This winter, take the At‑Home Challenge!
In a speech delivered after the tragic flood of 1927, the state’s worst natural disaster, Vermont-born U.S. President Calvin Coolidge reminded residents that: “If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.”
Sorry. The deadline to submit contest entries for this challenge has passed. Feel free to complete the activities take the quiz anytime regardless!
Let’s Strengthen Our Democracy!
Help revive the spirit of liberty and strengthen our democratic institutions by taking part in the Good Citizen At-Home Challenge. Many of us are spending more time at home than usual this winter, so Kids VT and Seven Days have collected a wide variety of activities — many from our Good Citizen partners — to keep you occupied. This new Challenge will help you learn more about your state and your country, and give you a chance to help others, as well.
How it works:
1 — Form a team and choose a name. Your team can be just one person or a whole household or class. It can include both youth and adult members — in fact, we encourage adult-child teams! This is a great project to do with your kids, grandkids or students.
2 — Do an activity. There are more than 40 to choose from, in four different categories: History, Government, Community Service and News Literacy. All of them can be done while keeping a safe distance from others, and most of them can be done remotely.
3 — Submit your evidence. Fill out the “Submit an Activity” form linked on this page for every activity your team completes. The first time you submit an activity, the online form will ask you for information about your team and team captain. We will use that information to contact your team captain with questions and prize information.
4 — Keep track of your progress on the website’s public leaderboard. It lists all of the teams competing, as well as the number of activities participants have completed.
5 — Watch your email inbox for news about upcoming prize drawings. The more activities you submit, the more chances you have to win! We’ll hold prize drawings on December 30, January 27 and February 17 to recognize outstanding work and to give away gift cards and other prizes.
6 — Finish four activities (one in each category) before March 5 — and get 12 answers correct on the sample U.S. Citizenship test at the bottom of this page — and your team will be eligible for the grand prize drawing on March 10. The winning team will receive a $500 gift card to a local business of the winner’s choice! You must pass the citizenship test to win the grand prize. You can take it as a team, and if you don’t pass the first time, take it until you make it!
Extra credit: The person or team that completes the most activities during the Challenge will be able to make a $500 donation to a Vermont charity of their choice. In the event of a tie, a winner will be chosen at random from among those tied for the top spot.
More prizes! We’ll give away other prizes along the way, including gift cards to locally owned independent bookstores, publication subscriptions and copies of the comic book This Is What Democracy Looks Like: A Graphic Guide to Governance. Everyone who completes an activity will receive a Good Citizen Challenge sticker with this reminder: “I am a Good Citizen.”
Questions?
Contact us at 802-865-1020, ext. 14 or goodcitizen@kidsvt.com.
Eligibility & Guidelines:
- Individuals or teams may enter. The leaderboard will ID participants by team name. Those participants who do not choose a team name will be listed by first name and last initial.
- Participants should submit an entry for every activity done by a member of their team. Teams can either ask participants to submit their own entries, one at a time, or they can submit a single entry for the group and note multiple completions. For example, if a team of 12 listens to a podcast, the team captain can send in one activity submission noting 12 completions, or each individual member can send in their own entry. But teams should not do both for the same activity.
- We encourage adult-child teams! This is a great family project. Adult participants are only eligible for prizes when participating on a team with at least one K-12 student.
- Participants may submit multiple activities monthly to be eligible for monthly prize drawings, but they will only be entered once in the grand prize drawing.
- Only submit photos and comments that can be used online, in print or broadcast by Good Citizen media partners. We’ll use this material to inspire others to be Good Citizens.
- Be sure to proofread your work — we’ll highlight outstanding submissions in Kids VT and Seven Days!
- All activities must be completed and submitted online by Friday, March 5, 2021 to be entered in the grand prize drawing.