DENVER – In exchange for a small donation to a worthy Denver-based charity, a man from Boulder has just won a Tesla Model 3 from the little brother of the automaker's CEO Elon Musk.
Kimbal Musk lives in Boulder and is perhaps better known locally for his highly-acclaimed restaurant group.
He also works for Tesla and made good Wednesday morning on a promise.
“[With] one of our first Model 3’s we ever built at Tesla – we created a contest,” Musk said. “And people donated $10, and almost 200,000 people donated $10 to win my Model 3.”
Anthony Monaco won after making his donation through the website Omaze. He got the call about his win while he was at work for a small technology company in Boulder.
“Flabbergasted,” Monaco said. “Just told all my coworkers, you know, ‘I just won a Tesla Model 3.’”
Donations from around the world amounted to about $2.1 million for the nonprofit Big Green, which was cofounded by Musk.
“What Big Green does is build beautiful outdoor classrooms that help teach science through the growing of food,” Musk said outside PREP Academy in Denver where he handed over his car to Monaco.
Since Musk began Big Green in Denver, the nonprofit has helped build learning gardens at nearly 500 schools across the country, including PREP Academy.
“We broke ground in February and planted in March,” PREP Academy Principal Eric Rowe said. “And we harvest next week on the 31st.”
Musk said Big Green has so far focused on lower-income schools, which generally are in food deserts. But he’d like to see Big Green’s edible schoolyards on every campus in America.
Principal Rowe plans to use PREP Academy’s garden to teach a variety of skills, from sustainability around food to entrepreneurship and job skills. He also wants the school’s cafeteria to use the fresh produce next school year.
“Now we can’t feed the whole community,” Rowe said. “But there’s enough here that we can start saying that there’s an option here for those families in the community who want it.”
