What’s the BIG news today? Caitlin Sweeny, Associate Marketing Manager from Scholastic Media, is here to share our BIG announcement:

February is always one of our favorite times of year at Scholastic Media. Not only do we get to celebrate Clifford the Big Red Dog’s birthday on Valentine’s day, but for the last four years, February has also marked the start of the annual BE BIG In Your Community Contest!

BE BIG™! is a national campaign that invites everyone, big and small, to take action and raise awareness for how CLIFFORD’S BIG IDEAS can make the world a bigger place. The mission of BE BIG is to recognize and reward others for their BE BIG actions, to catalyze change in local communities and to provide resources for everyone to share BIG Ideas and boy, have some of the winning Ideas been BIG!

And we’re not just celebrating the 2012 BE BIG Contest this year, but also the findings of a new research study, “It Starts with Character: Inspiring Kids & Teens to Volunteer”. Among other findings, 88% of parents and 93% of teachers believe that volunteering provides opportunities for children to build character. Now that’s BIG news!

The 2011 grand prize winning BIG Idea was submitted by a group of teachers who wanted to build a rooftop playground for students at a school where there’s no outside play area. Now, that team is working hard to bring their BIG Idea to life with the funds they received from the BE BIG Contest. Read more about the 2011 Grand Prize winning idea here!

Other winning BIG Ideas in 2011 ranged from providing cell phones for homeless veterans, by Brittany Bergquist and her brother, to educating teenagers about Celiac Disease, an illness that winner Kayla L. struggles through.

All of the BE BIG Contest winners have inspired us to be bigger in our own lives and we can’t wait to see what new BIG Ideas are submitted this year. Parents, teachers, students and community leaders — we know that every day you are being BIG, and we want to hear about it! Tell us what you are doing to be BIG in the 2012 BE BIG In Your Community Contest. Click here to enter*!

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United Sates and District of Columbia. Contest ends June 22, 2012. Void where prohibited. Subject to all applicable laws. See Official Rules for details.