Is your Destination Imagination team ready to make a difference in your community using your innate creativity? Our friends at Frigo® Cheese Heads® want to help! They have developed the Build a Bright Future program, with grants to help amplify your creative passions and fund your ideas – letting you build a brighter future for yourself and your community. Frigo Cheese Heads, a Saputo USA brand, has been funding tween and teen ideas for 11+ years. Since then, teens across the country have shared their creative ideas for their businesses, nonprofits, and side hustles to win one of these grants and help push their ideas to the next level.
What’s up for grabs?
Five talented winners will each win a $5,000 vision grant, along with educational prizes from WIT (Whatever It Takes) to help bring your creative dreams to life. WIT is a leader in youth entrepreneur and leadership programs around the world and offers teens the chance to learn how to design, launch, manage and measure a social enterprise or project. In addition to the $5,000, Frigo Cheese Heads vision grant winners receive a one-year membership to the WIT Community, where they will participate in a four-week virtual entrepreneur educational program and an exclusive mentorship program, complete with access to CEOs and entrepreneurs who will offer advice and support.
How to apply
Now you’re probably thinking, “how do I apply?” and we’re so glad you asked! Applications for the Build a Bright Future program are open now through August 31, 2024. These applications are completely online at BuildABrightFuture.com and will be judged based on an established rubric that takes creativity, merit and purpose into account when selecting the five winners. United States-based teens must be ages 13-17 to apply. The application process includes creating a short video and answering a few questions about how they’ll use their creativity as a force for good. Full rules and regulations linked here.
Past winners:
We’re continually inspired by tweens and teens actively building a brighter future. The 2023 Frigo® Cheese Heads® Build a Bright Future winners include future leaders who are making their mark and deserve recognition. Meet some of our past winners for a little inspiration.
Anvi Saxena, 16, of Frisco, Texas, is the co-founder of Rallying for Refugees, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping refugees in the Dallas community make new connections and feel at home.
Anvi, her co-founders and other members have created fun social events for the organization such as volleyball tournaments, Thanksgiving dinners and tutoring workshops. Anvi’s dream is to help refugee families and make them feel like a part of her community. In the course of two years, she has helped establish the organization well, and hopes to help more refugee families in the future.
Barrett Deng, 15, of Santa Cruz, California, is the co-founder of Clore, a company that produces fire retardants for the communities most affected by wildfires. Clore’s products not only have shown to work against fighting fires by releasing carbon dioxide in a safe way for the environment but also treating the ground, preventing it from catching on fire as well, which no other fire retardant has done.
With two third-party certifications under their belt, Clore aims to not only safeguard landscapes but homes and other infrastructure as well. On the heels of their soft launch in the Santa Cruz mountains, Clore hopes to now begin allocating funds to Facebook and Nextdoor ads, allowing them to engage with local communities online.
Please apply at BuildaBrightFuture.com by August 31, 2024.
