OREANDA-NEWS. August 2, 2011. This summer over 20,000 teams consisting of more than 70,000 young people got off their beach towels and onto their mobile phones to take action on key social issues impacting their communities. They participated in an 11-day Scavenger Hunt, spearheaded by DoSomething.org and Lenovo to make a difference in their communities, tackling serious issues like poverty and animal welfare.

Teams received daily challenges via text message, social media and e-mail. Sample challenges included donating school supplies for underserved kids and setting up an e-mail address for a senior citizen. 18,500 individual actions were reported via text message alone.

“The Scavenger Hunt was a great way to become introduced to and involved with a variety of important causes. It was awesome to rally around causes as a team, and so empowering to be a part of a nationwide movement,” said teen participant, Sarah Cronk. “Receiving updates on my phone made the hunt especially fun and easy because I could complete challenges and report back while on the go.”

NBC's Community stars and campaign spokespeople Alison Brie and Danny Pudi got in on the action, joining together in a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to announce the campaign and tweeting out daily challenges.Twilight's Chaske Spencer andDisney's Shake it Up! star Bella Thorne also teamed with the Hunt, rallying their twitter followers to sign up. Thorne posted an emotional video challenging teens to take action on her personal cause, bullying.

“I'm thrilled to see so many teens spending their summer break making a difference through the Scavenger Hunt and it shows the impact organizations like DoSomething.org can have,” said spokesperson, Alison Brie. 

Team “Trash Binh” completed all 26 of the scavenger hunt challenges and received the most points of the more than 20,000 participating teams. They won a trip to Los Angeles to attend the Do Something Awards, the premier Award Show for young people and celebrities creating change in their communities. The Do Something Awards airs on VH1 on August 18th.

The team also won 11 Lenovo IdeaPad laptops. Additionally, the Scavenger Hunt awarded over 50 Lenovo PCs to top participants, empowering them to further connect, collaborate and “Do”.

“The mission of the Scavenger Hunt is all about enabling teens to Do more in their communities, and thanks to such overwhelming participation, we’ve far exceeded our hopes for making an impact,” said David Roman, chief marketing officer, Lenovo. “Our own team of doers - our engineers, designers and others behind our computers – strongly identify with the concept of doing more, and we’re thrilled to be providing the PC technology that allows these youth to keep serving their communities.”

“In the summer, teens want to be outside having fun with friends,” said Melanie Stevenson, Business Development Director at DoSomething.org. “Through the Scavenger Hunt, they were able to do just that while improving their communities.”

Young people can still get involved with DoSomething.org and take action on the social issues they care about most by texting JOIN to 38383.