The Imagination Foundation’s 3rd Annual Global Cardboard Challenge officially launches today! Invite kids in your community to build something amazing out of cardboard, recycled materials and imagination, and then on October 11, 2014 have a day of play to celebrate childhood creativity. Read the press release below.
Last year we had over 90,000 participants in 49 countries. Check out the events and register your own at www.cardboardchallenge.com. Here you can also get the tools and support you need to build something awesome!
This year, the event is brought to you by Mattress Firm, in cooperation with the new film by LAIKA and Focus Features, ‘The Boxtrolls.’
Happy building!
For Immediate Release
ANNOUNCING THE IMAGINATION FOUNDATION’S
2014 GLOBAL CARDBOARD CHALLENGE, INSPIRED BY ‘CAINE’S ARCADE’
Brought to you by Mattress Firm, in cooperation with ‘The Boxtrolls,’ the new stop-motion film by LAIKA and Focus Features, and with littleBits, Makedo and SparkFun
30,000 Head Start children expected to participate
Los Angeles, CA (September 10, 2014) – Chile, South Africa, Bosnia and Rwanda were just a few of the 49 countries that participated in last year’s Global Cardboard Challenge, joined by nearly 100,000 participants. This worldwide event, now in its third year, focuses on child creativity and is inspired by the short film, “Caine’s Arcade.” This year it culminates on Saturday, October 11th, when communities around the world will come together in a day of play to celebrate the creativity and imagination of children everywhere.
This year’s event is brought to you by Mattress Firm, the nation’s largest mattress retailer, in partnership with the new film ‘The Boxtrolls,’ by LAIKA (the creators of Coraline and ParaNorman). During the month-long celebration, children of all ages are encouraged to build whatever they can dream up using cardboard, recycled material and imagination. Participants are asked to register their activities at www.cardboardchallenge.com.
This year’s Global Cardboard Challenge also features a new partnership with the National Head Start Association (NHSA). At the recent Clinton Global Initiative in Denver, the Imagination Foundation and NHSA, along with Lakeshore Learning Materials, committed to engage 30,000 Head Start children in the Challenge as a vehicle for early STEM learning. The Exploratory in Los Angeles supported the creation of a new “early STEM Playbook” for Head Start centers to use during the Challenge.
“The Global Cardboard Challenge is about letting children unleash their natural powers of creativity,” says Mike McGalliard, executive director of the Imagination Foundation. “You can make it about STEM, about invention, about resourcefulness, about play — but it’s always about letting a child’s imagination run wild.”
This is the second year that Mattress Firm is sponsoring the event. “Creativity and entrepreneurship are values on which we’ve built our company,” says Cory Ludens, vice president of learning and development at Mattress Firm. “Sponsoring this event and helping spread these values to others just makes sense for us. We are very excited to be a part of Imagination Foundation and the Global Cardboard Challenge again!”
Partners also include littleBits – the easiest and most extensible way to learn and prototype with electronics. littleBits produces and sells a library of electronic modules that snap together with magnets, putting the power of electronics into the hands of everyone. Imagination Foundation will distribute littleBits’ kits to encourage creativity, exploration, and learning across 30 of its Imagination Chapters.
Additional sponsors are Makedo, a company that makes simple reusable construction tools for children to creative with cardboard; and SparkFun, a company that provides hardware and resources for anyone to learn and play with electronic gadgets.
This year the Imagination Foundation is working with reddit ‘the front page of the internet,’ for Global reddit Service Day, which also falls on October 11th. Members of the worldwide reddit community are encouraged to host and volunteer at local Cardboard Challenge events around the world,
**Photos and video footage from the 2013 Global Cardboard Challenge available upon request.
About the Imagination Foundation
The mission of the Imagination Foundation is to find, foster and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in children around the world to raise a new generation of innovators and problem solvers who have the tools they need to build the world they imagine.
The Imagination Foundation is growing a worldwide movement to promote creativity as a core
social value and a critical skill for the 21st Century. To fuel this movement, they tell inspirational stories of creative children, produce large-scale events, campaigns and challenges, and provide teachers, parents and communities everywhere with the knowledge, tools and inspiration they need to develop child creativity. The Cardboard Challenge is their hallmark program to engage children all over the world in Creative Play.
For more information about Caine’s Arcade and the Imagination Foundation, visit www.imagination.is. Follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/imagination and like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/imaginationfoundation.
About Mattress Firm
Houston-based Mattress Firm (NASDAQ:MFRM) is a high growth specialty retailer, recognized as one of the nation’s leading specialty bedding companies, offering a broad selection of both traditional and specialty mattresses, bedding accessories and related products from leading manufacturers. With more than 1,500 company-operated and franchised stores across 36 states, Mattress Firm has the largest geographic footprint in the United States among multi-brand mattress specialty retailers. Mattress Firm offers customers comfortable store environments, guarantees on price, comfort and service, and highly-trained sales professionals. More information is available at www.mattressfirm.com.
Contact:
Imagination Foundation
Smeeta Singh
smeeta@imagination.is
213.375.3080
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