Are you militant about your love for Cleveland? A recently launched civic initiative entitled Cleveland Arsenal aims to reward the grassroots boosterism you've been doing -- while also spreading some of that love to far-flung corners of the region and beyond.

Cleveland Arsenal is a competition that will reward five hardcore Cleveland enthusiasts with $1,000 in cold, hard cash. In exchange, they'll be asked to use their connections and creativity to extol the city's virtues far and wide.

"We want people who are good at sharing their love of Cleveland to be rewarded for their efforts," says Brian Friedman, Executive Director of Northeast Shores Development Corporation, a nonprofit that serves North Collinwood.

Cleveland Arsenal is being launched as a part of the Northeast Shores Artists in Residence program, an effort to redevelop the North Collinwood neighborhood and Waterloo Arts District using artist-based development practices. In short, the focused initiative aims to attract more artists to live in North Collinwood, and to help those that are there to be successful and engage with the community.

Friedman says it's not a requirement that Cleveland Arsenal winners blog about North Collinwood, but adds, "We think what we're doing is so cool that they'll want to." Winners will meet with other passionate Clevelanders, develop a plan for sharing Cleveland's story locally and beyond, hear from Cleveland's young leaders and hone their skills at communicating about their beloved city.

Friedman says such grassroots marketing efforts, far from being scattershot, produce results. "We're already getting more inquiries from people outside of Northeast Ohio who are interested in what we're doing to support artists."

Got a sonnet to pen or Youtube video to stream for your Rust Belt paramore? Applications to Cleveland Arsenal are due by 5 p.m., Tuesday, January 31st.

Source: Brian Friedman
Writer: Lee Chilcote