Lane Shordee's Hello Neighbour exhibit is a re-invention of Alberta history

AF-Calgary's March 2012 Top4 Finalist and local artist Lane Shordee's first solo exhibition Hello Neighbour! is currently on display and open to the public at the Pith Gallery & Studios in Inglewood.

A self-professed scavenger, the inspiration for this particular project came from the fact that the house and garage that he was living in at the time was also used to create horse-drawn carriages 100 years ago.

While Lane did not win the Awesome Calgary March 2012 prize for Hello Neighbour!, he chose to execute on his idea regardless, which is something we always love to see.

His original idea was to create a functioning horse-drawn carriage out of scraps that he scavenged from dumpsters, alleyways and other places, and build it in his own garage to be exhibited elsewhere for the public later on.

While the handmade carriage, which was originally created in his workshop, then was dismantled and re-assembled at the gallery, is the flagship piece in the exhibition, he expanded the exhibition to include a homemade shotgun as well as other interpretations of items and tools found during that time in history plus other paintings and sculptures, all created from scavenged materials or materials left over from creating the carriage.  Videos detailing the construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of the carriage will also be on display during showings.

If you'd like to check out Lane's creations and re-inventions, his Hello Neighbour! exhibit runs until July 17 at the Pith Gallery & Studios (1018 - 9 Avenue SW) in Inglewood.  The gallery is open on Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. and by special appointment.



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• What:  Hello Neighbour! exhibit by March 2012 AF-Calgary Top4 Finalist Lane Shordee
• Where:  Pith Gallery & Studios (1018 - 9 Avenue SW)
• When:  Runs June 1 - July 17, 2012.  Gallery open Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. or by special appointment

To learn more about how Lane's project came to fruition, check out these articles by FFWD Weekly and the Calgary Herald.

And a reminder:  We're still accepting submissions for the July 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 July AF-Calgary prize is Tuesday, July 10 at 11:59 p.m. 

YYC Mobile Movie is BACK!

August 2011's AF-Calgary Fellow Matt Hamel and winning project YYC Mobile Movie is back again this year with a FREE outdoor showing of The Goonies on the side of the historic Simmons Building in Calgary's East Village.

Timed to coincide with this year's Cyclepalooza, this month's free viewing of The Goonies will take place on Saturday, June 30 after the East Village Glow & Show, where Calgarians are encouraged to show up at 9 p.m. to ride their bikes along the RiverWalk to the Peace Bridge and back again, armed with glow sticks and more, and then stick around for the free movie.

Like last year's free outdoor viewing of Casablanca, The Goonies will be projected onto the side of the Simmons Building right after the Glow & Show, but will be proceeded first by the premiere of a 15 minute short by our friends over at Hidden Story Productions (and created by AF-Calgary's September 2011 co-winner Chris Hsuing) entitled Powered by the People, which will be entirely powered by bicycle generation.  It's anticipated that everything should begin around 10 p.m.



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• What:  Cyclepalooza:  East Village Glow & Show
• Where:  Simmons Building, 618 Confluence Way S.E.
• When:  Saturday, June 30, 2012.  Meet at 9 p.m.  RiverWalk Glow Ride at 9:30 p.m.  Free outdoor screening of Powered by the People and The Goonies around 10 p.m.
• RSVP:  RiverWalk Glow Ride on Facebook, Screening of The Goonies on Facebook.

So bring your bike, a blanket and a lawn chair and enjoy another FREE movie under the stars courtesy of Matt Hamel's YYC Mobile Movie.

And a reminder:  This month's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday takes place this Thursday, June 28 at Melrose Bar & Grill.  Doors open at 6 p.m. and we hope to see you there!

Announcing AF-Calgary's June Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions

The June Solstice has come and gone and as we head into the warm summer months, things are definitely heating up here on the home front as we're ready to announce our Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for this month!

So without further ado, here is Awesome Calgary's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for June 2012, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists:

1. Urban Stationary by Natusmi Yokura and Brendan McCabe:  "C-Train stations transformed by art - flash galleries, murals, installations and more."
2. Old Homes. Great Stories. by Lindae Stokes:  "Celebrating Calgary's Century Homes."
3. Eureka Lost and Found by Elizabeth Buchanan and Vanessa MacTavish:  "An online community that inspires finders to help seekers in their community retrieve their lost possessions."
4. Buying Local Project by Ashleigh Ahern:  "A series of 'community awareness' videos featuring a variety of local sustainable businesses."

Honourable Mentions:

• Literacy Publishing Project by Rehana Bharwani:  "Involving children with disabilities in a book project by allowing them to illustrate the pictures to show that disabilities are not a hinderance to achieving success."
• The First Tee Calgary by Damon Johnson:  "To start a calgary chapter of The First Tee program - who's mission is to impact the lives of young children by building character, instill life enhancing values, and promote healthy choices through the game of golf."
• Remember Your First Book by Tom Best:  "Books for those in need."

A reminder that this month's Thousand Dollar Thursday will take place at Melrose Cafe & Bar (730 - 17 Avenue SW) on Thursday, June 28.  Doors open at 6 p.m. and we hope to see you there!

• What:  June 2012 AF-Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
• Where:  Melrose Cafe & Bar (730 - 17 Avenue SW)
• When:  Thursday, June 28.  Doors open at 6 p.m.
• RSVP:  Facebook and Yelp

And last but not least, we're still accepting submissions for the July 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 July AF-Calgary prize is Tuesday, July 10 at 11:59 p.m.

The new and improved awesomefoundation.org plus our June venue

First, the new awesomefoundation.org website launched at the beginning of this month, and it's totally awesome!  Re-designed to feature more of the Awesome Ideas that have been awarded grants around the world, it's now easier to take a peek at what some of the other chapters have been up to over the last few years.  Currently, there are 46 chapters in nine countries around the world (and growing!), and collectively, we've given away around $190,000 to fund 190 projects ($12,000 for 12 of them coming from Calgary over the last year) since the whole movement started in 2009.

Check out our chapter's page on the new site to see the submissions from our AF-Calgary Fellows, plus pictures and video from some of the projects that have already executed.  If you're a previous AF-Calgary winner and you have some pictures and videos from your projects that you'd like to share, let us know and we'll make sure we post it!  We'll also start highlighting our winning projects on the main Awesome Foundation blog going forward (as well as other notable news from past and future AF-Calgary winners), so keep an eye out for that over there as well.

Next, we're pleased to announce our June Thousand Dollar Thursday venue.  We'll be taking it back to where we were last June, Melrose Cafe & Bar in the Heart of the Red Mile.  They've recently released an awesome new menu, so it's an excellent opportunity to check that out as well.

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• What:  June 2012 AF-Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
• Where:  Melrose Cafe & Bar (730 - 17 Avenue SW)
• When:  Thursday, June 28.  Doors open at 6 p.m.
• RSVP:  Facebook and Yelp

Finally, we're accepting submissions for the July 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 July AF-Calgary prize is Tuesday, July 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Hope to see you out later this month!

Building a better future

Following up on April's One-Year Anniversary event was going to be a tough job, but thankfully, the diversity of submissions we received for May 2012 ensured another wide variety of pitches would be on display as we kick off Year Two here at Awesome Foundation - Calgary.

This month, we returned to Commonwealth Bar & Stage for the 13th instalment of Awesome Calgary's Thousand Dollar Thursday, where four ideas would vie for the no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant.

The emcee for the night was our very own Trustee of Awesome Chris Salmon, and it was with this backdrop that the four AF-Calgary finalists for this month took to the stage for 90 seconds each to wow the Trustees and convince them and the audience why they felt they were worthy of winning the $1,000 prize.

Pitch 1:  Sharing Souls

First up was Daniel Rodriguez with Sharing Souls, a collaborative project heavily inspired by the "Before I Die" wall by Candy Chang, which has already been executed in many cities around North America.

After arriving in Calgary two years ago and observing the city, Daniel felt that Calgary was a city that never wakes up.  That said, he felt that Calgary and Calgarians had big dreams and big potential, and he wanted to know exactly what it was that Calgarians were dreaming about.  So Daniel wishes to bring the "Before I Die" project here to Calgary to help realize that.

Plywood sheets painted with chalkboard paint would be placed on the City Hall, 1st Street SW and Centre Street C-Train platforms for two weeks where Calgarians would be able to share their thoughts and dreams by writing them down for all to see.  After that, those boards would be placed in a permanent installation somewhere where it could stand as a monument to the dreams of the people and could help motivate people to start executing them now that they've managed to define them.

Ideal project launch would be towards the end of June, and the majority of the $1,000 would go towards the purchase of materials to execute the project, mainly plywood, chalkboard paint, and various writing implements.

Pitch 2:  Tool Library

Second was Courtney Hare and Kristen Holm with Tool Library, where they wished to use the $1,000 micro-grant to launch Calgary's very first tool lending library.

The Tool Library would give all Calgarians access to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and gardening tools that they can use on various projects.  Rather than renting or buying tools that you may only use for eight minutes or pestering friends and family for tools to borrow, you can simply borrow them for free from the Tool Library instead.

They felt that Calgarians as well as various organizations and programs in the community would benefit from having a Tool Library in the city in three ways:

1. Economically:  By reducing the costs associated with renting or purchasing tools.
2. Socially:  By creating opportunities for people to build things together.
3. Environmentally:  By reducing waste consumption and environmental footprint.

The $1,000 would go solely towards the purchase of tools to kickstart the collection.  New tools, refurbished tools and donations would go towards the collection and to start, three main kits would be created.

Courtney and Kristen will house the tool library at the Central branch of the Calgary Public Library downtown and they hope to have the project launched within the next six months.  The long-term vision would be that the collection could be expanded and housed in a trailer that could move from branch to branch.

Pitch 3:  Project Grandma

Up third was Ava Jane Markus, a local theatre writer and actor, with Project Grandma.

Ava, along with two other artists, will write a 45 minute play in conjunction with the residents of Canyon Meadows Retirement Home.  Interviews with residents would be performed, poetry written and other stories would be told.

The play will happen on June 1 and the $1,000 would go towards audio equipment to perform the play, as well as to help pay for craft materials, performer's fees and promotional materials.  Ideally, this would serve as a pilot project and could be used as a template for other productions and collaborations with other nursing and retirement homes in the future.

Pitch 4:  Puppet Gratitude Journal 

Last was Michelle Warkentin with Puppet Gratitude Journal.

The Puppet Gratitude Journal is a new play written by Michelle launched last month.  The play would use puppets to teach children between Kindergarten and Grade Six about what gratitude is and the wonderful virtues that people have inside, mainly kindness, compassion and empathy because in Michelle's experience, the earlier children can get that message, it makes them better people later on in life.

The $1,000 would allow four schools by the end of June or September with 100 children at each school to be able to view the play for free.

And the winner is...

 

 

AF-Calgary's May 2012 no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant went to Courtney Hare and Kristin Holm and their Tool Library.

Courtney and Kristin hope to have the project implemented within the next six months, so keep an eye out for that!

BIG Thanks to our venue sponsor Commonwealth Bar & Stage for hosting us again this month.

As always, putting on a Thousand Dollar Thursday every month is always a challenge, and it can't be done without the help and support of our Awesome Support/Production Team. So a BIG Thank You to the following people for volunteering some of their time to help us out this month with running the event:

Photography Duties:

• Eleni Tsaprailis
• Arin Podolski

Production Duties:

• Alex Kelly
• Phil Stiles

Livestream Production:

• Tony Grimes
• Karl Leung

Live-Tweet Team:

• Sarah Pynoo
• Kelsey Kashluba

We're still accepting submissions for our June 2012 prize.  The deadline for submissions is Sunday, June 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.

Finally, if you missed out on the event, check out our "live-to-tape" version of it on our YouTube channel here (apologies in advance for some of the tech issues within the video):

And check out some photos from the event on Flickr.

Hope to see you out next month!

Change to tonight's program

Looks like there'll be a slight change in tonight's Thousand Dollar Thursday as one of the projects can't pitch.  In their place, Honourable Mention "Sharing Souls" by Daniel Rodriguez will vie against the other Top4 Finalists for the no-strings-attached $1,000.

So, tonight's program now looks like this:

1. Sharing Souls by Daniel Rodriguez:  "Putting boards in the C-Train stations to allow people to share their dreams."
2. Tool Library by Courtney Hare:  "A tool lending co-op where people can borrow, for free, tools for home projects, maintenance and repairs."
3. Puppet Gratitude Journal by Michelle Warkentin:  "Puppets teach virtues."
4. Project Grandma by Ava Jane Markus:  "A renegade team of theatre artists write a play with the residents of Bow View Manor Nursing Home."

Doors open at 6 p.m. at Commonwealth Bar & Stage.  It's also Propaganda Thursdays at Commonwealth featuring half-priced dumplings and more from their in-house Cafeteria, plus a multitude of music across both levels from various DJs after our event.  If you're coming tonight, make sure to check it out!

Announcing May 2012's Top4 Finalists & Honourable Mentions!

We start off Year Two of Awesome Foundation - Calgary the same way we started Year One:  With our super-awesome Thousand Dollar Thursday!

Without further ado, Awesome Calgary's May 2012 Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions are, in no particular order:

Top4 Finalists

1. Circus Flash Mob Calgary by Carisa Hendrix:  "Organize a Flash Mob in Calgary to promote the local circus arts community and Calgary in general."
2. Tool Library by Courtney Hare:  "A tool lending co-op where people can borrow, for free, tools for home projects, maintenance and repairs."
3. Puppet Gratitude Journal by Michelle Warkentin:  "Puppets teach virtues."
4. Project Grandma by Ava Jane Markus:  "A renegade team of theatre artists write a play with the residents of Bow View Manor Nursing Home."

Honourable Mentions

• Sharing Souls by Daniel Leon Rodriquez:  "Putting boards in the C-Train stations to allow people to share their dreams."
• Reflections Video Biographies by Derek and Marguerite Demierre:  Making legacy videos of the dying in hospices."
• 10,000 Litre Rain Barrel by Robert Smith:  "10,000 litre rain barrel for organic community garden."
• Online Skill-Swapping Platform by Julie Rubin:  "A website where start-up and experienced entrepreneurs can help one another and seek help from others through a non-direct bartering system."
• Calgary Artists Way Banners by the Douglasdale Glen Community Association:  "School aged children's art displayed on banners in their local community."

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This month's Thousand Dollar Thursday will take place on Thursday, May 24 at Commonwealth Bar & Stage (731 10 Ave SW).  Come see the Top4 Finalists present their ideas! Doors open at 6 p.m.

• What:  May 2012 AF-Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
• Where: Commonwealth Bar & Stage (731 10 Ave SW)
• When: Thursday, May 24. Doors open at 6 p.m.
• RSVP: Facebook and Yelp

In the meantime, we're currently accepting submissions for our June 2012 prize. To submit an idea to AF-Calgary for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form. The deadline for June 2012 submissions is Sunday, June 10, 2012 at 11:59 p.m.

Hope to see you out at Commonwealth on Thursday!

Accordions chasing cookies on ski bikes through a clothing swap

April 2012 marked the one-year anniversary of the Calgary chapter of the Awesome Foundation awarding its first $1,000 micro-grant.  As such, we here at Awesome Foundation - Calgary brought Thousand Dollar Thursday back to our very first venue, the Endeavor Arts and Design Space to honour the occasion.

To help celebrate, we had a few special guests join us for the night.  First was Jennifer Pollock, who bid $250 for the right to be "Trustee For A Night" at Calgary's Hollapallooza fundraiser last December and joined us as a Guest Trustee.

The second special guest was none other than the Mayor of Calgary himself, Naheed Nenshi, who took time out of his busy schedule to join us last Thursday evening to help us celebrate one full year of funding Awesomeness in Calgary by taking his seat as an AF-Calgary Honourary Trustee.

Helping us to fill in our intermission this month was Awesome Comedian Daryl Makk, a previous AF-Calgary Top4 Finalist, who helped entertain the crowd and help count the money to ensure we were keeping honest.

The emcee for the night was the same emcee who hosted our first event:  Awesome Calgary's Founder and Dean of Awesome, Lori Stewart.  Surrounded by past AF-Calgary winners, Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions from the past year, it was with this backdrop that April 2012's group of Top4 Finalists took to the stage for 90 seconds each to try to persuade Calgary's Trustees of Awesome on why they felt they deserved to win April's no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant.

Pitch 1:  Production Ski Bikes

First up was Chic Tyson with his innovative Ski Bike invention, which he hopes to mass-produce.  Ski biking in general is popular in Europe, and Chic believes that it can catch on here in North America as well.

51 years of age and a metal fabricator and welder for 30 years, according to his submission, his ski bike's claim to fame is that the entire bike collapses which makes it easier to bring it on ski lifts.  Initial versions were kits that could convert regular mountain bikes into ski bikes, but they were bulky and unwieldy to take on a ski lift.

The inspiration to create his own version of a ski bike is that Chic has problems keeping up with his sons on the ski hill, and back problems inhibit him from fully enjoying traditional skiing, so he took up ski biking as a way to partake in the activity.

Chic would use the $1,000 to purchase the equipment needed to start mass fabricating the ski bike units, as well to help cover some of the costs associated with website upkeep.

Pitch 2:  The Calgary Cookie Chase

Second was Simon Rock with The Calgary Cookie Chase.

In Simon's own words:

"Imagine it is a Saturday morning.  You're at your favourite trendy coffee shop in Marda Loop (with a friend) discussing your investments and stock portfolio.  Out of the corner of your eye, you notice two giant cookies running down the street as fast as they can.  Following them is a giant Cookie Monster trying to eat those cookies.  And following all of this is a camera crew."

Simon hopes to take the Cookie Chase viral on the internet by filming web videos of the chase and turning it into a spectacle to help contribute to Calgary's cultural network by bringing excitement and joy to all who see it.  Other benefits include more interesting content appearing on sites like YouTube when people search for the term "Calgary" (rather than the boring stuff like the old tourism videos that show up right now), as well as the fact that we'd be investing in our youth by allowing them to do stuff they love.

Simon and his team said it best when they finished off their pitch:

"We believe that children are the future.  We believe the internet is the future.  And we believe the Cookie Monster is the future."

Simon and his team would use the $1,000 to fund the creation of the costumes needed to execute this idea and to help pay for the equipment needed to document the project, which they hope to pull off in multiple locations around Calgary by the end of July.

Pitch 3:  "Take Off Your Clothes!" - Calgary Clothing SWAP

Up next was Vanessa Erickson and Stacey Savage, two best friends who love fashion, the environment and Calgary.

They are co-directors of the Calgary chapter of The S.W.A.P. Team, a non-profit organization which hosts a giant clothes swap called "Take Off Your Clothes."

Clothing swaps, which encourages people to bring unused clothes to trade with others, is great for the environment, benefits charity, saves people money and encourages fashion and culture in the community.

Hoping to grow the program in Calgary this year to attract more people, the largest issue facing the group right now is finding an adequate venue to fit everything in.  This year, they hope to hold their biggest event yet at Hotel Arts in June.

Stacey and Vanessa would use the $1,000 to not only cover the costs associated with renting the venue for the event, but also to lease year-round storage space to store supplies and purchase equipment needed to help run the event like clothing racks, which will help cut down on their equipment costs in future years through owning rather than renting.

Pitch 4:  Awesome Accordions!

Last up was Brenda Turley from the Accordion Association of Calgary with Awesome Accordions!

Brenda didn't show up alone though.  She brought along with her an accordion orchestra powerhouse of 20 accordionists to serenade the crowd and accompany her during her presentation.  It was ACCORDION MADNESS!!!

Raising awareness for the power of the accordion, the Accordion Association of Calgary is a non-profit, multi-cultural, multi-generational group of musicians who are proud of their instrument of choice, love to share their music with others and are happy to perform for the community.

The $1,000 would help the group continue to motivate and inspire current and new accordionists by using half of it to set up scholarships to help fund development of talent plus trophies and awards to reward and inspire performers over the next two years, and the other half to help with promotional efforts to spread forth the word and the glory of the almighty accordion through the Internet and other traditional means using professional-looking signage and other materials, which the group currently lacks.

But the group's biggest desire is to let the community know they exist and that they'd love to play for you!  Check them out at http://www.accordion-now.com.

Featuring our most diverse set of ideas yet, this month was definitely a hard month to decide a winner.  Mayor Naheed Nenshi said it best when he wondered out loud if it would be possible to have "a cookie monster chasing a cookie on ski bikes with an accordion soundtrack through a clothing swap event."

But alas, there can be only one winner of the $1,000 and it was on that note that the Trustees went off to deliberate while Awesome Comedian Daryl Makk entertained the crowd.

And the winner is...

AF-Calgary's April 2012 no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant went to Simon Rock and The Calgary Cookie Chase.

Keep an eye on Simon and his team as they work towards their July debut and make sure to follow their adventures on Facebook, Twitter and through their website.

Kudos to everyone who submitted (or resubmitted!) an idea or project for consideration this month, and congratulations to all of our Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for the month of April.

BIG THANKS to our sponsors for the night Bite Groceteria and Village Brewery for the food and beverage for the audience, as well as Shannon & Maria Hoover at Endeavor Arts & Events Space for hosting us yet again.

As always, putting on a Thousand Dollar Thursday every month is always a challenge, and it can't be done without the help and support of our Awesome Support/Production Team. So a BIG Thank You to the following people for volunteering some of their time to help us out this month with running the event:

Photography Duties:

• Eleni Tsaprailis
• Sarah Pynoo

Livestream Production/Videography:

• Tony Grimes
• Karl Leung
• Pamela Hyde

Live-Tweet Team:

• Sarah Pynoo
• Danelle Wettstein
• Tara Prudhomme
• Crystal Ellis

Special Microphone Running:

• Kelsey Kashluba (and in high-heels no less!)

We're now accepting submissions for our May 2012 prize.  The deadline for submissions is Thursday, May 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 help celebrate our one-year anniversary.  Special thanks again to our special Awesome Guests Jennifer Pollock, Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Daryl Makk for helping us make our one-year event that much more awesome.  Our next Thousand Dollar Thursday will be on Thursday, May 24.  Stay tuned for our announcement of the venue!

Finally, if you missed out on the event, check out our "live-to-tape" version of it on our YouTube channel here:

And check out some photos from the event on Flickr.

Hope to see you out next month!

Announcing April 2012's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions!

12 Awesome Winners

151 submissions, 42 Honourable Mentions, 44 Top4 Finalists, $12,000 awarded to 12 Awesome projects, but only one no-strings-attached $1,000 prize to give away per month.

We've only been around for a year, but what a successful year it's been here at Awesome Foundation - Calgary, and an eventful one in the city! We've helped people create fireflies under a bridge at night, watch a movie under the stars and say farewell to a beloved gym in Calgary, just to name a few.

It's amazing how much Calgarians have embraced what we're trying to do here at Awesome Calgary, which is to help bring exposure to just a few of the Awesome Ideas floating around the city, and the people who help try to make them a reality.  We're very grateful for your support because without that, we wouldn't be able to help as many people as we have been able to over the past year.

That said, the third Thursday of the month has now past, which means the AF-Calgary Trustees have met and gone through the monthly submissions.  So without further ado, here is AF-Calgary's April 2012 Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions (in no particular order):

Top4 Finalists

1. The Calgary Cookie Chase by Simon Rock:  "Imagine the Cookie Monster chasing cookies through Marda Loop.  Now imagine that on YouTube done by four 15 year-olds. Yeah."
2. Awesome Accordions! by Brenda Turley:  "Behind every great accordion, is a great accordionist."
3. Production Ski Bike by Chic Tyson:  "Ski biking is awesome and easier than learning to ski or board."
4. Take Off Your Clothes - Calgary Clothing SWAP by Vanessa Erickson:  "Take Off Your Clothes is a giant clothing swap for charity that helps promote the local fashion industry, the community, and on top of that:  It's great for the environment!"

Honourable Mentions

• Chalk Art by Youth by Barb Drake:  "Young local artists getting exposure and creating original chalk art."
• Responsive Surface by David Evans:  "A cushion that prevents bedsores."
• Poster Trail by Matt Gallivan:  "Making nearby posters available through your cell phone."
• Sched-U-All Student Scheduling Software by Kyle MacQuarrie:  "Building community by allowing students to connect outside of class for group work."
• Multi-Ethnic Interactive Seminar by Kathryn Fasegha:  "An interactive seminar involving different ethnic groups to address the integration issues of Canadian children born to immigrant parents."
• Dil Walk by Raman Kapoor:  "Create awareness about heart disease in South Asians as they are higher risk of cardiac events as compared to other Canadians."
• Prairie Party and Collaborative Barn Dance! by Caitland r.c. Brown:  "Featuring locally created western films, a boot-stomping honky-tonk band and the collaborative spirit of an artist-run festival, Prairie Party is a one-night showcase of art in unexpected places: a windswept prairie field in rural Alberta."

Make sure you join us for this month's Thousand Dollar Thursday on Thursday, April 26 at Endeavor Arts & Event Space (Suite 200, 1209 1 Street SW) and not only see the Top4 Finalists for the month of April present their ideas, but also help celebrate one year of helping to enable Awesome in Calgary!  Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program will start at 6:30 p.m.  If you're planning to come, please RSVP through Eventbrite.

In the meantime, we're currently accepting submissions for our May 2012 prize.  To submit an idea to AF-Calgary for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form.  The deadline for May 2012 submissions is Thursday, May 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Hope to see you out next Thursday!

We need a few good men (and women!)

Our April submission deadline has come and gone and now we have to sort through all the ideas in the old Inbox and narrow them down to a short list of four who'll then be invited to pitch their idea at our ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY AWESOME EXTRAVAGANZA on Thursday, April 26 at Endeavor Arts & Events Space. Look for our announcement of April's set of Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions around April 20.

In the meantime, Team Awesome Calgary's growing fast and there's so much we'd like to do in Year Two to try to expose as many Awesome Ideas as we can.

As such, we're looking to grow the team! We've got a few Trustee spots opening up soon and we can always use a few more volunteers to help out at Pitch Nights or with the day-to-day stuff behind the scenes.

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If you've been looking for an opportunity to join Awesome Foundation - Calgary as a Trustee or a Volunteer, or if you just want to learn more about what AF-Calgary does, come to our Meet & Greet this Sunday, April 15 at 10 a.m. at Melrose Cafe & Bar at 730 - 17 Avenue SW (Note the location change. With all the interest lately, we had to find a bigger venue).

• What: AF-Calgary Meet & Greet
• Where: Melrose Cafe & Bar (730 - 17 Ave SW)
• When: Sunday, April 15 at 10 a.m.

Here you'll be able to meet some of the AF-Calgary Trustees of Awesome as well as members from our support team of volunteers where you can learn about some of their experiences as a part of Team Awesome Calgary or what they could specifically use some help with.

A list of what we could use some immediate help with is on the right-hand sidebar of this website, but it's not inclusive. This organization has evolved organically driven by people's individual motivated interests and unique skill sets, so if you feel like you have something to contribute that's not on the list or can be clearly defined, come visit us anyway! We're open to all sorts of Awesome ideas and skills, especially the ones we haven't thought of yet!

If you can't make it to meet the team this Sunday, feel free to join us at April's Thousand Dollar Thursday on Thursday, April 26 at Endeavor Arts & Event Space. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Finally, we're currently accepting submissions for the May 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 May is Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 11:59 p.m.

Hope to see you out this Sunday, and if not, on Thursday, April 26!

Go Ahead. Be Awesome.

First off, our Awesome brethren at Calgary is Awesome wrote this wonderful piece about us this week. People sometimes confuse one for the other, but that's totally okay as Irene Seto says, we're both awesome.

Next, if you're in the Calgary area today (Saturday, April 7), make sure you pick up a print copy of the Calgary Herald. Awesome Foundation - Calgary is the Herald's BIG Saturday Story, with content you'll only find exclusively in Saturday's print edition of the Herald!

Now, here at Awesome Calgary, April is a milestone month for us.

Why, you may ask? It's because this month will be our one-year anniversary of awarding our very first $1,000 micro-grant!

Speaking as a Trustee and looking back, it's kind of snuck up on us. We've been so busy with bootstrapping our chapter of the Awesome Foundation that no one here realized until it was pointed out by someone else that we have collectively given away $12,000 to date to help enable just a fraction of the awesomeness that's happened around town. And in this past year, it's been amazing and humbling to see how Calgarians have embraced the concept, and how some have even chosen to step up themselves, offering the ideas we can't support financially ourselves with time, expertise, promotion, or even just words of encouragement after seeing the idea pitched on Pitch Night or posted on the website.

As there have been a few bumps along the way in Year One as we've tried to see what works and what doesn't, Year Two for us is all about growth, exposure and outreach as we're striving to make greater efforts to try to expose and promote as much of the awesomeness that we get in our Inboxes every month in the hope that even more Calgarians will step up and support many of the grassroots projects that we see, especially if we can't support them ourselves.

So with that in mind, we here at AF-Calgary invite you to attend our ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY AWESOME EXTRAVAGANZA (a.k.a. April's Thousand Dollar Thursday) being held where it all began one year ago, the Endeavor Arts & Event Space. We'll have some very special guests joining us that night, some special announcements to make, and hopefully a few more surprises in store, including a way that you can help contribute to some of the awesomeness of the night if you want to (Hint: Ever wanted to be a Trustee for a Night?). If you want to learn more, well, you're just going to have to show up and find out!

View Larger Map

• What: April 2012 AF-Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday
  
• Where: Endeavor Arts & Design Space (200, 1209 1 Street SW)
• When: Thursday, April 26. Doors open at 6 p.m. Program starts later.
• RSVP: Eventbrite, Facebook and Yelp

And yes, we're still accepting submissions for the April 2012 prize, but the deadline is coming up fast! 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 April AF-Calgary prize is Tuesday, April 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Thank you so much for all of the support you've shown us over the past year, and we hope you can join us on April 26 to support some awesome ideas and help us celebrate an awesome first year!

March'ing to the beat of a different drum

March 2012's Thousand Dollar Thursday took place at Commonwealth Bar & Stage, which bills itself as "An Uncommon Bar for Uncommon People." As Awesome Calgary's all about enabling and exposing awesome and potentially "uncommon" ideas, it was an ideal venue and an ideal choice to hold one of our events at.

This month's AF-Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday was hosted by John Smiley (one of AF-Calgary's Founding Trustees of Awesome and also known around town by his alias Mister YYC), which set the stage for the Top4 Finalists for March 2012 to take the stage for 90 seconds each to try and convince the Trustees and audience why they felt they were deserving of the $1,000 no-strings-attached micro-grant.

Pitch 1: Calgary Can

First up was Kate Letizia and Stephanie Shields with Calgary Can.

Kate and Stephanie have travelled around developing countries the last few years and have learned about various social enterprises that address poverty and wish to apply what they've learned here in Calgary.

Taking inspiration from similar projects and programs in Lima and Vancouver, Kate and Stephanie wish to engage what they call Calgary's "informal recyclers," often called bottle pickers or binners, in a new social enterprise called Calgary Can that aims to move people out of street poverty while improving urban environmental health by providing a dignified, accepting and safe working environment for Calgary's informal recyclers allowing them to walk proudly through Calgary's communities on their own two feet.

The first step in the project is to engage the local community, meaning that the $1,000 would be used to run the first round of initial public consultations including paying for focus groups consisting of informal recyclers, renting a venue to hold the consultation process and other related costs. Kate and Stephanie hope to engage 15% of Calgary's informal recyclers, which represents about 40 people.

Kate and Stephanie also submitted to us a quick video explaining their concept along with their idea submission, which you can view here.

Pitch 2: Hello Neighbour

Next up was Lane Shordee with Hello Neighbour.

Lane is a local artist who built a carriage in his garage. The inspiration for that project was the fact that the house and garage that he was living in at the time was also used to create horse-drawn carriages 100 years ago. Lane is also a self-professed scavenger, so he created that carriage out of used and scavenged materials.

Lane is set to display his project at the Pith Gallery & Studios in Inglewood during June and July. He would like to use the $1,000 to rent two horses for the exhibit and to ferry people around the neighbourhood on his newly created carriage, just like in the old days.

Pitch 3: SurrogART (a.k.a. Remote Robo-Art)

Third was Ben Reed with his SurrogART project, a synergy of art and technology. In his idea submission, he billed it as a project where "the nerds & artists of Calgary are collaborating to create a remotely controllable art robot."

The gist of the project would combine aesthetic design with streaming video, remote control, a controllable limb and a mobile platform to virtually bring famous artists to Calgary. How it would work is that an artist from a remote location would create art through a remote interface, and the robot (dubbed the Surrogate Artistic Robotic Telepresence or S-ART for short) in a separate location would replicate movement for movement the artist's motions leveraging the power of the Internet as the method of communication. This would allow any artist virtually anywhere in the world to make art that could be re-created in real time somewhere else.

While Ben was cognizant of similar projects around the world that use similar concepts and technology to perform things such as surgery or other remote work, SurrogART is unique in the sense that it aims to do it as cheaply as possible using consumer-grade, mass produced parts (along with the help, donations and support of many local organizations and institutions).

Ben would use the $1,000 to purchase the rest of the equipment and hardware needed to complete the project, including a wheelchair chassis, batteries and other electronic parts.

Pitch 4: Stop & Drop

Up last was Lisa Gilmour and Michelle Gallant with Stop & Drop, an installation designed for Calgary's busy downtown people; Mindful Moments for Busy Times.

The concept would create a guerrilla living room in the heart of the downtown core where people can stop and take a load off. There would be couches and chairs along with audio headsets broadcasting inspiring words or music. Signs would be posted encouraging Calgarians to "breathe," "claim space" or "Let's chat!" The intent of the project is to bring awareness to busy Calgarians to take time and space for oneself.

The plan is that Stop & Drop would take place from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Stephen Avenue Walk for one or up to three days over the summer, and the $1,000 would be used to pay for permits, headsets, signage, promotional materials and other logistical costs. The rest would be covered through donations and volunteer support.

And the winner is...

Before we got to the winner of March 2012's AF-Calgary $1,000 no-strings-attached micro-grant, we had some housekeeping to take care of first.

Last month, AF-Calgary awarded the first ever multi-grant in the chapter's history to two winning ideas, Timmy's Only Delivery Service and Gumsphere 300. Since we weren't intending on doing that going into the night, we only had one bag of money on us to give away. So this month, we invited February 2012 co-winner John Frosst to the festivities to present his $1,000 Bag o' Cash, which apparently was a good thing since John and his team already used the good old credit card to purchase the final parts needed to create the missing eighth Ford Festiva needed to complete the fleet for the Gumsphere 300 roadshow. Look for the Gumsphere 300 traveling roadshow to hit North America this summer.

And with that out of the way, it was time to award the March 2012 AF-Calgary prize.

AF-Calgary's March 2012 winner of $1,000, no-strings-attached, is Ben Reed with SurrogART. Ben and his team plans to purchase the final components needed to build the robot and the other hardware needed to complete the project and start construction right away.

Kudos to everyone who submitted (or re-submitted!) an idea or project for consideration this month, and congratulations to all of our Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions for the month of March.

Congratulations, Ben!

Thank you to Commonwealth Bar & Stage for hosting us this month, especially to Colin Canning for being so accommodating. Many of the people in our audience told us that it was their first time ever at the venue, and we received many comments of "this was an awesome place!" throughout the night. By using the Pitch Night format and by holding them at various venues around town, we hope the least we can do here at Awesome Calgary is to bring some exposure to the many awesome (and uncommon!) ideas and businesses around town to the rest of Calgary.

As always, putting on a Thousand Dollar Thursday every month is always a challenge, and it can't be done without the help and support of our Awesome Support/Production Team. So a BIG Thank You to the following people for volunteering some of their time to help us out this month:

Photography Duties:

• Lonnie Taylor
• Eleni Tsprailis

Livestream/Video Production:

• Tony Grimes

Live-Tweet Team:

• Sarah Pynoo
• Kelsie Fraiser (We'll miss you! Thanks for all your help over the last year and good luck in Saskatchewan!)
• Danelle Wettstein
• Matt Braithwaite

As you might have noticed over the last few weeks, things are picking up over here at AF-Calgary. We've got lots going on and planed for the rest of the year and we're growing quickly! If you're interested in helping out, either as a volunteer with skills or time (see the right sidebar for some ideas), or as a Trustee (we have a couple of Trustee spots opening up in the future), send me (Reg!) or Lori an email to find out more.

We're still accepting submissions for the AF-Calgary April 2012 prize, and the deadline for that one is Tuesday, April 10 at 11:59 p.m. To apply, fill out this handy-dandy web form!

Speaking of April, it'll be the one-year anniversary of us awarding our very first $1,000 no-strings-attached micro-grant! As such, we'll be bringing it back to our very first venue and will be holding April's Thousand Dollar Thursday at Endeavor Arts & Design Gallery on Thursday, April 26. Mark your calendars and save the date because we'll have some Special Guests, Special Announcements and perhaps a few more surprises to unveil, so it's one Thousand Dollar Thursday you won't want to miss! More details as we get closer to the date, but in the meantime, feel free to RSVP on Facebook and Yelp.

Thanks again to everyone who took time out of their evening to join us at Commonwealth Bar & Stage, and we hope to see you again next month at Endeavor Arts & Design!

Announcing March 2012's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions!

First, if you missed Alberta Primetime's feature last Wednesday on February 2012's co-winner Tim Barber and his Timmy's Only Delivery Service, check it out here.
And now, without further ado, Awesome Calgary's March 2012 Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions are, in no particular order:
Top4 Finalists:

1. Remote Robo-Art by Benjamin Reed: "The nerds & artists of Calgary are collaborating to create a remotely controllable art robot."
2. Hello Neighbour by Lane Shordee: "I moved into a home in Calgary that has a garage that was used to create carriages, so I decided to make one using scavenged material."
3. Calgary Can by Kate Letizia and Stephanie Shields: "‘Calgary Can’ will be an inclusive and economically viable association of informal recyclers – often called bottle pickers or binners - united to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled social enterprise that provides a dignified, accepting and safe working environment."
4. Stop & Drop by Lisa Gilmour: "Drop out of the rush, drop into the moment."

Honourable Mentions:

• Bully Bustin' Derby by Pam Taylor-Bailey: "Providing roller derby gear and skills to youth who are being victimized by bullies."
• Sched-U-All Student Scheduling by Kyle MacQuarrie: "Building community by allowing students to connect outside of class for group work."
• Art Walks by Julie Chandler: "Host art walks and donate artists' entry fees to charities working with those living in extreme poverty."

Make sure you join us for this month's Thousand Dollar Thursday on Thursday, March 22 at Commonwealth Bar & Stage (731 10 Ave SW) and see the Top4 Finalists present their ideas! Doors open at 6 p.m.
In the meantime, we're currently accepting submissions for our April 2012 prize. To submit an idea to AF-Calgary for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form. The deadline for April 2012 submissions is Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 11:59 p.m.
Hope to see you out at Commonwealth on Thursday!

Awesome Calgary in the News

If you missed it, AF-Calgary's been mentioned in the news a few times in the last couple of weeks.

First, Amber Schinkel from Global TV Calgary (above) did a piece on us featuring February 2012's co-winner John Frosst and his project Gumsphere 300 where John and his team will use the $1,000 to smoosh together a Ford Escort GT and Ford Aspire to create the final "Ford Festiva" needed to complete their fleet of eight for their traveling roadshow.

Next, Annalise Klingbeil wrote a detailed piece on our chapter which ran last week in the Neighbours section of the Calgary Herald that is a great backgrounder on the history of the Calgary chapter of the Awesome Foundation thus far.

Finally, if you're in Alberta, check out Alberta Primetime on CTV TWO Alberta tonight (Wednesday, March 14) at 7:45 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. for their feature on Timmy's Only, that they partially shot at last month's Thousand Dollar Thursday.

Stay tuned later in the week for our announcement of AF-Calgary's March 2012 Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions, and we hope you can join us for our March Thousand Dollar Thursday event next Thursday at 6 p.m. at Commonwealth Bar & Stage.

In the meantime, we're currently accepting submissions for our April 2012 prize. To submit an idea to AF-Calgary for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form. The deadline for April 2012 submissions is Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 11:59 p.m.

The March Towards Awesomeness

Just a quick note to let you know that March's Thousand Dollar Thursday will be held at Commonwealth Bar & Stage at 731 10 Ave SW on Thursday, March 22 at 6 p.m. Thursday nights are Propaganda Thursdays at Commonwealth as well, with the upstairs level featuring dance, electro and dubstep while the downstairs level features a mix of indie rock and classic rap. That all starts at 7 p.m. so make sure you stick around!

View Larger Map

• Where: Commonwealth Bar & Stage (731 10 Ave SW)
• When: Thursday, March 22. Doors open at 6 p.m.
• RSVP: Facebook and Yelp

Finally, we're still accepting submissions for the March 2012 prize, but the deadline is coming up fast! 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 March AF-Calgary prize is Saturday, March 10 at 11:59 p.m.

We hope to see you there!