‘Unleash Your Locker' Youth Creativity Challenge Ends October 31, 2008

Oct. 20, 2008 - PRLog -- Stamford, CT – By Kids For Kids Co. (BKFK) today announced that there are just eleven days remaining for USA and Canadian youth to submit their ideas in the ‘Unleash Your Locker’ Challenge. This no-holds-barred open submissions competition continues unleashing the ideas, inventions and innovations of youth up to age 23 in the United States and Canada (except Quebec)  The competition runs until October 31, 2008 and all entries must be received online via the BKFK website, www.bkfk.com.

The ‘Unleash Your Locker’ Challenge, powered by the BKFK Idea Locker™ , is a partnership with Global Entrepreneurship Week/USA, founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and sponsored by the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence, Ernst & Young, IBM and NYSE Euronext.

Submissions in the Unleash Your Locker Challenge are open to any category of innovation- absolutely no limits will be imposed in this creative free for all.   Judging criteria will include 4 main parts: originality of concept, broad appeal, development of idea, and feasibility of implementation.  All entries must include answers to questions posed on the online entry form (available at www.bkfk.com) and will require a full description of the invention/innovation along with optional supporting images and documents (up to 3 uploads).  BKFK.com provides an optional mechanism for video and data uploads.  

The grand prize winner will receive a $500 prize and a one day expense-paid visit to an innovative company linked to the winner's passions and interests. The winner can be accompanied by an adult and the company will be selected after the competition is closed.   This “connection to reality” prize is provided by the Kauffman Foundation. The winner will also have an opportunity for a licensing agreement and patent if patentable through BKFK.

Norman Goldstein, the founder and CEO of BKFK, commented, “By partnering with Kauffman Foundation and presenting the Unleash Your Locker Challenge, we celebrate the virtually unlimited potential of our youth.  Partially built on the foundation of our Idea Locker™ innovation, and synergizing with the “Unleashing Ideas” theme of the 2008 Global Entrepreneurship Week, this contest sets the stage for an output of imagination and creativity on a dazzling scale!”

Online voting, where the public gets to help select the Grand Prize winner of the ‘Unleash your Locker’ Challenge, will take place at www.BKFK.com  November 18 – 20, 2008 during Global Entrepreneurship Week/USA.

About By Kids For Kids Co.
By Kids for Kids® (BKFK®) is a youth marketing and media company partnering with the world's leading corporations to provide a platform to foster, share, showcase, and commercialize youth innovation and entrepreneurship. Their mission is to inspire, motivate and stimulate the innovative spirit within all young people.

The closely held Stamford, CT-based Corporation has been dedicated to making youth ideas a reality since 2003. Through its website (www.bkfk.com) and its social community (Idea Locker™), online competitions, TV show (Think Big™), Magazine (Possible™), press, and education outreach, the company engages youth in the US and around the world. BKFK® youth-created products are available nationally and serve as a testament to the power of youth innovation and social entrepreneurship.

The BKFK Idea Locker™ is a private online space where youth can create, develop, store and share their ideas. Partially adopting the social networking style now familiar to the target age group, users are able to add friends, chat, share ideas and provide ratings and feedback on ideas that others have decided to share through their “Idea Locker™”.  This secure personal locker can hold as many ideas as the user can dream up.  The Idea LockerTM also includes a mechanism for uploading files such as text, images, audio and video.  

More information about the company and its successes helping young innovators, is available online at www.bkfk.com  

About Global Entrepreneurship Week
Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think big, to turn their ideas into reality, and to make their mark. From Nov. 17-23, 2008, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Thousands of activities are being planned in more than seventy-five countries from around the world. Global Entrepreneurship Week is: founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Make Your Mark campaign; sponsored by NYSE Euronext, IBM and Ernst & Young; and, supported by JA Worldwide, Endeavor, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, DECA, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Young Americas Business Trust, Lisbon Council, and YES - European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs. To learn more, visit www.unleashingideas.org.

About the Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its research and other initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. It also works to prepare students to be innovators, entrepreneurs and skilled workers in the 21st century economy through initiatives designed to improve learning in math, engineering, science and technology. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has more than $2.4 billion in assets. More information is available at www.kauffman.org.

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John Forrester & Associates Communicates is an advertising, brand marketing and public relations agency in Los Angeles, CA.