As Published in the Record Journal Tuesday June 15, 2010
By Tiffany Diorio
Record-Journal staff
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Http://www.refresheverything.com/masonicarewalkingtrail
WALLINGFORD — College students Cheri Macri and Macey Apuzzo, both part-timers at Masonicare, have taken it upon themselves to organize a walking trail for residents, staff and visitors of Masonicare.
Their one need? To win the Pepsi Refresh Challenge.
Pepsi recently announced the Pepsi Refresh Project to fund community service ideas. It gives away millions each month to help support popular ideas to benefit different communities around the United States. The grants are awarded to the ideas with the most votes. There are different categories for ideas and grants. Macri and Apuzzo’s are in the Health category in the running for Pepsi’s largest grant of $250,000. They need to make it to the top two to win.
This month there are more than 1,159 total ideas in the running.
Macri and Apuzzo are ranked 87th.
The two friends came up with the idea after walking on the Quinnipiac Linear Trail in Wallingford.
“We liked walking on the trail and we thought it would be a great idea to bring it over to Masonicare,” Apuzzo said. “They have the pond trail here, but there are a lot of roots sticking out so it’s hard for people with walkers to walk there.”
After hearing about the Pepsi Refresh challenge through television commercials and Facebook advertisements the two decided to enter their idea.
Macri and Apuzzo got together and began punching numbers and organizing their ideas. They approached Stephen McPherson, president and CEO of Masonicare, and Jon Paul Venoit, president of Ashlar Village, who supported it.
“It’s a great idea that will improve the quality of life for patients, residents and our visitors,” McPherson said.
With the OK to do it, the girls set up an account on the Pepsi Refresh page detailing their idea and how they would use the money to make it a reality. Macri and Apuzzo plan to include benches, picnic tables, a blue-light security system, a railing, and golf carts to further accommodate people of all physical abilities.
“We want this to be a universal trail so no one feels left out,” Macri said, “I mean people from all over the country have family staying at Masonicare. It’d be great to have a way for visitors and residents to be outside.”
Since the two friends submitted their idea to the Pepsi Refresh challenge, their ranking has improved. They started out at 256, then went up to 90, before reaching the current rank of 87 all in one month.
“It’s great to see that we’re doing well,” Apuzzo said. “We’re glad that we’re not the only people working for this.”
To get the word out Macri and Apuzzo have been using the power of the Internet. They’ve asked their friends to vote for their idea on Facebook and are looking into using Twitter. Macri and Apuzzo are also planning to post flyers and banners around Masonicare to remind people to vote.
McPherson is also helping the two girls out by sending out e-mails to the Masonicare community.
Macri, who is going on a cruise, plans to hand out business cards to other vacationers to get votes.
“It would be beneficial even if we got only one vote from that,” she said.
Both Macri and Apuzzo are confident that they’ll go far with their idea.
“We have the power and the capacity to win,” Apuzzo said, “There are around 17,000 residents at Masonicare alone. With the help of their families we could rank high.”
Another local college student who participated in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge was Jonathan Blais of Southington. He entered the contest in April.
Blais and a couple of his friends came up with the idea of developing a new sport called “Defender the Sport” which is a one-on-one game in which players have to hit a ball with a stick in their opponent’s goal. “It’s a fundamental game that can keep kids active and appeal to their competitive side,” Blais said. Although Blais didn’t win money from the Pepsi Challenge that hasn’t stopped him from trying to further develop his idea. He’s made his sport into a business by having youths rent out his portable court for parties.
