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Vote from Any Country for ME/FM Charity to Win $20,000!

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by Sasha


Image by www.facebook.com/MEAwarenessPics


The first thing to say about this: you don’t need Facebook!

The second thing: you don’t have to be in Canada to vote!

The third thing... well, time to give you the details...

Nature’s Bounty, a long-established manufacturer of vitamins and food supplements, is running an online voting contest for Canadian charities. The National ME/FM Action Network has entered.

The Action Network is probably best-known internationally for spearheading the development of the Canadian Consensus Criteria.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of rigorous diagnostic criteria in this disease: we all owe the Action Network a debt for this contribution to diagnosis and research. The Network also hosted the 2011 IACFS/ME Conference in Ottawa. But as well as these international achievements, for the past twenty years the Action Network has supported patients through advocacy, education, information, and promoting research. It’s the main charity for the 750,000 people in Canada with ME or FM.

So it’s well worth supporting the Action Network in the contest. The top three winners will get $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively. Of the remaining charities, three will be chosen at random to each win $5,000. US dollars and Canadian dollars are worth the same: $20,000 is about £13,000 or 15,000 Euros. That would be a considerable boost to any national ME/FM charity.

Voting opens on Tuesday, 26 February, and continues with one vote allowed per day until Friday, 29 March.

At the time of writing, voting instructions have not appeared but if you go to the Nature's Bounty contest webpage, all should become clear on the day.

There’s a big push behind the Action Network for this contest: a team of supporters has already been posting widely on the net to drum up support. Let’s help them win.

Got any questions? We’ve got a thread for that! The competition looks straightforward but the first post in this thread will be updated with instructions and help if any problems emerge.

Have you heard about other contests? Many, many small prize contests are announced in local papers, on the radio, and so on. If you notice any, please message helen41 so that she and the fundraising team can look into them. Every dollar helps!
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Even though I am sad to see our cause in third place right now, I am glad to see Reach For The Rainbow Ontario is in the running. This is a very small organization that provides all sorts of supportive services for children/adults with special needs. If it weren't for them, my daughter would have never been able to go to a residential camp for 2 weeks every summer which is and was the only kind of respite we have ever gotten. As much as I love animals, it would be nice if some of these contests were restricted to people only. In Ontario, our government has drastically cut services to sick people (especially the chronically ill), people with special needs to the point of unless you are in some kind of crisis state, you will languish on a waiting list or not get services at all. These charities often help supply services that the government used fund but have cut the funding to due to lack of resources. The money that is won in these contests is vital to keep some of them going so VOTE, VOTE, VOTE.

I checked them out online when I saw them storming into second place there and I agree with you - they sound great! If we're going to get pipped I'd rather it was by this kind of charity.

But I'd rather not get pipped! Let's keep voting. We're all in the process of building our support base and this is a five-week contest. It's all to play for. :cool:
 
Just voted:

Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society 2139
REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO 1672
NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK 1492
SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY 1293
OOPSADAZY RESCUE AND SANTUARY SOCIETY 1268

Even though I am sad to see our cause in third place right now, I am glad to see Reach For The Rainbow Ontario is in the running. This is a very small organization that provides all sorts of supportive services for children/adults with special needs. If it weren't for them, my daughter would have never been able to go to a residential camp for 2 weeks every summer which is and was the only kind of respite we have ever gotten. As much as I love animals, it would be nice if some of these contests were restricted to people only. In Ontario, our government has drastically cut services to sick people (especially the chronically ill), people with special needs to the point of unless you are in some kind of crisis state, you will languish on a waiting list or not get services at all. These charities often help supply services that the government used fund but have cut the funding to due to lack of resources. The money that is won in these contests is vital to keep some of them going so VOTE, VOTE, VOTE.

I love animals too, but I'd also like to see charities that need the money more get more chance. Fact is, a lot of animal charities already get a lot of funding from donations and legacies in people's wills. I doubt anyone leaves money in their will for ME/CFS charities, and as we know, not that many people donate to the cause when they're alive either.

Still, we cant do much about that, but we can vote for charities in competitions like this and there are enough of us that we can win competitions like this. I think we are getting better at it.
So, keep voting and hopefully we can regain some ground over the weekend.
 
Reach for the Rainbow has a huge amount of parents that have children/adult children with special needs. They are hooked into many many services that are associated with special needs -- autism, community living, developmental services, spina bifida, March of Dimes etc., summer camps, residential programs, school programs, Children's Aid Society etc. They are a small organization and I suspect the are networking very effectively right now with the many services they are associated with because they need the money to keep going. If they can't afford to run their charity, many organizations and parents will lose a vital service.
My post sounded negative. That was not my intent. I just want to know what they are doing so we can copy them!
 
My post sounded negative. That was not my intent. I just want to know what they are doing so we can copy them!

I didn't think your post sounded negative at all. :)

It's a bit late now for me to find out what they are doing to get the votes (being a Friday, after 1 pm). I could contact them next week and ask them how they set things up to get so many votes. I am in direct contact with them because we get services from them, I am sure our worker would be happy to put me in contact with the person/people who are in charge of getting votes.
 
  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society2472
  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO2209
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK1714
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY1531
  • OOPSADAZY RESCUE AND SANTUARY SOCIETY 1519
 
Just voted - we're in fourth but not far off third:

  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society2504
  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO2212
  • OOPSADAZY RESCUE AND SANTUARY SOCIETY1833
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK1803
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY1563

We could gain a lot of ground this weekend if we keep the pressure on! :)
 
We're back in third - the weekend is our friend!

Keep piling the votes on, guys - lots of charities slip back at the weekends in these contests so this is where we can pull ahead if we stay focused...

  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society2514
  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO2240
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK1887
  • OOPSADAZY RESCUE AND SANTUARY SOCIETY1836
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY
 
I would suggest that Canada be removed from this thread title. Some users might not even click, thinking that it's only for Canadians to vote on.

For anyone curious, the rules say they can discard multiple votes from the same IP/computer.
 
I would suggest that Canada be removed from this thread title. Some users might not even click, thinking that it's only for Canadians to vote on.

For anyone curious, the rules say they can discard multiple votes from the same IP/computer.
good suggestion. we need to make it clear that this is an International effort.
Re multiple votes from the same IP/computer, as a contester, I can assure you they are not talking about 3 or 4 or 5 votes from the same computer. That is an average family.
Sometimes people vote with hundreds of accounts to try to win. Those are the people they are targeting.
 
  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society3257
  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO3025
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY2306
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK2135
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY2073
 
Argh! Some birds are in front of us.

  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society3336
  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO3038
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY2422
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK2189
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY2120

I'm hoping that these charities who surge up out of nowhere are doing it in response to a big, on-off push that will die away as the weeks go on, but we won't! Let's keep on trucking...
 
Argh! Some birds are in front of us.

  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society3336
  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO3038
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY2422
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK2189
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY2120

I'm hoping that these charities who surge up out of nowhere are doing it in response to a big, on-off push that will die away as the weeks go on, but we won't! Let's keep on trucking...

Not the birds!!!!! Awww do feel guilty but we need it.