Okay, okay: Sometimes, Toronto is actually pretty awesome

A quick note of congratulations this morning for Geoffrey.

On January 13th, 2011, he managed to entice more than fifteen people out into a cold, snowy, winter night to cram into a two small tables in the corner of a pub called Sin & Redemption to discuss, well, Awesome. Not just any Awesome, but the The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences.

“The Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences is an ever-growing, worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe.”

Just one short week later and there is now a Toronto chapter of the The Awesome Foundation.

That means that ten individuals (well, in some case couples like Melanie and yours truly) believe in the potential of small actions, to have big impacts. That small action is simply showing up each month, bringing $100 in cash, and hearing that month’s proposals. The best proposal gets $1000, in cash, in a brown paper bag. That bag heads off into the universe to create its small piece of change in the hands of a person with an awesome idea.

What could be more awesome than that? (Not counting world peace and the like.)

Since the announcement last week, there’s been some great coverage online, and Geoffrey indicated that the new Awesome Foundation Toronto website has received more than four thousand visitors in the last few days. The first proposal is in, indicating that we’re off to a great start. I’m confident that we’re going to see enough awesome proposals each month that it will be hard to decide on just one.

In Toronto, we’ve got quite an excellent mix of Trustees from lots of different background. Most of us are involved in the “social innovation” scene in one way or another, and I suspect that theme will unfold in the projects that we decide to fund (hint, hint).

So, just a final reminder: the deadline to get in your ninety-second awesome proposal for the February meeting is February 15th. Don’t delay, JFDI.