New York, NY and Research Triangle Park, NC, August 1: This summer, more than 20,000 teams consisting of more than 70,000 young people got off their beach towels and onto their mobile phones to take action on key social issues impacting their communities. They participated in an 11-day Scavenger Hunt, spearheaded by DoSomething.org and Lenovo to make a difference in their communities, tackling serious issues like poverty and animal welfare.
Teams received daily challenges via text message, social media and e-mail. Sample challenges included donating school supplies for underserved kids and setting up an e-mail address for a senior citizen. 18,500 individual actions were reported via text message alone.
“The Scavenger Hunt was a great way to become introduced to and involved with a variety of important causes. It was awesome to rally around causes as a team, and so empowering to be a part of a nationwide movement,” said teen participant, Sarah Cronk. “Receiving updates on my phone made the hunt especially fun and easy because I could complete challenges and report back while on the go.”
NBC’s Community stars and campaign spokespeople Alison Brie and Danny Pudi got in on the action, joining together in a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to announce the campaign and tweeting out daily challenges.Twilight’s Chaske Spencer and Disney’s Shake it Up! star Bella Thorne also teamed with the Hunt, rallying their Twitter followers to sign up. Thorne posted an emotional video challenging teens to take action on her personal cause, bullying.
“I’m thrilled to see so many teens spending their summer break making a difference through the Scavenger Hunt and it shows the impact organizations like DoSomething.org can have,” said spokesperson, Alison Brie.
Team “Trash Binh” completed all 26 of the scavenger hunt challenges and received the most points of the more than 20,000 participating teams. They won a trip to Los Angeles to attend the Do Something Awards, the premier Award Show for young people and celebrities creating change in their communities. The Do Something Awards airs on VH1 on August 18th.
The team also won 11 Lenovo IdeaPad laptops. Additionally, the Scavenger Hunt awarded more than 50 Lenovo PCs to top participants, empowering them to further connect, collaborate and “Do.”
“The mission of the Scavenger Hunt is all about enabling teens to Do more in their communities, and thanks to such overwhelming participation, we’ve far exceeded our hopes for making an impact,” said David Roman, chief marketing officer, Lenovo. “Our own team of doers – our engineers, designers and others behind our computers – strongly identify with the concept of doing more, and we’re thrilled to be providing the PC technology that allows these youth to keep serving their communities.”
“In the summer, teens want to be outside having fun with friends,” said Melanie Stevenson, Business Development Director at DoSomething.org. “Through the Scavenger Hunt, they were able to do just that while improving their communities.”
Young people can still get involved with DoSomething.org and take action on the social issues they care about most by texting JOIN to 38383.
About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a $US21 billion personal technology company serving customers in more than 160 countries, and the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.
About DoSomething.org
DoSomething.org is one of the largest organizations in the US that helps young people rock causes they care about. A driving force in creating a culture of volunteerism, DoSomething.org is on track to activate two million young people in 2011. By leveraging the web, television, mobile, and pop culture, DoSomething.org inspires, empowers and celebrates a generation of doers: teenagers who recognize the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action. Plug in at www.DoSomething.org.
