Bridgestone Americas named Waterloo Elementary School in Monroe, Mich. the winner of its Fuel the Cause contest. The school will receive a $25,000 gift to build a new playground.

In its first year, the Fuel the Cause contest asked consumers to submit three pictures and a brief description of a project that would benefit from a $25,000 transformation. The winner was then chosen from online consumer votes. There were than 760,000 votes cast in the month of April to support 12 finalists.

Waterloo Elementary received more than 376,000 of the public votes through an online voting portal on the Bridgestone website making it the grand prize winner. Waterloo students, faculty and the community turned to social media, launching a grassroots campaign to encourage the public to vote for their playground project, Bridgestone said.

Waterloo’s previous playground equipment was removed for safety reasons leaving students and area children with no where to play. The school is the smallest in the Monroe Public Schools District with a poverty rate of 80%.

“The environmental mission of Bridgestone is to help ensure a healthy environment for current and future generations, and the Fuel the Cause contest has shown us that we are not alone in our commitment to building a sustainable future,” said Erik Seidel, vice president of brand management at Bridgestone Americas. “Congratulations to the students of Waterloo Elementary and thank you to everyone who participated in our contest. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we work together as one team, one planet.”

Bridgestone conducted the Fuel the Cause contest as part of its annual Rethink Green campaign in April. Rethink Green highlights the Bridgestone Ecopia line of tires.

For more information about the Bridgestone Rethink Green campaign, visitBridgestoneTire.com/rethinkgreen/fuelthecause.