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Vote Now, Vote Daily, Vote from Anywhere - Photo Finish in the Nature's Bounty Charity Contest!

View the Post on the Blog

by Sasha

3310041572_fe38287341_z.jpg


Real mud flying while we're neck and neck! Photo by Paolo Camera on flickr.


Quick! You have 27 seconds to win $5,000 for an ME/FM charity!

So please – don’t think! – do this now and then come back and read about why you did it:
  • Click on ‘N’ to get the list of charities beginning with ‘N’.
  • The second one down is the National ME/FM Action Network. Click on the ‘Vote’ button.
  • Enter your email address in the box that pops up, do the Captcha thing to prove you’re not a robot, tick the box accepting the terms and conditions and hit the ‘Vote’ button.
Done! OK, maybe that 27 seconds comes with practice but it’s daily voting, so please keep coming back until the contest ends on 29th March.

So, why did you do that? Because the Action Network, which is Canada’s main ME/FM charity, is in a close fight for third place in the contest. Third place wins $5,000: no prizes for fourth.

Over the past few days we’ve been in third place, been in fourth, been back in third and so on as we’ve fought a close battle with a charity that looks after birds. Yes, birds. Nothing wrong with animal charities but surely we are every bit as appealing so let’s fight for that cash!

The Action Network is well worth supporting. They led the development of the Canadian Consensus Criteria for diagnosis, from which we’ve all benefited, they promote research and they support 750,000 patients in Canada through advocacy, education and information.

Thanks to an all-out effort across the community – particularly the ME/CFS Fundraising Group on Facebook, which includes members of Phoenix Rising – we’re getting about 1,100 votes a day and we need to keep pulling in more voters.

You can sign up to a free, daily reminder to vote here. It’s a Google Group so if you have a gmail address then you can go straight in and sign up. If you don’t have a gmail address you can get the reminder sent to your existing email address (Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc.), but to set that up you will first need to open a Google account by signing up quick and painlessly here. Then go to the Google Group and join it.

So, as we enter the final days of the contest, please vote, tell your friends to vote and keep voting daily!

Phoenix Rising costs money to run and needs your donations to keep it going. Without you we can’t continue to serve you and the community. Please donate!

View the Post on the Blog
 
This article went live a little while ago and has had one view so I thought it would be interesting to post votes now so we can see them going up (I hope!).

We're currently chasing third by a mere 66 votes!

  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO31453
  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society29693
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY14982
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK14916
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY8932
 
  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO31520
  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society29734
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY15068
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK15017
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY8950

  • 51 votes behind third place.​
 
Thanks Sasha for this article - perfect. These things make a difference, especially as we are now reaching the business end of the competition. I really hope people read this and vote because it could go either way by a tiny number of votes. Each vote really does count and every dollar we get for an ME/CFS/FM charity anywhere in the world, helps to increase awareness, and hel patients get the help and research that we all need.
 
Thanks snowathlete - yes, there's currently about 60 votes in it and it's going to be incredibly close.

When you think what we'd have to do to raise $5,000 through donations, and this is just free money...

  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO31660
  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society30309
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY15331
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK15272
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY9039
 
Thanks Sasha . I just voted in this for the first time and want to tell everyone this one is VERY EASY to vote in unlike some of the other competitions. It took me only about 15 seconds so please do vote.

(I'd been worried about that thingy in which one needs to prove one wasnt a robot as much of the time I cant work out the letters of that kind of thing but on this one, it was easy to get the letters and words **fingers crossed its like that all the time).

We are down currently about 80 votes so every vote will make a difference. (I'll try to get my family voting too).
 
Thanks Sasha . I just voted in this for the first time and want to tell everyone this one is VERY EASY to vote in unlike some of the other competitions. It took me only about 15 seconds so please do vote.

(I'd been worried about that thingy in which one needs to prove one wasnt a robot as much of the time I cant work out the letters of that kind of thing but on this one, it was easy to get the letters and words **fingers crossed its like that all the time).

We are down currently about 80 votes so every vote will make a difference. (I'll try to get my family voting too).

Great to hear tania. By the way, if you ever do get a tricky Captcha text thingy, then you can press the blue refresh button to the side of it for another one that will likely be easier, but generally they arent too bad on this site.
 
Thanks Sasha . I just voted in this for the first time and want to tell everyone this one is VERY EASY to vote in unlike some of the other competitions. It took me only about 15 seconds so please do vote.

(I'd been worried about that thingy in which one needs to prove one wasnt a robot as much of the time I cant work out the letters of that kind of thing but on this one, it was easy to get the letters and words **fingers crossed its like that all the time).

We are down currently about 80 votes so every vote will make a difference. (I'll try to get my family voting too).

Thanks, Tania - you and your family's extra votes will be very important. We're really at the every-vote-counting stage.

I'm starting to quite enjoy the weird Captcha words - some of them are quite funny!
 
Still in fourth, still close, still need the votes!

  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO31780
  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society30992
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY15605
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK15440
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY9135
 
Still in fourth - vote, vote, vote!

  • REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO31801
  • Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society31314
  • MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY15762
  • NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK15599
  • SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY9193
 
Doing much better , less than 50 behind. Every single vote is important so ask your neighbours, church friends, Facebook friends, etc to all vote!

We've had an overnight boost and are now 6 votes behind third place, thanks to a tireless supporter who has negotiated the support of Reach for the Rainbow, who are now voting for us - we must vote for them! We can help assure them first place and they can help us bag third.

So, please everybody, vote for us and use your second vote for Reach for the Rainbow!
 
WOOHOO! We have an alliance with Reach for the Rainbow!! (thank you Kina for your wonderful negotiating)
When voting for National ME/FM Action, please take a moment and also vote for Reach for the Rainbow. Many of us are posting our vote numbers on this post https://www.facebook.com/ReachForTheRainbow/posts/482390205160811 so they can see we are sincere.
The tide is turning!!!
 
As a reminder for myself to vote everyday, I added the voting website to my bookmarks and placed it first in the top line of my browser. I can add and delete the contests that are running and it helps me to remember.

I also know that the "fundraising and contest" group has created a daily reminder email list you can subscribe to which will remind you to vote as most of us, me included, have very short term memories.

ME/CFS Charity Competitions Voting Reminder Service:

https://groups.google.com/forum/embed/?place=forum/me-cfs-charity-competitions-voting-reminder-service#!forum/me-cfs-charity-competitions-voting-reminder-service

Each contest wins not only money for funding ME/CFS orgs, but brings this illness into much needed public attention.

As it is OK to vote for 2 orgs on the same day, I am also voting for "Reach for the Rainbow" which is another organization that helps people who cannot always help themselves, like us.

Thanks to all those who have put so much effort into making great strides for our cause.