We’ve found a new website that combines three activities kids enjoy doing:  design, competition, and doing good.  It’s called Contest Cause, and it offers an easy way for you and your kids to start a fundraising effort around your favorite cause.  Basically, the site provides an online platform for creating and selling t-shirts for causes, and there are four simple steps:   First, register and start a t-shirt design contest on the site for your cause, and invite everyone to participate; second, using the site’s graphics (or upload your own!), create a t-shirt design for the chosen cause; third, invite your friends to get involved and vote; and fourth, raise funds by selling the winning shirt.  One-third of all sales go directly to your cause.  The lighthearted tone and simplicity of this website’s concept is refreshing.  As they like to say, “Be a Do-Gooder, and Look Good Doing it!”

Contest Winning Reusable Halloween Bags

Chicobag, an earth-friendly tote company is teaming up with the nonprofit Green Halloween to hold a contest for kids ages 1-13 to design a trick-or-treat bag that best represents “the spirit of Green Halloween.”  For example, kids could use solar powered flashlights while trick-or-treating or use reusable bags to hold their goodies. Through the contest, the company is hoping to encourage eco-friendly habits in kids that last a lifetime. Kids email their designs to www.Halloween@chicobag.com by November 5.  The winning creation will be used on next year’s bags.

Young do-gooders are all around us, and Liberty Mutual (the fifth largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S.)  wants to acknowledge them for their efforts.  

Through Liberty Mutual’s The Responsibility Project for the Win, teens ages 13-17 are encouraged to share their stories about how they have made a difference this summer so other teens are inspired to put giving back on their radar screen. 

To enter the contest, teens need to complete an entry form and submit an online essay (300 words or less) that describes their personal “responsibility project.”  This can include a charitable activity, a community project, or serving as a leader, an inspiration, or a supporter to others. The contest deadline is August, 31.  Parent permission is a must.

Five teens will be selected as winners this September.  Those honored will receive the following:  a $500 donation made in their name to a nonprofit of their choosing by Liberty Mutual; their essay featured on The Responsibility Project, and an invitation to guest blog their winning story.

What better insurance policy for the world we live in?  Teens motivating teens to give a little and care a lot!

 © YesKidzCan!, 2010

If you know a boy or girl who did something to make his community a better place or was  brave in a tough situation or helped out a friend in need?

Show your support by nominating that special child or teen for the NESTLÉ® DRUMSTICK® Heroes Contest. Fifty children between the ages of 6 and 17 will win a fun-filled, summer celebration package, with enough NESTLÉ® DRUMSTICK® Sundae Cones for a party of 50 pals.

To nominate an outstanding child or teen, go to DRUMSTICK® Heroes Contest  to submit an entry form along with a short story (150 to 300 words) describing why the individual deserves to be honored as a DRUMSTICK® Hero.  You must turn in your entry by September 15, 2010.

© YesKidzCan!, 2010