Sunday, January 31, 2010

Stand & Deliver: Education // Tell Your Friends, via Email

Voting for Stand & Deliver: Education opens in a matter of hours. In preparation, we’ve crafted an email you can send to friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues. Spread the word to your contacts near and far: education is everyone’s business.

Friends, Neighbors, and fellow Chattanoogans,

I’m asking for your help in supporting Stand & Deliver, a six-month change process focused on improving education for the city of Chattanooga. The project is up for a public vote through the entire month of February, in conjunction with the Refresh Project, a Pepsi and GOOD collaboration. This initiative awards millions of dollars to innovative ideas around the world, and Chattanooga is up for big honors.

Stand & Deliver: Education follows in the footsteps of Stand, a community visioning effort that engaged over 25,000 people in the summer of 2009. From that survey, education has emerged as one of the top concerns for Chattanoogans, and Stand & Deliver is a platform to involve a diverse group of residents in tackling this issue. It involves 5 months of community conversations, distribution of ground-setting documents, expert help, and finally, two 24-hour summits where citizens can champion projects, and see them actualized.

Pepsi awards grants based on a public vote. Polls are open February 1 through the 28, and users can vote DAILY for up to ten projects. By the end of the month, you can cast 280 votes for innovative projects, and specifically, 28 votes for Stand & Deliver. To vote, visit http://www.refresheverything.com/createhere.

I voted for Stand & Deliver because I believe in my city, and because I know education has the power to turn communities around. Will you join me?

Thank you.