Thank You from Mr. Billy, et al

Well... the results are out; and although Creative Planet didn't win first prize we were a close runner-up and will be receiving a grant for $2,300 from Dr. Pepper... and Yahoo will also be airing this wonderful commercial about CPSOA that I've attached for you to view and forward at will to all those who voted for us...http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/drpepper/videos/BillRugh.wmv
We wanted to take this chance to thank all of you who voted for us, constantly support us, and even forwarded it to your own personal universes... Special thanks to gay chorus singers everywhere, Michelle Ishida's blog, the hip hop community, more light presbyterians, and of course the amazing students, parents, and friends of CPSOA...Mr. Billy, the Mishka, and Santowww.cpsoa.org

Oh Well...Maybe Next Year

Thank you to EVERYONE who voted and helped and passed on the info!!! Billy was not selected as one of the 2 $23,000 winners, but he still gets $2,300 for Creative Planet for making the finals! Thank you so much for your support!

Final Day and More Thank you's!

Today's the day! It's the last day to VOTE FOR BILL R. at the Dr. Pepper "Pepper your Community" contest!

More thank you's:
Debbie Devivo, Kim Breton, Rob McElroy, Dana Rudy, Kristie Beauchain, Michael Gutierrez, Pilar Ellis, Kat Evans, Allison Butterfield, Marian McLain, Tony Spatafora, Lisa Kramer, Jeffrey Kagen, Rick Noyce, Robin Graham, Richard Triplett, Mary Nalick, Cherry Orne

4 Days More

We really need to keep the push to ensure that everyone votes for Billy! PLEASE TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!

If needed, here's a little blurb you can add about how this money will affect Creative Planet: By voting for Billy you will help our non-profit school, Creative Planet School of the Arts, which serves inner-city, at-risk youth, win $23,000! This money will allow us to continue the fierce and unique arts programs we offer at CPSOA by purchasing new violins to expand our violin classes, paying for new visual arts supplies, as well as ballet and tap shoes, a playground for our kids and much, much more! It will also help continue to pay for our guest performing and visual arts teachers.

I'd like to add that the current teachers get paid pennies...so all the money raised REALLY does go straight to the students. Please help!

Thanks for Forwarding it on!

I know a bunch of you have told us that you've forwarded it to all your friends, so thank you! (Chuck Friend, Simine Shevin, Traci Nakagawa, Jesse Perez, Robin Clark, Kevin Robison, Shane Sorenson, and Gary Holt, let us know who you are so we can thank you!)

More Thank You's

All of the original voters plus the new ones:
Gorpat Chaeron (who REALLY knows how important every vote is; having lost an election last year by 13 votes!), Suzanne Corbo, Liz Foster, Shane Sorenson, Lynn Atwater, Stacey Rosen, Jesse Tionko, Dan Smith, Stephano Park, John Duran, Jackie BaumMatthew Alexander, Jennifer Thomas, Brenda Moore, Carol Llewellyn, George Emerson, Allie Fukashima, Marie Trudeau, Craig Coogan, Marty Brier, Jim Geiger, Elsa & Art, Daniel Neri, Kevin Robison , Markus Honaker, Heather Shaw, Deanne Bringle, Debbie Warren, Cathy Madrid, Rick Delia, Jim Dugan, Julie Raya, Shaista Siraj, Maya Latinovic, Gyongyver Sovago, Debbie Stone, Craig Mendelsohn, Scott Williams , Ken Potter, Erika Walczak, Kevin Anawati, Amanda Thompson, John Tejeda, Jodie Gonzales, Hanson Tam, Michelle Ishida Orne, Tom Bourdon, David Peterson, Nik Murrow, Mark Lubas, Andrea Amico, Lou Reynolds, Laura K., Chuck Doyle, Thom Blackmore, Amy Engelhardt, Adam Pizzo, Ani Aghamalian, Santo Ragno, Yolanda Campo, Murielle Ferdinand, Shari Kraus, Joanna Gleason, Mary Smith, Fawn Weaver, Janet Brown, Mary Ellen Vanroyen, Robin Clark, Kelly Teo, Elena Fragasso, Debbie Stone, Trevor Orne, Traci Nakagawa, Gary Holt, Michele Spears, Lisa Gustavson, Fred Adams, Jerry Fecht, Janne Fecht, Kimberly Shriner, Bob Wilson, Russ Lee, Vickie Holmes, Sonnie Swenston, Gita Sharma, Janie Kohler, Deborah Galle, Oliver Ferry, Christine Kornreich, Jennifer Fishkin, Ben Fonseca, Nelson Ishida, Mark Orne, Charlotte Shiffman, Frank Scannicchio, Robert Lopez, Art Sanchez, Ken Lin, Frank Scannicchio, Derek Wellington, Janet Joe, Donna Burroughs, Maureen, Simine Shevin, Peter Johnson, Patricia Daanen, Dawn Frederick, Jesse Perez, Chuck Friend, Margit Haut.

We're on Craigslist!

Our goal is to be seen on as many different places as possible...every vote counts! To view or share our page on Craigslist, view: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/com/189283457.html

Another blog mention!

Thank you to Brad who wrote a great post about Billy and the school! Please check out his blog:
http://reddish68.livejournal.com/ In the comment section someone mentioned other places to post the information. We would love more suggestions! We're trying to post this in as many places as possible!

Format Changes

Special thanks to Art Sanchez for his help in making the site look a little prettier!

A Piece of Her Mind, on Loan of course

Thank you to Sonnie for her mention on her blog: http://heysonnie.wordpress.com/

Waiting for Pink

So I emailed our favorite celeb blogger, Trent, from Pink is the New Blog with our information and I'm hoping we'll hear back from him! Do you think he'll let us grace his site? PLEASE!

Banner You Can Use!

In case you want to link to this site, the Dr. Pepper site, or the Creative Planet site...you can use this banner!

Shout Out Part 2!

Paula Carvajal - Special Thanks! She gets her own Shout Out! Not only did she Vote and Pass it On, but she also donated 8 tickets to Universal Studios for the Creative Planet students! They will definitely enjoy that! Thanks so much!

Making it Work!

Oh My Goodness! One of my fav sites, Blogging Project Runway has agreed to make us a "Friend of BPR" and their mistress of "Making it Work", Laura K., voted for Billy! HURRAY! Can I mention that I JUST emailed her and within 15 minutes she already voted and wrote back to me? FABU!!!

What You're Helping

Please Visit http://www.cpsoa.org!

Have you ever seen a school production that looks like this? (These are from a dress rehearsal)

The fans were also used for this amazing dance routine, and the sound of the fans opening all together, "Clack," gave you goosebumps!

The ages of the kids performing range from 3-16!

The first half of the show centered on the struggle of children in Asia (child labor conditions) and the second half focused on the struggle of children in Africa (The AIDS crisis). I don't know of any other school program that would tackle such topics. The product was this amazing show that tugged at your heart, amazed your eyes (the costumes and sets were professional grade), inspired your ears (the sounds of children singing out made you proud), made you shout with joy (the dance numbers were baffling and FIERCE) and just plain happy.

PLEASE VOTE FOR BILLY AND CREATIVE PLANET!!!

THANK YOU - Revised

As promised, I plan on posting SHOUT OUT Thank You's to all who have Voted For Billy. If you have voted, let me know so I can give you the proper credit. If I've missed anyone so far, let me know! THANK YOU for VOTING! Keep visiting us to track Billy's progress and see if we can help Creative Planet Win!
THANK YOU TO: (I'm thinking the Animaniac's Wakko's Cities of the World as I'm typing this)
Matthew Alexander, Jennifer Thomas, Brenda Moore, Carol Llewellyn, George Emerson, Allie Fukashima, Marie Trudeau, Craig Coogan, Marty Brier, Jim Geiger, Elsa & Art, Daniel Neri, Kevin Robison , Markus Honaker, Heather Shaw, Deanne Bringle, Debbie Warren, Cathy Madrid, Rick Delia, Jim Dugan, Julie Raya, Shaista Siraj, Maya Latinovic, Gyongyver Sovago, Debbie Stone, Craig Mendelsohn, Scott Williams , Ken Potter, Erika Walczak, Kevin Anawati, Amanda Thompson, John Tejeda, Jodie Gonzales, Hanson Tam, Michelle Ishida Orne, Tom Bourdon, David Peterson, Nik Murrow, Mark Lubas, Andrea Amico, Lou Reynolds, Laura K., Chuck Doyle, Thom Blackmore, Amy Engelhardt, Adam Pizzo, Ani Aghamalian, Santo Ragno, Yolanda Campo, Murielle Ferdinand, Shari Kraus, Joanna Gleason, Mary Smith, Fawn Weaver, Janet Brown, Mary Ellen Vanroyen, Robin Clark, Kelly Teo, Elena Fragasso, Debbie Stone, Trevor Orne, Traci Nakagawa, Gary Holt, Michele Spears, Lisa Gustavson, Fred Adams, Jerry Fecht, Janne Fecht, Kimberly Shriner, Bob Wilson, Russ Lee, Vickie Holmes, Sonnie Swenston, Gita Sharma, Janie Kohler, Deborah Galle, Oliver Ferry, Christine Kornreich, Jennifer Fishkin, Ben Fonseca, Nelson Ishida, Mark Orne, Charlotte Shiffman, Frank Scannicchio

Why the Blog

Blogs are my new hobby. I love reading them but don't always have the time to write one. However, for a cause like this I will make the exception. This blog will track our progress in counting our crusade for votes. I'll post Thank You's and hopefully we can get linked to major blogs/websites that I frequent.

This is our mission: Help Mr. Billy Win!!! If he wins Creative Planet School
of the Arts will receive $23,000 to continue providing low-income, at risk
youth with the wonderful programs offered at CPSOA.

The Basics:

Who: This email is dedicated to Bill Rugh, the students of Creative Planet, and our campaign to "Vote for Billy"

What: Dr. Pepper is sponsoring a contest called "Pepper Your Community" and our friend Billy is one of the 23 finalists! He, Michelle Benton, and Santo Ragno run their own non-profit arts school named "Creative Planet School of the Arts." It's a fierce "Fame for K-8" and focuses on at-risk and underprivileged youth. The two winners get $23,000 for their charity and it would be SO WONDERFUL if CPSOA won! The great thing is that it's based on votes at this point...so the more we get the word out and the more you vote, the better chance he has at winning!

Where: http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/drpepper/getpeppered/vote/index.php (Directions below)

How: You have to be logged into your "My Yahoo" account to win. If you don't have one, you need to sign up for one. Sorry, this is their rules, not ours! However, it takes minutes to sign up for one and seconds to vote! AND, you don't need to create a Yahoo email address to have an ID.
Please go to the following link:
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/drpepper/getpeppered/vote/index.php
-Go to the lower link and select "vote for your favorite finalist" -Again, you need to be signed into My Yahoo for this to work. If you do not have a Yahoo ID you may have to sign up first. What's a few minutes to win $23,000!!! -After you've done that, go back to the Dr. Pepper link. -click on "select your favorite nominee" -find Bill R., Duarte, CA and click the white dot next to his photo -then scroll down and hit "submit my vote." After that, you're done and we're that much closer to our goal!

When: NOW, NOW, NOW!!! Voting ends August 11th and winners will be announced August 25th, so you have a LIMITED time to Vote! You can only vote once per Yahoo ID.

Why: Check out the school's website (www.cpsoa.org) to see all the amazing things they do for our community... not only arts and academic education, but they also perform often at the Children's Hospital of LA, they have sung in choral festivals to raise money for homeless shelters, and most recently created a performance in Pasadena that raised $50,000 for kids with AIDS and AIDS orphans in Tanzania. These are some amazing, talented, and powerful
kids... along with a staff of teachers and artists that work for extremely low wages, I can't think of anyone more deserving who will put their prize money to creating more change in the future generations of Los Angeles. Winning this money would be an amazing help for Billy and the school. They could provide more scholarships and financial aid; purchase more dance shoes, books, instruments, and art supplies; and continue to inspire the youth of LA with the minds to create, the hands to build, and the voices to be heard.