COLGATE CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF COMMITMENT TO KIDS THROUGH YOUTH FOR AMERICA CAMPAIGN Program Rewards Local Youth Groups for their Best Service Projects
Cash awards available for best community service programs by youth.
(PRWEB) November 13, 2002
COLGATE CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF COMMITMENT TO KIDS
THROUGH YOUTH FOR AMERICA CAMPAIGN
Program Rewards Local Youth Groups for their Best Service Projects
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NEW YORK (November 2002) – Colgate-Palmolive announced that local clubs and troops of six of the largest national youth organizations are invited to enter their best community service projects as part of the 30th Anniversary “Colgate Youth for America” campaign.
Colgate-Palmolive Company presents cash awards of up to $2,000 for the most creative and best-executed projects by local units of Boy Scouts of America, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Camp Fire USA, Girl Scouts of the USA, 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, 2002 and March 1, 2003 are eligible to win one of more than 350 cash awards.
“These young people not only see the challenges in their communities, they’re finding solutions,” said Ian Cook–EVP, Colgate-Palmolive and Executive Advisor to the Youth for America program. “By celebrating their achievements, Colgate Youth for America hopes to inspire others like them to make a difference in their own communities.”
Last yearÂ’s top winners reflect the ingenuity and resourcefulness of todayÂ’s young people:
Top National 4-H Council winners included the Grand Prize “Best of All Entries” winners from Fresno, Calif., that raise and train guide dog puppies; a group from North Carolina that provides after-school care for children in kindergarten through 3rd grade; and a California club that helps stock food pantries for several organizations with produce from their community garden.
Boys & Girls Club winners included a club from Texas that created a program that helps feed the homeless and assist their children with school work; a North Carolina club that provides free childcare for children being raised by their grandparents; and a Colorado club that hosts a “Family Night Out” program enabling parents to celebrate their children’s achievements.
Local Boy Scout winners included a troop from Maine that hosted and subsidized an outdoor summer camp for troubled youth; a Pennsylvania troop that trains with Red Cross Disaster services, volunteers with search and rescue operations and teaches younger scouts first-aid skills; a troop from Washington state that refurbishes computers and places them in the homes of low-income families; and a Cub Scout pack from Illinois that hosts reading tutorial classes for students in 1st through 3rd grades.
Local Girl Scout winners included a troop from Florida that planned and built a playground at a home for pregnant and parenting teens; a Michigan troop that initiated an anti-violence and conflict resolution program with educational workshops for their peers; and a Minnesota troop that planned and instituted a babysitting clinic to train community teens about proper safety, care and first-aid.
Local Camp Fire winners included a teen club from Minnesota that provided free or low cost babysitting; another teen club from California that created a free summer camp for underprivileged children; and a third teen club from Texas that tutors elementary school students.
Local Girls Incorporated winners included a unit from California whose members are trained to mentor their peers and younger children about a variety of health issues; a unit from Indiana whose members are available early evenings at their clubhouse to help students with homework and other school projects; and another California unit that oversees a funding program that distributes “seed” grants to new organizations that promote economic literacy to girls and young women.
Details about these and other top-winning programs can be found online at www. youthforamerica. com.
To date, Colgate-Palmolive Company has awarded nearly $6 million to AmericaÂ’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 March 15, 2003.
