Actor Misha Collins, The CW's Supernatural, has taken to Twitter to promote a contest for the Dreams 2 Acts: Nicaragua charity titled Create 2 Educate. The contest will help raise money to complete a campus for the Free High School and Free Technical School in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. The Dreams 2 Acts: Nicaragua is part of Misha Collins larger charity Random Acts, which promotes random acts of kindness all over the world.
According to Random Acts website, "Random Acts inspires many amazing things around the world every day -- from small acts of kindness, such as inspiring someone to buy a stranger a cup of coffee, to much bigger acts of kindness like building a school in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua."
Random Acts was co-founded by Misha Collins back in 2009 after tweeting a request for his fans to assist him with coming up with ways to obtain US government stimulus money for non-profit organizations and initiatives. From that small dream, Random Acts was born, which has since given up seeking government funded money, and instead, has turned into a privately organized charity, earning non-profit status under their parent organization The Art Department, Inc.
Random Acts has been involved in many charities and fundraisers; in 2013 they purchased a bus for the free high school in Nicaragua, and more recently they partnered with Misha's co-star's, Jensen Ackles, company to help raise money for victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
Now the organization is back down in Nicaragua with their Dreams 2 Acts: Nicaragua fundraiser and charity.
Dreams 2 Acts: Nicaragua
The Free High School first opened its doors in 2002, offering the opportunity for teens and adults who weren't able to attend regular school, due to raising children, working, or being located too far away from a regular school. The first graduating class from the school had a total of 12 students, however, that number has grown to 683 in 2014. Dreams 2 Acts has been integral in ensuring this school continues.
As mentioned above in 2013, Random Acts was able to raise money to purchase a bus for the school. This was one of the biggest gestures, and ways to help Random Acts could have done.
According to their website, prior to the school bus, some students would have to wake up well before dawn and hike through the jungle, wading across rivers in the rainy season, to an unreliable public transportation bus. The trip was roughly 15km.
Out of this act Dreams 2 Acts: Nicaragua was born. Their next project would be bigger and more auspicious.
In 2006, with the success of the free high school, a free technical school was also opened, offering advanced degrees in a variety of fields to include; accounting, business administration and tourism. However, the schools were located in an old abandoned elementary school, providing little space for the students to learn. According to the Dreams 2 Acts about page, there isn't enough chairs or desks to accommodate all the students, and the computer lab, located off-site, involves 2-3 students crowding around one computer.
The charity is hoping to change all that by building a bigger campus to house the students. Currently the first building is completed, however, they still need funding in order to finish the second building by February, the start date for the next classes. That's why the Create 2 Educate contest has been started.
The Contest
The contest involves submitting a piece of artwork, using any creative medium (The contest page lists: art, photography, poetry, song, interpretive dance, menstrual hygiene, or product sculptures) to show a personal vision "of a world where every person regardless of gender or age has access to education."
Three winners will be chosen, and the three who win will get to see their art performed by Misha Collins on facebook via live stream.
The contest itself is designed to help raise funding to finish building the second building so it may be used as an auditorium. Anybody can enter the contest after they have raised at least $10 for Dreams 2 Acts: Nicaragua.