SOOTS finalist in The Pepsi Refresh Project
The Pepsi Refresh Project, a groundbreaking effort that funds ideas, big and small, that can refresh the world, announced that the Sustaining Roots Music Community Project (SOOTS) received the most votes in May and is on track to be collectively awarded a $5,000 grant to organize a Benefit Blues Revue concert, and to help introduce younger generations to the community’s traditional music. In 2010, Pepsi is awarding more than $20 million to ideas that will move the world forward. Anyone can submit an idea at http://www.RefreshEverything.com and each month the public decides who wins.
Americans voted for over 1,000 ideas from May 1 through May 31. With the May ideas’ votes tallied, Pepsi is working with partners at Global Giving and GOOD to ensure that each idea qualifies to receive funding. Once approved, each idea will have the opportunity to be put into action.
“The Sustaining Roots Music Community Project is special because it shows young people taking an interest not just in learning about our community’s musical history, but also in preserving that history for future generations,” said Julie Trahin, Pepsi Bottling Ventures. “We look forward to the concert SOOTS will be putting on to benefit the Music Maker Relief Foundation as part of its Pepsi Refresh grant.”
Voters to http://www.refresheverything.com/soots agreed that the idea from SOOTS was a compelling one. SOOTS has experience in this area, having orgnaized four benefit concerts, raised $9,000 and united diverse communities through song and dance since its inception in 2006. The twofold goal of supporting aging musicians and engaging younger audiences promises to please everyone in the community. SOOTS will begin by organizing a Benefit Blues Revue featuring Piedmont Blues musicians, the proceeds of which will benefit the Music Maker Relief Foundation. The concert will be professionally filmed and recorded to preserve the local arts for future generations.
The Pepsi Refresh Project is an evolution of the Refresh Everything initiative Pepsi launched in 2009, which showed the brand as a catalyst for optimism. In 2010, Pepsi is funding ideas that will move the world forward in six categories: Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education. The Pepsi Refresh Project will feature significant social engagement around people and the power of ideas.
To implement the project, Pepsi has partnered with three organizations dedicated to making a positive difference in the world: GOOD, a leading platform for thought and action revolving around pushing the world forward; Global Giving, an online marketplace that connects people who have community and world-changing ideas with people who can support them; and Do Something, the largest non-profit teen charity.
“The SOOTS Community Project achieves two important goals: first, to assist elderly Southern blues artists, and second, to introduce young people to this traditional musical genre,” said Rebecca Rigal, Pepsi Refresh Project Arts & Culture Ambassador. “Through a filmed and recorded concert, among other activities, SOOTS will achieve both of its goals.”
The Pepsi Refresh Project can be found at http://www.RefreshEverything.com or find more information on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/refresheverything and Twitter, @Pepsi or #pepsirefresh.
Source: Raleigh Downtowner Magazine
