Make a ruckus fitness idea contest attracts hundreds. Wanna judge?

A contest to spur ideas for and from kids (and others) about how to get and keep kids active and fit has attracted hundreds of entries from around the world.

The Ruckus Nation contest (www.ruckusnation.com) kicked off in September, offering teams the opportunity to win money and prizes for ideas for games and concepts (anything goes!) that could motivate kids to be active.

As of early November, more than 700 teams were registered to submit entries, said spokesman Richard Tate. That represented 56 countries and 48 U.S. states, he said. Teams must submit their entries by Nov. 20 for four rounds of judging to determine winners that could actually become products that are produced and sold by organizers. Click here to read a Sept. 17, 2007, SNEWS® story for details about the contest.

The Ruckus Nation concept was developed by the non-profit HopeLab (www.hopelab.org), which was founded by Pam Omiday, the wife of eBay founder Pierre Omiday. The contest, which seeks original and innovative ideas, is co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (www.rwjf.org).

“At this point,” Tate told SNEWS®, “we really are focusing on judge registration — people of all ages are invited to help us review ideas and select winners as Ruckus Nation judges.”

The second of four judging rounds will be judged by the online community, many of whom will sign up on the website to judge, as well as by the HopeLab folks and others recruited by the group. Judging is an online process that takes place in early December.

Anyone interested in taking part can read more about the process by clicking here. Interested judges can then click on the “Register now” button on the page. If accepted, when judging begins, judges will receive a number of entries to review and score based on the Ruckus Nation judging criteria (Does the product appeal to kids? Does the product get kids moving? Is the product original/creative? Does the product allow kids control of its use?).