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!