Deadline Date Extended to March 2, 2015

Dear coaches, educators and supporters of the Christopher Columbus Awards program:

The Christopher Columbus Awards program is now in its 19th year, and our success has been due to the incredible support and dedication of thousands of coaches, educators and parents of middle school children like you. We are proud of you and what you have done. We sincerely thank you for your support and want to share, with complete honesty, some of the challenges and uncertainty we are currently facing. Due to the current congressional budget situation, the Foundation is awaiting notification as to whether or not funding will be received to complete the 2014-2015 competition year. While we had anticipated that we would know the situation long before this, we are still pushing for congressional budget action.

While the Foundation works to secure additional funding for the Christopher Columbus Awards, we encourage you to contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support funding for the program. If you are able to help, it can make an enormous impact.

As a result of our current uncertainty, we have extended the deadline for the Christopher Columbus Awards program for 2014-2015 from February 2, 2015, to March 2, 2015, which will give your students more time to complete their entries. In the meantime, the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation is continuing to seek badly needed funding for the 2014-2015 year and beyond.

We are encouraging you to not only submit your entry to the Christopher Columbus Awards by March 2, 2015, but to also consider submitting your entry into additional competitions as well. We have every hope that Congress will approve additional funds so we can conclude the 2014-2015 competition year, but in fairness to you and your teams, we encourage you to enter your projects into as many competitions as possible so your teams may receive recognition for their hard work. Below is a sample list of competitions that you can consider entering in addition to the Christopher Columbus Awards.

We sincerely regret any inconvenience or concerns this may cause and want you to know that we are all committed to keeping the program going for you and the children. We know that this program offers middle school students a unique opportunity to make a positive and lasting change in their communities. We will keep you updated as we learn more information, and we will also update the competition's status on the competition's homepage.

Sincerely,
The Board of Trustees
Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation

Check out our videos to hear what participating coaches and judges have to say about the Christopher Columbus Awards program!