I had a lot of different ideas growing up. Some good, like my design for a four-person version of a GT Snow Racer (right?). And some not so good, like the two-week enterprise with my buddy Brent to sell discarded chicken feet from his family farm to school classmates you could move the toes by pulling on the exposed tendons, appearing like they were waving (but they also started to smell after sitting in a desk for five days).
Whether they were questionably great or charmingly silly, the only place to display my ideas was on the fridge door. There was no place to send them.
A project called Start Something with Alesse is on a mission to find those ideas. Named after the Alesse birth control pill (Pfizer Canada is the major sponsor), its a nation-wide contest for business and not-for-profit project proposals; the prize is $5,000 and a mentorship to get the ball rolling.
To help pick the 10 best ideas, Start Something with Alesse recruited Vancouver-native, actress and former MTV host (The Hills: Live After Show, anyone?) Jessi Cruikshank and singer and entrepreneur Caroline Neron as the judges for the competition.
When I was growing up in Vancouver, I had all of these ideas, as so many young Canadians do, about ways I wanted to change the planet or my school, says Cruikshank, who attended Point Grey Secondary with Seth Rogen where she was the only female member of his comedy troupe, in a telephone interview from her home in West Hollywood. I never knew how to make them a reality. I had all of these dreams and I didnt know where to start.
One of these ideas was a campaign to help clean up her elementary school in Point Grey. Its kind embarrassing, she says with a giggle, but I remember making all these signs to promote it and ended up throwing them out in the end, which is not good for the environment at all.
Cruikshank who is working with Rogens appropriately titled Point Grey Pictures on a new TV project (Its still in development so we have to keep the details under wraps) wants applicants to be confident about their ideas, despite what age they may be.
I really want to inspire kids to be beyond what people often think young people should be, she says emphatically. They should realize that at 16, 18, 20, or 25, they have the power to start a viable business or a viable charity organization that can change peoples lives and the community and the world. Were looking for awesome creative ideas that could be great businesses or great non-profit endeavors.
Cruikshank admits shell be keeping a special eye on Vancouver applications.
Im a very tough critic and Im not supposed to be biased towards Vancouverites, but you guys have a soft spot in my heart.
To enter an idea, go to Facebook.com/startsomethingwithalesse. The deadline is Oct. 31.
