28th Annual Colgate Youth For America Campaign

Note: This is an abbreviated press release from Colgate-Palmolive.   For the entire text, visit their web site.

NEW YORK (October 2000) --- Youth organizations are invited to enter their best community service projects as part of the "Colgate Youth for America" campaign. Colgate-Palmolive Company presents cash grants of up to $2,000 for the most creative and best-executed projects by local units of the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and other organizations which represent 13 million children across America.

Local troop community service programs running between March 1, 2000 and March 1, 2001 are eligible to win one of more than 315 cash awards.

A celebrity panel of judges who volunteer their time and talent to the campaign will be announced in January 2001 and will determine the top winners.
Last year's top winners include both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

A Boy Scout troop from Rhode Island took on the enormous task of enumerating the entire community's telephone poles so that emergency vehicles could locate addresses fast.

A Girl Scout troop from Washington built an outdoor playhouse for the local YWCA domestic violence shelter. Scouts researched designs, solicited materials, and attended classes on the use of power tools. After completing the project they collected items to fill the playhouse, and cleaned up the surrounding grounds.

"By bringing these exceptional young people into the spotlight, Colgate Youth for America hopes to inspire other kids to make a difference in their own communities," says Program Director, Jennifer Marcus Barbara.

To date, Colgate-Palmolive Company has awarded nearly $6 million to America's children through Colgate Youth for America. The campaign, initiated in 1972 to encourage social responsibility, is now the longest-running corporate-sponsored program for young people. Colgate Youth for America has been honored by The White House under the last five administrations, has received a Freedoms Foundation Award, is included in The Points of Light directory, and is praised annually by members of Congress, governors and mayors across the nation.

Entry forms are now available through regional offices of the six national organizations, or by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Colgate Youth for America Campaign, P.O. Box 1058, FDR Station, New York, NY 10150-1058. Entry forms and more information about past winners can also be found at the Colgate-Palmolive web site. Entries must be postmarked by March 15, 2001.