Polartec announced the Outdoor Action Program at Princeton University as the winner of its second annual Polartec Made Possible College Challenge. The contest aimed at collegiate outdoor programs was launched in early December and will award a $10,000 grant and Polartec apparel to the Outdoor Action Program.
After accepting video submissions from collegiate outdoor clubs around the country telling Polartec what they would do with $10,000, the finalists were narrowed down to four on Dec. 5, and the results were then left up to the public. After eight weeks, 31,000 video views, and over 27,000 votes, the contest came down to the wire with the Outdoor Action Program officially winning the contest by just 166 votes.
“We are all thrilled to hear that Princeton won,” says Outdoor Action Program Director, Rick Curtis. “We are really excited about the opportunities that this funding will open up for the Outdoor Action Program to offer more programming during the academic year.”
Backbone Media, Polartec's media agency, created the Final Four-style Facebook application for this contest, with help from developers at Friend2Friend. The app resulted in over 5,000 installations, several thousand new fans, and hundreds of comments on Polartec's fanpage, as students rallied their friends and families to support their alma mater.
“We were inspired by the submissions we received for this contest, because each club that entered is fostering the next generation of outdoor enthusiasts,” states Polartec North American Marketing Manager, Allon Cohne. “Every one of our finalists came up with an inspiring idea that we would have been proud to sponsor. The Outdoor Action Program at Princeton absolutely deserves this donation due to their incredible submission idea and for the hard work that they put into rounding up almost 10,000 votes. We are thrilled to watch their program grow as a result of this grant and all of the buzz they generated on campus.”
