September 1, 2010

In just minutes a day, you can help the Foundation win $250,000! The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation is competing in the Pepsi Refresh Everything contest for a $250,000 grant to help us build our Youth Development Parks in 5 communities: Baltimore, MD; Richmond and Fredericksburg, VA; Collier County, FL; and Houston, TX. These parks will give kids safe places to play, where they can learn to make smart choices from mentors through programs like Badges for Baseball.

This is a national competition in the month of September, and only the two projects with the most votes win. We need you to please vote for us every day during the month of September!

Fastest way to vote: Text from your cell phone. Text 102661 to 73774. If you have Facebook, just install the voting app and search for "Ripken." Click here to go to the Facebook Pepsi Refresh Voting Application.

Each person is allowed to vote once a day, and you'll need a simple sign up to get started on the Pepsi website:

1) Go to www.refresheverything.com 2) On the right, under "Vote to Refresh America," click to "Browse Ideas & Vote" 3) In the blue box on the bottom of your screen, click "Join Refresh Everything" (No need to scroll down) 4) Enter your information on the Sign-up screen that pops up (You may need to turn off your pop-up blocker or set it to allow pop-ups from this site) 5) Once you click "Done," it will take you back to the original Pepsi Refresh Project page 6) Go to the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation's project page: www.refresheverything.com/SafePlacesToPlay 7) Click on the button to "Vote for this idea" 8) After you join, you can easily go to our project page, sign in, and then click to vote.

You can also help us by forwarding this e-mail to your friends and networks. Thank you so much for your wonderful support over the next 30 days!