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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• Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society 32641
• REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO 32017
• MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY 16334
• NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK 16329

Hey 5 votes behind!!!!
Snowathlete - do we know if the RFTR lot are voting for us? Not giving my vote until I know they are

I think it's best we show trust and just vote. If both sides wait then no-one will vote. We don't lose anything by voting for them - we're not in the running for first place now - and we stand to gain. Our catching up to third place now might be an indication that the word is already out.

 

• Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society 32641
• REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO 32017
• MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY 16334
• NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK 16329

Hey 5 votes behind!!!!
Snowathlete - do we know if the RFTR lot are voting for us? Not giving my vote until I know they are

Just read Tony's post - okay I'll start voting for them tomorrow. Brilliant news.

I'm trying to get a clear answer on what the deal is exactly and when their members will be voting. We get around 1000 votes a day at the moment so it really needs to be reciprocal with their members not just their staff. But lets give benefit of the doubt and vote for both from now. I expect that will happen soon on both sides but we need that sorted quickly for both groups sake and both sides need to agree to tell all their members by all the various means.
If we do that then we should get third and they should get first.

 

I'm trying to get a clear answer on what the deal is exactly and when their members will be voting. We get around 1000 votes a day at the moment so it really needs to be reciprocal with their members not just their staff. But lets give benefit of the doubt and vote for both from now. I expect that will happen soon on both sides but we need that sorted quickly for both groups sake and both sides need to agree to tell all their members by all the various means.
If we do that then we should get third and they should get first.

I agree - what's the worse that can happen? We support a charity for disabled people and help it beat another animal charity.

 

I agree - what's the worse that can happen? We support a charity for disabled people and help it beat another animal charity.

Also, their members will be more inclined to support us in their turn if they can see that we've already given them a surge in votes.

Nothing to lose, everything to gain...

 

I'm trying to get a clear answer on what the deal is exactly and when their members will be voting. We get around 1000 votes a day at the moment so it really needs to be reciprocal with their members not just their staff. But lets give benefit of the doubt and vote for both from now. I expect that will happen soon on both sides but we need that sorted quickly for both groups sake and both sides need to agree to tell all their members by all the various means.
If we do that then we should get third and they should get first.

Reach for the Rainbow has quite a small staff. For the members to vote, they would have to send out an email requesting that they vote for our Charity too. When I initially talked to Maggie a few weeks ago, she said we should wait until closer to the end of the competition before they did that. I think that time is now as they are slipping in the votes. I will contact her today and see what she has to say about including us in their email.

 

Back in third place:

• Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society 32657
• REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO 32131
• NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK 16407
• MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY 16382
• SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY 9384

 

Reach for the Rainbow has quite a small staff. For the members to vote, they would have to send out an email requesting that they vote for our Charity too. When I initially talked to Maggie a few weeks ago, she said we should wait until closer to the end of the competition before they did that. I think that time is now as they are slipping in the votes. I will contact her today and see what she has to say about including us in their email.

Thank you Kina. One thing that needs to be made clear: this is NOT about splitting our votes - we can vote for both.

 

I agree - what's the worse that can happen? We support a charity for disabled people and help it beat another animal charity.

I jut voted for both. I agree - what do we have to lose?

 

33 votes ahead of the birds

 

40..... ahead

 

40..... ahead

and Reach for the Rainbow Ontario are starting to catch first, with our help!

• Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society 32794
• REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO 32385
• NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK 16560
• MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY 16519

 

Thank you Kina. One thing that needs to be made clear: this is NOT about splitting our votes - we can vote for both.

I just heard back from Maggie. She said:

Hi Kina,

Thanks for the email and yes, we are going to continue to encourage our voters to vote for both charities.

Let's stay in touch,

The only way they can encourage their voters to vote for both is to put it in their emails. I receive those emails because they help support my daughter who has special needs. I will keep an eye out for the email and let you know what it says.

So everybody, please give Reach for the Rainbow your votes too. They do great work and if we can't win, they deserve to and have a shot. They can help keep us in third place. Spread the word.

Kina

 

Would be an absolute result if we got third and they got first. Both these groups need it a lot more than these animal charities as these animal charities have several other sources of income.

 

It would be nice if members could add Reach For The Rainbow to their signatures.

 

It would be nice if members could add Reach For The Rainbow to their signatures.

yep, good point. I've just updated mine to a new garishly coloured version.

 

Reach for the Rainbow has posted this on their FB page:

We would like to let our loyal supporters and followers know that we have teamed up with another remarkable charity, the National ME/FM Action Network. When you vote for us each day, please place your second vote for this worthwhile cause which helps individuals with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Fibromyalgia (FM). www.sharethebounty.ca

 

69..... ahead

Yeah for our new alliance with Reach for the Rainbow. Please vote for both National ME/FM Action Network and
Reach for the Rainbow Ontario at http://www.sharethebounty.ca/charities.php

 

I just heard back from Maggie. She said:

The only way they can encourage their voters to vote for both is to put it in their emails. I receive those emails because they help support my daughter who has special needs. I will keep an eye out for the email and let you know what it says.

So everybody, please give Reach for the Rainbow your votes too. They do great work and if we can't win, they deserve to and have a shot. They can help keep us in third place. Spread the word.

Kina

Kina,

Thanks for letting us know that Reach for the Rainbow is helping your family. I love animals, but I also love people. And there are people like us who need help just like we do.

To All:

I am now voting daily for both as is appears that both orgs are helping people who really need it.

Karen

 

• Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society33913
• REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO33636
• MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY17150
• NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK16930
• SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY9542

The birds just got a major push in the past half an hour.
They are now 220 ahead of us!
​

 

• Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society33913
• REACH FOR THE RAINBOW ONTARIO33636
• MOUNTAINAIRE AVIAN RESCUE SOCIETY17150
• NATIONAL ME/FM ACTION NETWORK16930
• SENIOR ANIMALS IN NEED TODAY SOCIETY9542

The birds just got a major push in the past half an hour.
They are now 220 ahead of us!

It seems very strange to me that all of a sudden they get a huge lump of votes like that. We can only hope we catch them again like we did yesterday.

Kina.