, we're accepting submissions for our June grant, and the deadline for that is Monday, June 10. Apply here.

In June, we'll be returning to our regular fourth-Thursday-of-the-month schedule and it'll be a special month for us as the Canadian chapters of The Awesome Foundation have declared Thursday, June 27 as Awesome Day in Canada! It'll be a fun one for sure. Stay tuned for more details.

Hope to see you out on Wednesday!

Something Awesome: Baby Bottoms!

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!

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

1. Pavo Concertus by Isabel Chan:  "Transform a pickup truck into a peacock pipe organ with pitch-synchronized LEDs."
2. Dartwars by Ryan McEathron:  "A one-month long non-stop Nerf fight."
3. 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."
4. 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!

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!

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

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!

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):

• Apples to Apples
• Cards Against Humanity
• Cranium
• Scattergories
• Taboo
• Pictionary
• Werewolves

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

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

1. Papergirl Calgary 2013 by Sunshine Frere:  "An artistic exhibition and gifting process for the Calgary community completed via bicycle."
2. Bare Bottoms Diaper Drive by Kristina Prins:  "Diaper drive to support the Food Bank and families in need."
3. The Zine Machine by Jeffrey Wood:  "Two travelling vending machines that dispense literary and visual art in the form of 'zines.'"
4. 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!

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!