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Why Raise a Ruckus?
Research shows that physical activity can help address poor healthoutcomes associated with childhood obesity. In addition, physical activity isassociated with better mental and physical health. With this in mind, the goalof Ruckus Nation is to find great ideas for fun, engaging new products thatwill increase physical activity among middle school-aged kids (ages 11 to 14).
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Can a Competition Make a Difference?
"Ruckus Nation is catalytic. Great ideas will be transformed into realproducts that get kids moving," said HopeLab President Pat Christen."Experience tells us that combining great ideas with top-notch research leadsto innovative solutions."
HopeLab will develop one or more of the winning ideas from Ruckus Nationinto prototypes that can be tested to determine their effectiveness.Successful prototypes will be turned into real products and distributedbroadly.
Chinwe Onyekere, Program Officer of the Pioneer Portfolio of Robert WoodJohnson Foundation, which is co-sponsoring Ruckus Nation, explained, "ThePioneer Portfolio supports innovative ideas and projects like Ruckus Nationthat may lead to important breakthroughs in health and health care. Thisonline competition throws the search wide open for dynamic new products thatkids will like and use to be more physically active."
Competition Details
Competition entry requirements, rules and judging criteria are availableat http://www.ruckusnation.com. Prizes will be awarded to contestants in fourcategories -- middle school, high school, college and other. Participants(teams of one to six individuals) must register no later than October 15,2007; registration is limited to 1,000 teams. Registered contestants mustsubmit their ideas online no later than November 20, 2007. Entries must besubmitted in English. Semifinalists will be announced in February 2008;category winners and one grand prize winner will be announced at an event inMarch 2008.
About HopeLab
HopeLab, founded in 2001 by Pamela Omidyar, is a non-profit organizationcommitted to combining rigorous research with innovative solutions to improvethe health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness. HopeLabintroduced its first product, the Re-Mission video game for adolescents andyoung adults with cancer, in 2006. Re-Mission was developed with the input ofyoung people with cancer and was shown in a randomized, controlled researchtrial to improve key health outcomes among young people with cancer who playedthe game. HopeLab is now applying its customer-focused, research-basedapproach to develop new interventions for young people suffering from chronicillness. For more information, visit http://www.hopelab.org.
About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health andhealth care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropydevoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans,the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals toidentify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change.The Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio supports innovative ideas and projects thatmay trigger important breakthroughs in health and health care. Projects in thePioneer Portfolio are typically future-oriented and look beyond conventionalthinking to explore solutions at the cutting edge of health and
