Celebrate Lincoln International Festival Needs Your Votes

Celebrate Lincoln International Festival is in the running to receive a $50,000 grant through the Pepsi Refresh Project. More than 1,100 ideas have been submitted this month and the grants are awarded based on the number of votes received by the public. Each person can vote for Celebrate Lincoln once a day through April 30 by visiting www.refresheverything.com/celebratelincoln and voting only takes a few seconds.

The grant would allow Celebrate Lincoln to sponsor vendors to share their culture at the festival, reimburse cultural vendors for equipment & grocery items bought for the festival, pay cultural and international performers, provide free admission to local English Language Learner students and create a successful marketing campaign to promote festival. Celebrate Lincoln, produced by Updowntowners, will take place on June 18-19, 2010 and drew more than 15,000 patrons to the streets of Downtown Lincoln last year.

The Festival works closely with local culture centers to encouraging local entrepreneurs, refugees and New Americans to participate. Financial resources are limited, but the $50,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant would relieve much of the monetary burden of the festival in introducing patrons to the cultures that shape the Lincoln community.

Pepsi is looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact in the community and is giving away $1.3 million a month. With the grant, Celebrate Lincoln will continue to provide refugees and new Americans the opportunity to share their culture with those in the Lincoln community and beyond.
More information about Celebrate Lincoln can be found on the festival website, http://www.celebratelincoln.org.