This isn’t your typical contest.  This contest is an online, 100% paperless competition with earth-friendly prizes.

Included in the “green” prizes:

• Trip for Two to an Organic and Sustainable Vineyard
• A Year’s supply of Organic Beverages from Honest Tea and Give Natural Spring Water
• An “Eco-Design” bike from Trek Bikes
• The winning recipe posted online at www.Pizzafusion.com
• $100 Gift Card to Pizza Fusion
• $100 Gift Card to Whole Foods

Here’s how the contest works:

• Participants upload their short recipe video clip on YouTube.
• A panel of judges will review the top five YouTube videos that garner the most views through Friday, April 30^th.
• Participants are encouraged to spread the word about their video to family and friends through social media avenues such as Facebook and Twitter.
• One winner will be announced online Monday, May 3^rd

Joining Vaughan Lazar, president of Pizza Fusion, as a judge will be Chef Aaron McCargo Jr., star of Food Network’s Big Daddy’s House; Michael Singer, online editor of Bon Appétit; and Craig Agranoff, blogger and founder of WorstPizza.com; and Jen Friel, actress and blogger of TalkNerdyToMeLover.com.  They’ll be judging the recipes for creativity, earth-friendly value, overall presentation and edibility.

And to truly give back to the planet, participants and their supporters can also make contributions to Share Our Strength®, a national organization that works hard to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry, in Chef Aaron McCargo Jr.’s name.  During the entire month of April, participating Pizza Fusion locations will set up “dough-nation” buckets where 100 percent of the proceeds go to Share Our Strength as well as online at www.PizzaFusion.com.

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Finalists will be selected from September 7-10 and beginning September 11, fans can vote for their favorite confession and help three lucky finalists win brand new appliances. Not only that, but Kenmore will donate $5.00 for each video submission and $.50 for each vote cast to the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots program, which aims to make positive change happen — for our communities, for animals and for the environment. With tens of thousands of young people in almost 100 countries, the Roots & Shoots network branches out across the globe, connecting youth of all ages who share a common desire to help make the world a better place. So, even if you don’t submit a video, mark your calendars and start voting on September 11th so you can help a great cause (and, watch some fun videos).

The contest rules are listed at the Kenmore website. To submit your own video, or watch those that have been submitted check out Kenmore’s YouTube channel.

I submitted a video, my YouTube name is PrincessTinkFL so please, if by some miracle I am chosen as a finalist, vote for me

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Kenmore and received a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

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From Unigo-

For years, prospective college students have had to rely solely on costly print guidebooks for
their research. These books offer limited information, are typically written by marketing
professionals, have few photos, no videos, and no interactivity. Launched in September 2008,
the free website Unigo.com is quickly replacing these outmoded resources, with tens of
thousands of interactive reviews of America’s top colleges by the real experts – the students
who attend them.
These reviews were described by The New York Times Magazine as “…so evocative they make
the one-page U.S. News summaries read like junk mail … they are vivid in a way no guidebook
can match,” and The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg called Unigo “…a college information
resource built for the age of YouTube and Facebook.”
Pre-launch, Unigo’s team of 19 editors spent months researching America’s top 250 colleges,
and networking with tens of thousands of students to give them the opportunity to tell their
stories. They made sure to contact a diverse range of students within each university –
students from every class year, major, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation,
etc.

After more than 30,000 candid and original reviews, videos, photos, documents and more
poured in, Unigo’s editors viewed and organized all of it, working with students on campus to
ensure accuracy and making all of it available at Unigo.com. At many featured colleges, close to
10% of the student body contributed content.

Since Unigo is a new site and currently only has full profiles of the top 250+ colleges and universities, it has a long way to go. I searched for 6 universities that my son is interested in and none of them are profiled on Unigo at this time. To do my research I finally went to my alma mater The University of South Florida.
Unigo has a very nice review of USF with pictures and videos as well as reviews by students. I was impressed that in the sidebar of the page there are quotes from students that are the “Best things about USF” and the “Worst things about USF”. The content is real and regularly added to by students. Unigo also has a forum section where students can talk with prospective students and answer some of their questions before they ever step on campus.

Unigo is free to join and is a worthwhile place for you and your high school junior or senior to start researching and planning for their college career.

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You don’t need any additional software for your computer. The software is built in to the camera. You edit and save the video to your computer and you can upload it to the web via Youtube, Photobucket or Box.net so that you can share the video with friends and family. I don’t know anything about video editing-that is my son’s department, but I was able to edit this video and upload it without any trouble.

I took this video at this afternoon’s Works Of Wonder rehearsal. WOW is our homeschool musical theatre class. The sound is magnificent for such a small built in microphone. The colors are crisp and clear and the video is smooth. The camera is very easy to use-it has 1 button that controls recording with the zoom in and out on the top and bottom of the button. I love the size of the camera. It fits in my Vera Bradley media case and I pop it into my purse and carry it with me all the time. I will never miss an important video again. The Vado HD retails for $229.99 and you can order it from the Creative website. They also have a standard, non-HD model that comes in pink or silver and retails for $99.99 but right now the pink is on sale for $30 off! That’s right you can get it for only $69.99. If the pink is what you want click here. The Creative Vado HD is an amazingly powerful camera for the size and price.

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