Help Astor Win $50,000 Dollars!

Astor and the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum have teamed up to win the $50,000 Pepsi Grant!

We will need your vote and that of your network to win —
Please help spread the word!!

First Time Voting?
Read our instructions and tips, below, before you start!
Learn more about our project further below.
Already Registered? Vote Here:

Please vote for the Astor / Mid-Hudson Children's Museum project to help our children!

Avatar Mid-Hudson Children's Museum

I want to Provide 1000 Astor Services Families w/ Children's Museum Memberships

Vote for this idea
Friends Helping Friends
We have some great friends who are in the competition this month as well. We ask that you vote for these other groups each day too! They are asking their friends to vote for us, so please let's return the favor and vote for them. (You get 10 votes per day per email address by all three methods: pepsi refresh, facebook and texting.) (Hint: once you vote for them, next time you go to pepsi refresh go to "my profile" and they will be listed there as well.) Find our friends' projects:

Here's how you can help:

  1. Visit our Pepsi Challenge project here: www.refresheverything.com/midhudsonchildrensmuseum
  2. Click on: "Join Refresh Everything" (lower left hand corner of the page)
  3. Fill out the simple, one-time registration form & Click "DONE" (After that there's a simple sign in procedure whenever you vote)
  4. Once you're signed in, click the "Vote for this idea" button.
    (If you clicked the button to get to your sign in, click it again!)
  5. (Each time you vote, make sure that your vote counter (bottom of the page) has registered a vote, for example, gone from 10 to 9. If it hasn't, click the "vote" button again.)
  6. Vote for the MHCM/Astor application EVERY DAY of September – THE MORE YOU VOTE, THE GREATER OUR CHANCES!
  7. You can use your personal email AND your work email!

Voting Tips:

  1. When you register, since this is not high-security you don't need a strong password. Use a short all-left-handed PW such as QWERTY or similar. It'll make signing in each day MUCH easier! You can use the same PW when registering for each email address.
  2. You can use your personal email AND your work email, and any others you may have!
  3. Each time you vote, make sure that your vote counter (bottom of the page) has registered a vote.
  4. Vote for our friends and they will vote for us. Leave them comments to show your support.
  5. From our project page, you can get a voting widget to put on your facebook page or website.
  6. Bookmark our project page so you can get back to it easily each day.

Vote By Cellphone:

You can also vote for the project on your cell phone, in addition to voting on the Pepsi website. The procedure is simple:

  1. Enter the following number: 73774
  2. Type the following code in the message box: 102401
  3. Press send!

What Will This Money Fund?

This grant money will allow the Mid-Hudson Children's Museum to provide Astor with 1,000 annual family memberships! It will provide a powerful tool for inspiring the children (and their families) enrolled in our programs!

As reported in the Poughkeepsie Journal:

Astor Home, Children's Museum team up to vie for $50,000 Pepsi grant

Journal staff · August 27, 2010

The Mid-Hudson Children's Museum and Astor Services for Children & Families are in the running for a $50,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant and the two nonprofits are asking supporters throughout the Hudson Valley to vote for their joint project every day during the month of September.

Under the Pepsi Refresh Program, ideas receiving the most votes in nationwide online voting throughout September will receive funding from Pepsi.

There are four funding levels: $5,000, $25,000, $50,000 and $250,000.

Voters are encouraged to register at the Pepsi Refresh home page by going to the website www.refresheverything.com.

"If we win, the Mid-Hudson Children's Museum will be able to provide Astor Services for Children & Families with 1,000 annual family memberships," said Edward Glisson, executive director for Children's Museum. "We're asking all of our supporters to vote every day in September to help us win this great grant."

Astor Services for Children & Families, which provides educational and therapeutic support for thousands of Hudson Valley families, hopes the collaboration between the two regional nonprofits will benefit both organizations and their clients, said Sonia Barnes-Moorhead, Astor's executive vice president.

"This project creates a powerful new tool for engaging the children enrolled in Astor's programs, many of whom suffer from poverty, disabilities and other extreme challenges," Barnes-Moorhead said. "Year-round access to the Mid-Hudson Children's Museum will have a profoundly positive impact upon these children at a critical time in their lives while providing an uplifting and supportive environment for their parents and caregivers."