we need your votes

I'm generally not one to get involved with this sort of contest, but this time the project is worthy and it's actually got a shot at winning.  Here's the story:

My kids attend a small parochial school with a positively dreadful playground.  The school's playground is located smack in the middle of our small town and it gets heavy traffic year-round from neighborhood kids and school kids.  The current playground was built on a pebble surface, out of wood.  The climbing tires are beginning to tear apart, several parts of the playground are out of commission because it's very old.

St. Nicholas in Freedom is a thrifty parish, they print on both sides of the paper, they share and innovate to work and learn in a building with no frills. 

Here's the kicker:  there's at least one girl who cannot use the school playground EVER because she's on wheels.  She's either stuck playing on the blacktopped parking lot or inside during recess every day and there's not a thing anyone can do about it--except build a new playground.

Over a year ago people designed Freedom For All To Play

 

and then some more people started to find funding.

The 8th grade class donated a few thousand dollars before "graduating" to high school last spring.
The math and science teachers shaved their heads (and beard) after raising a thousand dollars.
One mom applied for

 Power a Bright Future through Clorox

and people voted.

Then word spread and more people voted.

I cast my first vote on the site when our school was ranked #188.   (I confess, I'm skeptical when it comes to these contests and stuff.  When we started to climb in ranking from spot four hundred-something, I ignored the pleas to vote.)

The town began to rally.  Flyers went out after mass at the parish and during the town's Christmas parade.  The public school sent home a note asking parents to vote.  During halftime at a girls home basketball game the student body was asked to whip out their phones and text in votes.  Announcements and reminders are going out at every single home game until the final day to vote, December 19th.  People can vote online and text in a vote once daily until December 19th.

This morning when I voted online and texted in my vote we were ranked #59.  Our small town is rising in the ranks as word spreads and more people commit to voting for this project.  My family is voting--even my aunt in Utah is on this.  My friends are voting.  And now, dear bloggy pals, I'm asking you to start voting, too. 

I wasn't going to ask you to do this a week ago, because frankly I didn't think we had a shot.  After watching our project climb through the ranks, I believe it's possible for this playground to happen soon because $50,000 is a HUGE jump start.

Here's how you can help:

1.  Text your vote daily.   When texting, 95248 is the “phone number” and 775PBF is your “message.”

2.  Vote daily at the Clorox website. Registration takes a minute the first time you vote, and I promise you, I've received no spam or annoying phone calls since getting involved.

3.  Spread the word.

 

You can vote every 24 hours now through December 19.  

Thank you so much.

Posted in: another first for the books, Green Girl is a born skeptic