Awesome Atlanta Celebrates Anniversary: Awards April $1000 Grant

ATLANTA - April 7, 2015 - PRLog -- The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, Atlanta Chapter (Awesome Atlanta) will celebrate their one-year anniversary by hosting their annual awesome hour on Wednesday, April 22  at Fork and Juniper. Awesome hour is a monthly gathering for local Atlantans to meet other doers of social good. Those who are interested in applying for a grant are encouraged to attend to meet the group’s trustees and previous grant winners.

Current winner, The Sustainable Energy Tribe, a student run organization, is Georgia State University's premier environmental group. They seek to engage and educate fellow students about sustainability and the environment. They also work to make the campus more beautiful through sustainably-focused projects.

“We will use these funds to expand an urban garden in Hurt Park, which was originally built as part of the revitalization of the downtown area in the late 1930s; it was one of the first parks built after the Civil War Reunification era,” said Amber Hughes, an Environmental Sciences major and senior at Georgia State University.

Since its glory days, Hurt Park has fallen into disrepair and has become infamous for its homeless population and eroding hillsides. After Georgia State bought a portion of the park, the Sustainable Energy Tribe has made attempts to create an inviting garden for student and public enjoyment.

The Awesome Foundation- Atlanta is the 88th chapter of the international Awesome Foundation, which has been active for six years.  Globally, there are 112 chapters in 25 countries and collectively the group has awarded $1,439,000 to 1439 projects worldwide.

“We are excited to be a part of social good in our community,” said Dr. Dionne Mahaffey, Founder of the Atlanta chapter.

To date the group has funded ten (10) local projects.  Last year, Awesome Atlanta’s inaugural grant recipient was the SMART Moves Chess Club.  The grant application was submitted by a juvenile court officer in Fulton County who has volunteered his time over the last 20 years to teach troubled young men, that he met through the court-system, the game of chess and other life lessons.

In addition to SMART Moves, the Atlanta Chapter which launched in 2014 has also funded a "Little Free Libraries" project to support literacy in the English Language Learner Community along the Buford Highway corridor; "Goodie Hack" a hackathon for social good where techies convened for 16 hours to empower non-profits with technology solutions to help improve their organizational efficiency; "The Learning Garden" a STEM and nutrition project for middle school children that live in the Bankhead community; "Closets of Hope" an initiative to provide new uniforms to students in under-resourced schools a PhD Student at Georgia Tech won the grant to develop a mobile/tablet control center that aims to improve the efficiency of  Marta bus/train transportation scheduling; and the final winner of the 2014 funding year was  Fun Weird Science - an afterschool and weekend Robotics and S.T.E.M program for at-risk children which is held at Morehouse College and Georgia Tech every weekend.

Thus far, this year’s grant recipient winners are BioLogue Stem Adventures, an organization providing girls with the opportunity to explore forensic science, physics, microbiology, chemistry, earth science, and microscopy.

Vayando, an Atlanta based social enterprise that connects curious travelers with micro-entrepreneurs in emerging economies around the world.

K-Zap, a three week arts outreach program where local Atlanta students will design shoes to send to children in need this summer.

“We have grown so much in the past year. Just recently we have partnered with KIND Snacks to co-promote our Awesome Grant and their KIND Causes award,” Mahaffey commented.   “While Awesome gives $1000 monthly, KIND, a larger organization, goes beyond that and we want to plug our awesome supporters into the KIND ecosystem of social good as well.”

Every month, KIND supports individuals and organizations working to make the world a little kinder with $10,000.

RSVP for Awesome Hour:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/621216148008421

Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/The-Awesome-Foundations-Awesome-Hour-Meetup/events/213764732/

About the Awesome Foundation:
The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences is an ever-growing, worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe. Created in the long hot summer days of 2009 in Boston, the Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is pooled together from the coffers of ten or so self-organizing “micro-trustees” and given upfront in cash, check, or gold doubloons. The chapters are organized by a founder and trustees around geographic areas or topics of interest. Connect with the Atlanta Chapter socially: FB/AwesomeAtlanta IG/Twitter @AwesomeAtlanta. For more information please visit www.awesomefoundation.org.