Colgate-Palmolive presents cash awards of up to $2,000 for the most creative and best-executed projects by local units of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Camp Fire USA, Girl Scouts of the USA, Boy Scouts of America, Girls Incorporated and National 4-H Council - organizations representing 13 million children across America.
Local club and troop community service programs running between March 1, 2003 and March 1, 2004 are eligible to win one of more than 350 cash awards.
"The young people recognized by this program are truly changing their world for the better," said Ian Cook, EVP, Colgate-Palmolive and Executive Advisor to Youth for America. "We hope their hard work will inspire kids across the street and across the nation to make a difference in their own hometowns."
Last year's top winners reflect the ingenuity and resourcefulness of today's young people:
- The Grand Prize "Best of All Entries" for 2002-2003 was a Boys & Girls Club from Gainesville, Fla. that created a unique baseball league for special needs children. Other local Boys & Girls Club winners included a California club that transformed an abandoned lot into a garden and playground for a housing project and a Washington state club that anonymously performed free yard work for neighborhood seniors.
- Local 4-H winners included a club from Ohio that instituted and taught court-ordered safe driving classes to teens who received traffic tickets; a Georgia club that created a beauty pageant for residents of a nursing home; and a California club that collected and distributed clothes, food, personal care items and bus tokens to homeless teens.
- Local Boy Scout winners included a troop from New York state that constructed an emergency escape route from their elementary school; a New Jersey Cub Scout pack that organized free snow removal and grocery/pharmacy delivery for seniors; and a Cub Scout pack from Pennsylvania that purchased phone cards for National Guard troops serving overseas.
- Local Girl Scout winners included a troop from New York state that enlisted the participation of hundreds of other Girl Scout troops across the nation in the construction of a September 11th memorial flag; another New York state troop that aided the Red Cross with flood disaster relief efforts in their hometown; and a Connecticut troop that read and recorded books on tape for the pediatric ward of their local hospital.
- Local Camp Fire winners included a Washington state special needs club that prepared care packages for children entering foster care; a California teen club that created a college scholarship fund for local graduating high school students; and a club from Oregon that read and translated children's stories for Spanish-speaking elementary school students.
- Local Girls Incorporated winners included a unit from Texas that tutored low-income, inner city youth at an after-care center; a Massachusetts unit that used puppets to lead discussions about peer issues at schools and community agencies; and a California unit that performed at schools and community centers using dance to teach health, nutrition and fitness. * Complete details about these programs as well as a Free Idea Booklet can be found online at www.youthforamerica.com.
To date, Colgate-Palmolive has awarded nearly $6 million to America's children through Colgate Youth for America. The campaign, initiated in 1972 to encourage social responsibility, is now the longest-running corporate-sponsored program for young people. Colgate Youth for America has been honored by The White House under the last five administrations, has received a Freedoms Foundation Award, is included in The Points of Light Foundation and Volunteer Center National Network, and is praised annually by members of Congress, governors and mayors across the nation.
Entry forms are now available through regional offices of the six national organizations, online at www.youthforamerica.com, or by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Colgate Youth for America Campaign, P.O. Box 1058, FDR Station, New York, NY 10150-1058. Entries must be postmarked by April 30, 2004.
------------------------
Produced for Colgate-Palmolive
Contact: David Forman
(212) 736-0564
youthforamerica@aol.com
------------------------