An AWESOME night in Halifax

If I gave you $1000 to pursue ANY idea, what would you do?

The possibilities are as endless as they are awesome.

While in Halifax, I was introduced to The Awesome Foundation. And by geez does it live up to its name. Barney Stinson would be proud.

Here’s how it works in a nutshell:

• Each chapter has a board of Awesome Trustees. The trustees put in money each month to make $1000
• People submit their awesome ideas of how they would spend that $1000
• The trustees consider the ideas and pick a winner
• The winner gets $1000 to make their idea happen

I was in town for the May Grant Event of the Halifax chapter. A total of 25 people submitted ideas this month. Finalists were then chosen to present their ideas to the trustees and anyone and everyone, including me, a random Australian CouchSurfer in town for just three nights. These four ideas were pitched on Thursday night:

Permanent Ping Pong: Veronica wants to build a concrete ping pong table in Victoria Park so people can play ping pong whenever and with whoever they like. The money would be used build the table.

Tulipmania: Sam lives on Tulip St in Dartmouth, across the river from Halifax. This spring, he has a gorgeous bed of tulips blooming in that little useless patch of lawn between the road and the footpath. His idea is that next spring, EVERY house on the five-block long Tulip St will have a bed of tulips out the front. He also put out the challenge to residents of Rose St and Dahlia St to join in. The $1000 would be spent on bulbs.

Wish You Well: The Canadian penny is on the way out but Renee would like to farewell it in style by hold a huge wishing well day. The event would attempt to create a world record for the most wishes made. Money would also go to Make-A-Wish. The $1000 would be used to organise the event, buy pennies, and the remainder going to the charity.

Digital Scavenger Hunt: Regina and her sisters want to hold a great big scavenger hunt in the city. Teams would have to go take photos of things, or of them doing things etc. The money would go to organising and prize money.

Veronica, Sam, Renee and Regina & Co pitched their ideas. There was excitement, posterboards, storytelling and tulips. The trustees asked questions, the crowd asked questions; it was good fun.

There are chapters around the world. I was pleased to note it’s kicking around in Sydney and Melbourne. You can never have too much awesomeness in the world.

So who won? Well next spring, if you’re in Dartmouth, drive down Tulip St and visit the fruits (well flowers) of Sam’s idea. Awesome.