In anticipation of the petition drives that students will soon be leading in schools throughout the country, Our Education is pleased to announce four prizes for outstanding leadership and creativity.  The prizes—four grand prizes of $75 gift cards and four second prizes of $25 cards from any store of your choice—will be awarded for a variety of challenges that all students are eligible to participate in!  Read below for more information on the different contests and how to enter:

1.) Most Creative Flier or Advertisement Supporting Our Education’s Petition
Make a flier or other kind of advertisement (short movie, audio file, brochure, or some other ad) promoting the petition campaign and explaining why the cause of an American right to high quality public education is one that young people should support.  The strongest entries will be honored as official Our Education ads and be made available for download at www.OurEd.org and the winning entry will receive a gift card (see prize section below)!
Requirements:
- If you design a flier, it should leave space so that students at other schools can customize it for use during their petition drives (i.e. space for dates & times when the petition drive will be held, where students can sign it, etc.)
- The advertisement should teach those who see it something important about the status of public education in America and the need for improvement
 
2.) Highest Signature Participation from Single School (based on total #)
The petition drive director whose school is able to collect the most signatures during the first semester of the school year will receive a gift card of choice! 

3.) Highest Signature Participation from Single School (based on %)
Our Education will also award a prize to the leader(s) of the petition drive that yields the highest percentage of signature participation from a single school during the fall semester.  If your school is very small but you are able to get 99% of your student body to sign it, this contest is for you!*

4.) Best Plan to Spread Petition Drives Beyond your School
Our Education will award a prize to the student who submits the best plan for spreading the word about Our Education’s petition drive to schools beyond their own.  These plans can rely on existing networks of state or regional student councils, Key clubs, or other organizations,  or they can be built on any other network of students that you may have access to. 
To apply for this contest, all you need to do is email your plan that addresses the following points:
- How many schools do you think your plan will be able to reach so that students there will lead a school-wide petition drive? 
- How many signatures do you think will be obtained as a result of your plan (offer estimates for the number of signatures to be gained by each network or organization included in your plan)?
- What is your plan for reaching out to these other schools, and how will you persuade the students there that this is a worthwhile project for them to adopt on their campuses?
- Describe your relationship with the organizations and other people involved in this plan, if any.
- How much time (i.e. how many months) do you think it will take to fully implement your plan?  Keep in mind that we have the entire school year for the petition drive, so it is better to proceed slowly and effectively than try to rush too much.

THE PRIZE:  Each of the winners of the four above contests will receive a $75 gift card from any retail store of their choosing, so long as gift cards can be purchased online.  The second prize winners in each of the four contests will receive a $25 gift card.

How You Can Participate: Just email us with your flier / advertisement for the first contest, and your plan for expansion for the fourth contest!  If you are leading a petition drive in your school we will just talk with you over the course of the semester to monitor your progress for the 2nd and 3rd contests, and we will count the # of signatures on the master signature spreadsheet you send us at the end of your petition drive. 
If you have received this e-mail but haven’t yet talked with us about leading a petition drive at your school, don’t worry - it’s never too late to get started!!  Just reply to this email and ask for more information about leading a petition and we’ll set up a time to brainstorm a game plan for you and your school.

Questions?  Email us at info@oured.org.