MINNEAPOLIS--Ashoka's Youth Venture, a global network of young social entrepreneurs, and Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) today announced the 15 winners of the first-ever Youth Venture @15 Challenge. The 15 winning Youth Venture Teams of young social entrepreneurs will each receive $10,000 from the @15 Fund to support their local Ventures.
Youth Venture and Best Buy selected 30 finalists from plans submitted by active Youth Venture Teams from across the country. More than 150,000 votes were cast through an online and text messaging campaign to select the 15 winning teams. Among the network partners inviting members to vote were Youth Service America, Myspace Impact, Ypulse, and the Youth Policy Action Center.
The 15 @15 Challenge winners are:
1. Wild and Water Swimming / Laura, 18 - New Orleans, LA. Venture objective: Improve swimming and water safety skills among 1,000 low-income children in Atlanta and New Orleans by training competitive swimmers to be mentors and coaches. (10,002 votes)
2. RandomKid / Talia, 13 – Waukee, IA. Venture objective: Finish new website that allows kids to create or join fundraising efforts around the world, including: building schools, placing safe water wells, and vaccinating. (7,373 votes)
3. Dimwitnot.com / Vincent, 17 - Antioch, CA. Venture objective: Increase visibility and expand program that provides accessible, convenient, and affordable education assistance through an online study hall with peer-to-peer support. (6,713 votes)
4. The Opp-Guide to Community Service, Inc. / Wendi, 16 – Southwest Ranches, FL. Venture objective: Expand reach of website that provides candid and witty youth-written reviews of service experiences at nonprofit and community organizations. (6,605 votes)
5. Sayre Philemon Society / Rebecca, 17 – Georgetown, KY. Venture objective: Increase donor giving and expand student-run foundation that addresses the root causes of abuse and poverty in central Kentucky. (6,500 votes)
6. Always Ready Kids / Konstantine, 16 – Lake Forest, IL. Venture objective: Help youth and their families prepare for disasters by expanding safety preparedness programs and distributing safety kits. (6,125 votes)
7. Hats for the Homeless / Rachel, 16 - Fort Collins, CO. Venture objective: Provide warmth and comfort to the homeless by increasing production and distribution of handmade hats, scarves, and blankets. (6,045 votes)
8. Pure Water Vending / Jane, 17 – Merrimack, NH. Venture objective: Reduce contaminated drinking water by raising money for sand filters for villages in third world countries by selling water through vending machines at more schools. (6,038 votes)
9. School Yard Habitat / Zachary, 17 – Pittsburg, PA. Venture objective: Complete construction of the Environmental Education Center, including an organic garden, composting facilities, and outdoor amphitheater. (6,029 votes)
10. JJ Express Magazine / Jack, 15 – North Potomac, MD. Venture objective: Improve the quality of the avant-garde youth art magazine and host events that will distribute magazine to underprivileged communities. (5,996 votes)
11. Box City Vigil / Molly, 17 – Bloomington, MN. Venture objective: Increase visibility and scale of annual Box City Vigil to raise awareness about youth homelessness and create a month-long learning experience. (5,982 votes)
12. Green Teens U.S.A. / Jessie, 16 – Willington, CT. Venture objective: Initiate green cafeteria project in area schools by installing composting systems and transitioning to biodegradable plates. (5,910 votes)
13. My Own Book / Brady, 16 – Fairfield, CA. Venture objective: Spread the joy of reading to disadvantaged children by purchasing 8,000 new children’s books and organizing national “Love of Reading Month” in February. (5,902 votes)
14. Job-Link Racine / David, 17 – Racine, WI. Venture objective: Address the root causes of poverty and homelessness by providing 500 homeless teens with jobs, coaching, and personal and professional training. (5,853 votes)
15. Richard’s Rwanda / Jessica, 13 – Seattle, WA. Venture objective: Empower girls to be future leaders and foster peace in Rwanda by building friendships between American and Rwandan girls, building a learning center and providing scholarship opportunities. (5,774 votes)
“The 15 winning teams will expand their Ventures to have greater capacity and potential for sustainability, meeting needs in their neighborhoods and globally,” said Gretchen Zucker, executive director of Youth Venture. “We are proud of the hard work of each team and grateful to Best Buy for recognizing the impact young people are making.”
In addition, funding is still available through this partnership for the launch of 300 more youth-led venture teams in the United States who may qualify for up to $1,000 in seed funding. More information, as well as full profiles of the 15 @15 Challenge winners and a list of network partners, can be found at http://www.GenV.net/bestbuy.
About Youth Venture
Youth Venture is a global movement of young changemakers. Youth Venture inspires and invests in teams of young people as they start their own sustainable social ventures, connecting them into a powerful global network. Collectively, these young changemakers are redefining the youth years as a time of initiative and positive change. For more information, please visit www.youthventure.org.
About Ashoka
Ashoka is the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs—individuals with innovative and practical ideas for addressing social needs. Working with these social entrepreneurs, Ashoka builds communities of innovators who work collectively to transform society and design new ways for the social sector to become more productive, entrepreneurial and globally integrated. For more information, please visit www.ashoka.org.
About @15
Best Buy believes in the power of teens, and @15 is a platform to connect with them, give voice to their perspectives, and invest our resources – including the energy and talents of our employees – to turn their ideas into action and support their efforts to lead social change. Teens bring passion and enthusiasm to tackling tough issues. They’re also important to our business – they shop in our stores, and they’re our future employees. There’s a real opportunity to listen to – and learn from – what teens have to say. And through the @15 Fund, we’ll put the philanthropic power of @15 directly into their hands. To learn more, visit www.at15.com.
About Best Buy Co., Inc.
With operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China, Best Buy is a multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products and services with a commitment to growth and innovation. The Best Buy family of brands and partnerships collectively generates more than $40 billion annual revenue and includes brands such as Best Buy, Audiovisions, The Carphone Warehouse, Future Shop, Geek Squad, Jiangsu Five Star, Magnolia Audio Video, Napster, Pacific Sales Kitchen and Bath Centers, The Phone House and Speakeasy. Approximately 165,000 employees apply their talents to help bring the benefits of these brands to life for customers through retail locations, multiple call centers and Web sites, in-home solutions, product delivery and activities in our communities. Community partnership is central to the way we do business at Best Buy. In fiscal 2008, we donated a combined $31.8 million to improve the vitality of the communities where our employees and customers live and work. For more information about Best Buy, visit www.bestbuyinc.com.
Add Your Comment
Recent Comment
