DoSomething.org and Lenovo are making summer volunteering fun for teens with an 11-day Scavenger Hunt nationwide. Alison Brie and Danny Pudi, stars of the television show “Community” are supporting the project and encouraging teens to get involved in their respective communities.

“The scavenger hunt is really rooted in the idea that in the summer all teens want to do is be with their friends, be outside [and] have fun,” said Melanie Stevenson, Business Development, DoSomething.org.

Beginning July 11 and ending July 22, the hunt will encourage teens to get up and do something about the issues they are passionate about. They are competing to win prizes such as scholarships, Lenovo computers and a grand prize trip to Los Angeles for the Do Something Awards on August 14.

Lenovo is the fourth-largest PC vendor globally and DoSomething.org is one of the largest organizations in America that helps young people get involved in causes they care about. Stevenson described the relationship between the two companies as a “perfect synergy.”

“Both organizations are really all about your passion…and finding ways for you to create impact,” she said. “[Lenovo’s] marketing tagline is “For Those Who Do” and we are all about those who do as well.”

Each day teens are sent challenges that they can complete individually or with a team. Each challenge relates to issues that concern teens such as violence and bullying, education, the environment and animal warfare.

Kathleen Sullivan, Framingham High School student and Scavenger Hunt participant said, “I’m excited about joining the scavenger hunt because [I want] to help out in the community more and with the scavenger hunt I can help the community in a fun way.”

The challenges are chosen according to the most popular issues and project ideas on the DoSomething.org website. They are able to be completed in one day and can be done in teams.

While Sullivan is participating as an individual, teams of 20 are able to sign up and compete in the scavenger hunt. Teens can text HUNT to 30644 to sign up and receive challenges via text message or sign up on the website, DoSomething.org/hunt.

Currently over 10,000 people are signed up via mobile and there are around 19,000 total participants. Such a great response rate is unprecedented for DoSomething.org. Stevenson attributes this success to the prizes, celebrity involvement and the ability of teens to participate solely through text messaging.

“[This is] the first campaign that we are able to actually implement via mobile exclusively; we can do the whole contest just by texting with teens,” she said. “So that added bonus was perfect for summer participation.”

Additionally, Alison Brie and Danny Pudi are tweeting the challenges daily and the campaign has even received additional support from “Community” cast member Ken Jeong, who is also tweeting challenges.

“Teens in particular are always looking for ways to give back that make sense for their lifestyle,” said Stevenson. “They can’t always commit a full year to a project; they can’t always give money to donate to a cause. The value here is their action and their enthusiasm for a variety of causes.”

Sullivan said that she found out about the campaign on DoSomething.org’s Facebook page and although most of her friends are busy with other summer plans, she hopes they also find ways to get involved with their communities.

It is not too late to participate in the scavenger hunt. Teens have until July 25 to submit their results for the challenges; prize winners will be notified on August 1.

“If you hear about the campaign on day three or day 11 you’ll still have access to the previous days’ challenges and you’ll have a few days after the end of the campaign to complete all of the challenges with your team,” said Stevenson.

Because of the great results the hunt received this year Stevenson said they are certainly hoping to do it again next year. “It is the perfect summer program,” she said.

“I believe I would definitely do it again and maybe next year I’ll have more people [to] participate with me,” said Sullivan.

After touring with ex Kinks frontman Ray Davies, The 88 has set the rock music world abuzz. The Los Angeles-based band has performed on “Conan” and their songs have appeared on hit shows like “How I Met Your Mother,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Community.” Blast caught up with Adam Merrin of The 88 to get an insight into the band.

BLAST: How did The 88 form?

The 88: Keith and I recorded a song together on the last day of high school, and we’ve been playing ever since.  We met Anthony through a recommendation from a friend.  The first time we heard him play, it was obvious that he was the right guy for The 88.  He’s one of the best drummers around.  Todd was in an L.A. band called The Green and Yellow TV, who we used to play shows with.  They had just broken up, and our original bassist, Carlos Torres, had just left The 88, so the timing was perfect.  We asked Todd to join, and the rest is history.

BLAST: How did the name come about?

The 88: “Rocket 88” is a rhythm and blues song that was recorded in 1951, which has been claimed to be the first rock and roll song.  There are also 88 keys on a piano, and since the instrument has always played an important part in our band, the name 88 seemed to be fitting in more ways than one.

BLAST: How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard you before?

The 88: Psychedelic, skygazer.

BLAST: How did the tour go?

The 88: Our last big tour in the U.S. was with Ray Davies.  Not only did we get to open up for him, but we got to be his backing band playing Kinks songs with him for his encore.  Here’s a little “behinds the scenes” clip of us playing “Animal Farm” on the tour bus from the tour.

BLAST: Favorite cities to perform at?

The 88: Eighty Eight, Kentucky.

BLAST: What goes into making a good live show, in your opinion?

The 88: Green M&M’s.

BLAST: You performed on CONAN, what was that like? What is it like performing on TV?

The 88: It goes by so quickly.  You’re there from 8 in the morning till 5 at night, and the performance is only 3 minutes.  It just happens so fast, and then it’s over.  We had a great time, and I’m so proud that we’ve been able to accomplish these types of things without the help of a major label.  Things are definitely changing in a positive way in the music business these days.

BLAST: “Love Is the Thing” was recorded entirely on an IPhone. What made you come up with that idea? Can you describe that process and will record any more songs that way?

The 88: We just wanted to try something different.  We’ve been recording the same way for a long time now, so it was refreshing to approach the process in an entirely new way.  Now that we’ve tried that, it’ll be fun to think of another way to record a song.

BLAST: Also, you chronicled the whole process on “Love is the Thing” on Youtube. Why did you decide to share that experience via Youtube?

The 88: I thought it would be a great way to share with people how easy the process is.  You don’t have to be a professional recording engineer to do it.  Anyone that owns an iPhone can record with the FourTrack program.  It’s simple, and it’s another great creative outlet for anyone that’s interested in making music.

BLAST: Anything else you think I should know or what to share?

The 88: We just released a new album called “The 88.” It was one of the most exciting albums to record, and we hope you that you will like it!

Media Molecules’ smash hit and playful adventuring game LitteBigPlanet celebrated a milestone today.

Peek-a-boo

The studio announced this afternoon that the game’s community level number today ballooned to over 2 million available user-generated environments.

The game hit the 1 million mark in July of 2009, nine months after the game hit shelves and in less time, the figure jumped to 2 million. Impressive.

Now that the nasty, crippling PS3 apocalypse is over, jump into the game and frolic in the user-generated content.

Source: PlayStation Blog

NBC has given the full season orders to three of its shows: “Community,” the medical drama “Mercy” and the second season of “Parks and Recreation.”

All three episodes are getting decent ratings. “Community” averages about 5.7 million viewers. “Mercy” has 7.8, and “Parks” has 4.8 million weekly viewers.

“Parks and Recreation” has gotten markedly better as the season has gone on. We’re glad its staying.

What do you think of the three shows? What do you think of Jay Leno?