Can I ask for two minutes of your time to help make New Orleans a better place?

Melissa Sawyer, who lives two doors down the street and is a good friend, used her Harvard education not to line her pockets but to make a difference to people less fortunate than herself.

She co-founded the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), which provides case management, mentoring and educational services to at-risk young people in this desperate city. It's an uphill struggle, and sometimes a drug dealer's bullet gets there before Melissa does. She's the blonde woman on the right above, and her partner, Renell, on the far right, also works for the project.

YEP is dependent on grants and donations, and is currently applying to Nike for $5,000. This will be awarded to the entrant which receives the largest number of votes, which seems a slightly haphazard way of awarding grant money, but there you go.

Please go here to find out more about YEP and cast your vote, and thank you very much!