January's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions

It's a new year and a new month here at AF-Calgary!

Last year we gave away $8,000 to help enable and implement various Awesome Ideas around town and this year, we're poised to add even more to that total as 2012 is the year that our Mayor Nenshi likes to call "The Year of Calgary."

So without further ado, here is AF-Calgary's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for January 2012 (in no particular order):

Top4 Finalists:

1. Free Range Youth by Kevin Hayes: "A youth entrepreneur peer program that empowers youth to be humans."
2. R.A.P.S. (Railway Accident Prevention System) by Brad Blois: "A system designed to warn people walking on the railroad when a train is approaching."
3. Projection Bombing by Tyler Longmire: "A bike-powered interactive mobile projection unit."
4. Awesome Science Roadshow by Ed Kusmirski: "Interactive science presentations for kids of all ages at Fish Creek Library."
   

Honourable Mentions:

• Fame Whore by Lizzie Carr: "Creating a satirical performance on the way women are portrayed in the media."
• Motion Gallery by Rob Dodds: "Expand and promote cooperative space for artists."
• Stage Festival by Alia Shahab: "Festival of interactive, installation, and performance art."
  

Astute AF-Calgary fans and followers will notice that the Ed Kusmirski pitching this month is the same Ed Kusmirski who pitched the Science Roadshow idea to AF-Calgary back in November 2011. It just goes to show you that perseverance pays and that an Awesome Idea is an Awesome Idea no matter what, even if it doesn't end up winning the $1,000 (as an aside, did you know that AF-Toronto's Attack of the 50-foot Rob Ford idea spent months on their chapter's short list before it finally won in June? Kudos to Ryan Ringer for continuing to submit his idea until he won!).

This month's Thousand Dollar Thursday will be held at the UBU Lounge at Theatre Junction GRAND. It's a fitting venue considering that 2012 is the GRAND's centennial (it officially turns 100 years old on Sunday, February 5). In fact, Theatre Junction GRAND will be holding a giant birthday bash on Saturday, February 4 from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. to celebrate! You should definitely check it out if you can.

So here are the details on this month's Thousand Dollar Thursday:

• Where: UBU Lounge, Second level (608 - 1 Street SW)
  
• When: Thursday, January 26 promptly at 6 p.m.
• RSVP: Facebook and Yelp
  

Thursday nights are also Half-Price Sushi and Sapporo night at UBU, so make sure to take advantage while you're down there!

That said, the second level of the lounge has limited space, so make sure to come early to secure your spot!

Finally, we're currently accepting submissions for the February 2012 prize. If you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit to AF-Calgary for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form! The deadline for submissions for the February prize is Friday, February 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Thanks to everyone who submitted (or re-submitted) an idea for consideration this month, and hope to see everyone at UBU this Thursday!

Wow! How did it get to be 2012 so soon??

My apologies - I have no idea where the past 6 weeks have gone.  I wish it was due to something exotic - like I was on an around the world trip as a roadie for The Planet Tour ... or that I'd run off and joined the Gumsphere300 - but alas, my life is not quite that awesome, I was just plain busy. 

To catch you all up ... 

The Holipalooza was incredible!  100s of amazing Calgarians, scads of really cool (I mean REALLY cool) silent auction items - that raised $1000s for local charities at Christmas and fantabulous food from 4 YYC food joints (can I tell you that the bacon fudgesicle from Charcut was a little teeny bit of frozen heaven on a stick!)

Awesome Calgary donated one of our uber rare (and supremely coveted) t-shirts and a guest trustee spot for our 1 year Anniversary pitchapolooza (I just made that up. Do you like it? :)  ... and the lucky winner (and donor of many dinaros to charity) is Jennifer Pollock (@jcpollock).  Many thanks Jen, we look forward to you joining us on April 26th to join in the awesomeness that is Calgary.  :)

We took December off from awarding our monthly $1000 cash prize and I really missed it.  I'm so glad January is here and with it a whole slew of new awesome ideas!