KRIS Wine is having a contest to give winning schools money for Arts Education. Basically you submit your school's name and then they post it in the listing on their Facebook page and then you and everyone you know votes for your school there. (You can vote every day.)
I found about it after it had already started, but I thought, "Why not try?" So I submitted our school's name. By the time they confirmed our entry it was three weeks in, but hey - you never know, right? So I posted it on the PTSA Facebook page and it captured the imagination of another of the moms and she became an overnight, one-woman cheer squad! Virtually overnight, we went from the bottom of the list with 3 votes (which I believe were from me, my sister, and my sweet friend Kris) to being in the running for a grant!
How the winnings shake out is like this: The top 16 schools get grants. Schools 7 - 16 get $1000 grants, schools 2-6 get $2000 grants, and the #1 school gets a $5000 grant. For our little 150 student school, even a thousand dollars is like a fortune! We, literally, are the hand-me-down school in the district. We don't even get bus service for our school. So we, the PTSA, are constantly fundraising and constantly applying for conventional grants and constantly putting out calls for this donation and that donation. I know all schools do that, but seriously - our school is in constant danger of being closed because it is so small that the government-money-per-student we get is only just enough to keep the doors open. And a big influx of money earmarked especially for arts education??? Are you kidding me? It's like a miracle!
As the last 4 weeks have gone by we have been slowly but surely climbing up the listings. One of the top schools has 1200 students, the school in the #1 spot - and they have been in it for nearly the whole contest - has a bit over 500 students. And we, with our little 150 student school are now in THIRD PLACE! Yeah, you read me right! 3rd place!!! Whoooo Hoooooooooooooooo!
The number one school has a huge lead over everybody. We are nearly 3000 votes behind them (we have 1708 to their 4657 as I write this). It's a little daunting, but we've got 2 weeks to catch them (contest ends October 31st). We need to bring in about 225 - 300 votes per day to pass them. Currently, we hold steady at around 100 per day.
So I am asking you, dear blogosphere, for your support in this endeavor. Please help me help Rexy's school and go to Facebook, go to KRIS Wine, "like" them, click on the box that says "Win $5000 for your kids' school," click on the purple circle that says "Vote Here" and enter "Cascade K-8" in the search box. A little red pushpin will appear on the map, click it, and click on the little box at the bottom of the pop-up. It's a lot of steps, I know. But look at those sweet faces in the video - don't they make it worth it?
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| My girl feeding a bird at the zoo. |
