*** Deadline for entries and votes extended.

You can vote once per day, per entry *** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE --- April 19, 2012 --- For more information, contact jeff@enviroprose.com Tell Us Why You Like Sustainability: Make a Local Nonprofits Day and Get Connected

PLANET EARTH --- Starting Earth Day, April 22, Wiser.org is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a contest to shine a light on grass-roots leaders and amazing projects. Our communitys story is about empowering people to connect, collaborate and create change, said Peggy Duvette, executive director of WiserEarth, a nonprofit headquartered in Sausalito, California, which runs the Wiser.org network. We have created this contest to give a voice to people who have helped shape our network since its founding in 2007, and encourage newcomers to join the global movement working toward social justice, indigenous rights, and environmental stewardship. The Earth Day Living Contest will last for 22 days, or through Monday, May 14 June 5, World Environment Day. Its just one of several anniversary events ongoing at Wiser.org, The Social Network for Sustainability. Who should participate? Anyone who has made a choice to live in a more sustainable way --from creating a community garden to joining in on meat-free Mondays, supporting a local carsharing initiative, volunteering, working for a not-for-profit organization, or supporting social change initiatives in a community. The premise of the contest is simple: How do you live Earth Day, every day? Tell us in 50 words or less, take a picture to illustrate your entry, and upload it to Wiser.org's Facebook contest page (look for the tab that says Earth Day Living). Youll need to Like our page, if you havent already. Your 50 words or less should easily convey actions you try to take every day to live more sustainably.

For Inspiration: Wiser People There are more than 70,000 members of the Wiser.org community. The network started as WiserEarth, with a handful of supporters, when it was first launched five years ago by noted environmental leader Paul Hawken. Wiser.org has helped advance the efforts of leaders who are well-known, and those who still deserve wider recognition, Duvette said. Some names you may recognize include educator and storyteller Simran Sethi, Story of Stuff creator Annie Leonard and activist Bill McKibben. But just in 2011, numerous other people and organizations turned to Wiser for help, including Kevin Bayuk, who lives in San Francisco, helps facilitate permaculture trainings and sits on the board of directors of Daily Acts and the Urban Alliance for Sustainability. Wiser has played a critical role in helping the permaculture community on the west coast of North America become self-aware of each other, coordinate plans, and share best practices, Bayuk said. I've created groups for classes and the San Francisco permaculture guild, and have been contacted by over a dozen people from other regions of the world who have found me through Wiser. Other examples include the Transition Towns movement, which has set up more than 176 online groups to support initiatives all over the world using groupware available for free on Wiser.org; and a community-run group called Fdration Yakaar Niani Wulli, which found people to help scale its distribution of fair-trade products made with organic cotton, supporting 2,000 cotton producers and 80 villages in Senegal. Show and Tell The Earth Day Living Contest will be featured on a special Wiser Anniversary Page, highlighting the accomplishments of Wiser.org members. The page includes an infographic and short video.

Contest entries will be judged by a panel of volunteer Wiser.org editors from around the world. New and longtime Wiser.org members also can vote on each entry via Facebook during the contest (through May 14, 2012 June 5). You can vote once per entry, per day.

A prize of $1,000 (U.S.) will be given to the winning entry to support his or her chosen local notfor-profit working on environmental or social change. Kindle Fire tablets will be awarded to three runners-up, loaded with books by Wiser founder Hawken, including Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World. Wiser.org plans to feature a collection of the top contest entries in a promotional Earth Day Living video. About Wiser Wiser.org helps the global movement of people and organizations working toward social justice, indigenous rights, and environmental stewardship to connect, collaborate, share knowledge, and build alliances, WiserEarth (which runs the Wiser.org platform) is a tax-exempt not-for-profit organization, under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Tools and content are ad-free. All our resources are free to use and re-use. -30-