Teams of local Fire Fighters will fan out across Seattle, beginning on July 15th, boots in hand, as they kick off their annual Fill-the-Boot fundraising campaign for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). This year, they are tapping the power of new technology to raise awareness and raise much-needed funds, leveraging the location-aware mobile microlistings platform “Anttenna (www.anttenna.com),” in spreading the word about the locations of donation collection teams.

Last year, the International Association of Fire Fighters raised over $28 million for MDA, making the grand-total for the 55-year tradition close to $195,000,000! Fire Fighters have been volunteering their time and, don’t forget, boots—to help children and adults with muscle-deteriorating diseases since 1954.

Fire Department’s in Washington State began “filling their boots” in May, while the Seattle Fire Department’s Fill-the-Boot will kick-off a two day event on July 15th & 16th. This is Seattle’s 13th year working with MDA on the Fill-the-Boot campaign. Fire Fighters will be at various street corners each day, asking motorists to drop donations into their boots. Unique to this year’s campaign is the addition of Anttenna, a community-driven mobile application that combines the real-time communications power of Twitter with the location awareness native within mobile phones. Available as a free download on the iPhone and iPad, Anttenna will serve as a key tool for increasing awareness of the Fill-the-Boot campaign and notifying individuals across the Seattle area of nearby donation collection locations. The public may access Anttenna to see all Fill-the-Boot locations while on-the-go (be sure to filter by the “Donate” category when using the app). Liz Truong Jasmer, Executive Director of MDA, mentioned, “I’m thrilled about this new opportunity that Annttenna has created for us. Fill-the-Boot is a 56 year old tradition that has stood the test of time but with the changing times in fundraising, this type of technology can have a dramatically large impact in the way we are able to raise dollars in the future.” CEO of Seattle-based Anttenna, Marcus Wandell, had this to say about his company’s involvement, “While the commercial applications of Anttenna are powerful, I am most excited about our ability to tap the power of the platform to raise awareness for – and advance the cause of – worthy community initiatives such as MDA’s Fill-the-Boot campaign.”

Proceeds raised during the street side campaign will help support MDA services and research programs, including transportation services, support groups, and local clinics.

MDA is a volunteer health agency working to defeat more than 40 forms of Muscular Dystrophy and related diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services and far-reaching professional and public health education. MDA maintains clinics for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the University of Washington Medical Center.

For more information about Fill-the-Boot or other MDA programs, please contact Liz Truong Jasmer at (206) 283-2183 or ejasmer@mdausa.org.

For more information about Anttenna, the category-defining company in mobile microlistings, visit www.anttenna.com.

Just as Twitter evolved blogging into micro-blogging, Anttenna (www.anttenna.com) is today launching a free smartphone application that reinvents classified advertising as “microlistings.” Launching as an iPhone application, Anttenna delivers a real-time, location-aware and mobile consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer microlistings marketplace for the buying, selling, and bartering of goods and services. Today, Anttenna announced the application is now available in most major metropolitan areas across the United States and Canada, building on the success of pilots in San Diego, Seattle, and Austin.

“Anttenna is like a swap meet in your pocket,” said Marcus Wandell, Anttenna’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “This year, more people will access the Internet on their phones than they will on computers, and smartphones are changing the very fabric of the Internet with portability, geo-positioning, and mobile applications. With the exception of posting ads online and making them searchable, classified ads haven’t really evolved all that much since they were introduced 300 years ago, certainly not to the point of harnessing this technology revolution that will see billions of smartphones in use around the world in just a couple of years. Anttenna fully leverages the smartphone platforms and new communications standards to give people a whole new way to use classified advertising. Anttenna delivers a constant stream of hyper-local, real-time listings, always relevant given the moment and location in which they are seen.”

Anttenna’s free mobile application facilitates real-time, location-based, person-to-person exchanges. By turning traditional classified listings into geo-tagged, Twitter-sized microlistings, Anttenna connects people in real-time to others nearby through their handhelds. In less than a minute, potential buyers can search through the Anttenna marketplace to find items or services they’re looking for, all in proximity to where they are at that moment. Microlistings could include finding a concert ticket on location at a music festival, helping a lost pet reunite with her owner, or finding a free sofa right down the block that is in need of a good home.

As Anttenna’s co-founder wandered through a music festival in New York City, he wished the various participating vendors could send him information about what they were selling, their locations, and any offers they might have to his GPS-enabled smartphone. Realizing that this same sort of problem was repeating itself in ways both large and small, block after block, and community after community, the vision for Anttenna was born.

Taking advantage of the reach, openness and familiarity of the Twitter platform, and the exploding popularity of smartphones, Anttenna enables instantaneous, location-aware person-to-person communication and exchange that is efficient and consistent with the “tweet” communication format.

“The feedback from people during the Anttenna pilot was overwhelming,” said Hunter Jensen, Anttenna’s co-founder and chief technology officer. “These early Anttenna users loved the ease of use and functionality that comes from seamless integration with the Twitter ecosystem. Leveraging Twitter’s platform, we give people the ability to instantly communicate with each other by ‘Anttweeting,’ with the huge privacy benefit of not having to share personal information such as phone numbers or email addresses.”

The concept of community is central to the company’s vision. As a location-based service, Anttenna becomes part of the fabric of the communities it serves. Recognizing and respecting the role it can play in communities, Anttenna provides tools and services specifically geared towards non-profits and other volunteer-based civic organizations. To further enhance this interaction with the community, the Anttenna service features categories such as “Volunteer,” “Carpool,” and “Borrow/Lend.” During its pilot, the Anttenna platform was used to raise awareness and donations for a San Diego initiative called The Campaign for Abandoned Youth, in partnership with the non-profit group StayClassy.org. With the national rollout, Anttenna has teamed up with the Muscular Dystrophy Association in several cities to spread the word about the locations of donation collection teams staffed by local firefighters supporting MDA’s annual ‘Fill The Boot’ drive.

iPhone users can get the free Anttenna application on iTunes.

About Anttenna
Anttenna is defining mobile microlistings, providing businesses and consumers with a real-time, location-based mobile microlistings marketplace for the exchange of goods and services. The Anttenna platform strengthens the bonds between people and their communities, providing tools that allow non-profit, volunteer-based and other civic organizations to connect, communicate and mobilize in response to local needs. For more information, visit www.anttenna.com.