The good folks at Soyaworld, manufacturers of Canada's largest organic soy beverage brand So Nice, are holding a contest - asking you to submit your idea about how you would spend $5,000 towards a better organic world. I really do love it when an organization wants to encourage and support the creativity of their customers, especially when it comes to organic living.
Now, I'd be keen on this contest for the idea alone, but I've also been asked to be a judge. So I'm doubly keen. That, of course, means that neither I nor Rosemary can enter. But I hope you will! Here are the deets …
Contest Information
The So Nice “A Better Organic World” Contest runs from August 16 to December 31, 2010.Entrants are invited to answer in 300 words or less how they would spend $5,000 toward a better organic world. Throughout the Contest, members of the general public will be able to visit the Facebook Contest app and vote for their favourite sustainability ideas
http://www.facebook.com/SoNiceOrganic
Who is Eligible?
All legal residents of Canada and the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana in the United States of America are eligible to win, providing they are over the age of majority on August 16, 2010 in the province or state in which they live and providing that they are not employees of Soyaworld Inc., their advertising or promotional agencies, the independent judging organization, any independent judge or family members with whom these employees are domiciled.
http://www.sonice.ca/rules-regs
How to Win
On January 18, 2011, the 10 entries with the most votes, along with 10 entries selected by the Contest Sponsor (Soyaworld, manufacturer of So Nice) will be reviewed by the 6-person judging panel, who will award the Grand Prize of $5,000 to the selected entrant.
I've been reading through some of the entries that have been posted. There are a lot of great ideas and passionate people out there. I've made a few observations about what I think makes a good entry (remember, you only have 300 words):
- Upload a picture. It makes a big difference if the picture for your entry isn't the default So Nice graphic. If you're at a loss for a picture, browse Flickr's Creative Commons - lots of eye-catching images there to illustrate your idea.
- Be realistic. While $5,000 is a generous sum, it is a finite sum. You probably can't put a community garden on every street corner in your home town, though you may be able to put one in your neighbourhood. Or, create an education kit that you distribute that will tell everyone how to start a community garden.
- Be specific. The better entries are well thought out, sometimes even including some offline research. For example, back on the topic of community gardens, one entrant described where she would put the community garden in her neighbourhood, that she had canvassed the neighbourhood and had a team of volunteers, requested the permit from her city to start the community garden and now just needed to win. That kind of detail gives me a lot of confidence that this person would follow through and be successful.
- Be altruistic. While I appreciate that you would like to win $5,000 to redo your kitchen to cook better meals, I'm likely more inclined to be supportive of an entry that includes your community or your child's school or your co-op or even your bookclub. Of course, if you're going to redo your kitchen so that once a month you can hold a monthly neighbourhood potluck and heirloom seed exchange, well .. that's different :)
Now these are just a few of my observations about the strongest entires. My fellow judges (Lindsay, Élise, Valerie, Celine and Raul) and Soyaworld may have other ideas about qualities of stand-out entries.
But in any case: put your thinking cap on and enter your best idea for making a better organic world!