May 18, 2010

Pinkerton Academy seeks Pepsi grant, needs votes

By CAROL ROBIDOUX
Union Leader Correspondent
DERRY – Pinkerton Academy is in line for a grant that could earn the school $250,000 toward a campus security system, but they need online votes to win.
The Pepsi Refresh Program is a grant program open to any school, business or community group that can come up with a worthy cause AND earn the most online votes. Pinkerton freshman Dylan Mahalingam submitted a proposal on behalf of the school, detailing the need for a security monitoring system to prevent vandalism and promote campus safety. It is now one of 1,300 projects in the running for a prize and, as of yesterday, ranked 79.
The month-long voting period ends May 31.
Pinkerton Dean of Students Glenn Aherns said voting was going fairly well at first, but has dropped off in the last week.
This would be wonderful for Pinkerton. We have a large campus – our student parking lot holds more than 600 cars, and that doesn't even include the faculty lot,” Aherns said. “This would give us a better handle on the comings and goings on campus – it's not like there's one door in and one door out.”
He said the $1.3 million in grant money being awarded by Pepsi, which includes two $250,000 top prizes and several smaller awards, was money the company saved from not running Super Bowl ads.
I think that's great, that they can put that money to good use in communities. That's great advertising,” Aherns said.
Individuals can votes once every day by going to http://pep.si/9klthi or by logging on to your Facebook account and searching for the “Pepsi Refresh Program” Facebook page. You can also search Facebook for Dylan Mahalingam's page, which is set up already with a quick link under his profile picture.

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