Courtney's Sandcastle, Seeking Pepsi Grant, Needs Your Vote

is up for potentially thousands in grant dollars from the Pepsi company's Refresh Everything online philanthropic campaign.

According to a release from the city of San Clemente, the projects that get the most votes online receive part of the millions in charity cash Pepsi is giving away.

Vote for Courtney's Sandcastle at Pepsi's website here.

The 30,000-square-foot universal playground is being constructed on land provided by the city at its 45-acre sports park and aquatic center, which is now under construction at 987 Ave. Vista Hermosa.

The playground will allow disabled kids to play alongside able-bodied ones and offer features that disabled adults can use for therapeutic purposes.

The city and playground advocates are in the midst of a campaign to raise $50,000 to pay for the cost of building the playground in its entirety.

The city is asking the public to vote for the Courtney’s SandCastle project every day until Aug. 31. 

Also, this year Pepsi introduced “power votes” to its Refresh Everything voting. Power votes enable people to have additional votes to help their community project get one step closer to receiving a Pepsi Refresh grant. These power votes allow for up to 100 additional votes and can be found on specially marked Pepsi products (under the bottle cap or printed on the inside of the Pepsi multi-pack).

You can also send in a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Pepsi Refresh Power Votes, P.O. Box 760023, El Paso, TX 88576-0023 to receive Power Votes by mail.

For more information or to make a direct donation, call Don Glasgow at 949-481-0116 or Mina Santoro at 949-874-9744.