Today instead of a recipe I’m going to do a little shameless promotion. Not for myself, but for my friend Meagan, who I met in seventh grade when we were both bratty teenagers who called our parents names and made up songs about the boys we liked.

Now, we see each other once or twice a year but when we do get
together, it’s as though we still live around the corner from one
another in nearly-identical cookie cutter houses on Hawthorne and
Sycamore Streets.

She’s become the kind of person who leads by example with her
selflessness. She works in a hospital as a music therapist, bringing
care and comfort to homeless families, terminally ill patients and
autistic children – a job that has to have its dark moments, but you’d
never know it from talking to Meagan.

Well, I promised you shameless promotion, so here it is:

Pepsi (an Edelman client) is giving away $1.3 million each month to ideas that have a positive community impact.  For the rest of the year, Pepsi will donate ten $5K, ten $25K, ten $50K, and two $250K.  There are six categories and one of Meagan’s service projects, MusicianCorps is in the running to win a $250,000 grant.

MusicianCorps, part of Music National Service (MNS) is a domestic “musical Peace Corps” located in four cities – SF/Oakland Bay Area, Chicago, New
Orleans and Seattle – where twenty MusicianCorps Fellows
serve full-time in high-need public schools, parks and recreation centers,
children’s and veteran’s hospitals, public housing communities.

Winners are decided solely on the amount of votes generated per idea each day. Every day on March, you can log onto the Pepsi Refresh Project or click the badge above and vote for your favorite program – there are so many great people out there who are willing to help others that it really makes you forget about the little grievances in life.

If you have time, please hop over to vote. It’s a great community program that could lead to a positive impact on a lot of lives.

Disclosure: PepsiCo. is a client of the company where I work, I have not worked on this campaign nor was I asked to write this post. I’m writing this purely of my own volition and to support a friend in her efforts with MusicianCorps.