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AMVETS Post 44 leading in tight race on Facebook
STRUTHERS
The Home Depot Facebook contest, in which the AMVETS Post 44 Career Center has a chance to win a $25,000 Home Depot gift card and become eligible to win $250,000, is a dead heat.
“It’s such a tight race. I’m hoping the people of the Mahoning Valley get behind us like they did for the food bank,” said Jan Brown, commander of AMVETS Post 44.
Brown referred to the Walmart Facebook contest last spring in which Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley won the top prize of $1 million.
With just a week to go, AMVETS Post 44 is leading the Heroes Night Out organization in Cedar Park, Texas, by 260 votes, 17,276 to 17,016 as of 7 p.m. Sunday.
People may vote every day until 11:59 p.m. this Sunday, when the contest ends.
There are four veteran-focused organizations involved in the September round of competition. Besides AMVETS Post 44 and Heroes Night Out, participants include the Hoosier Veterans Assistance Foundation, Indianapolis, with 2,540 votes; and U.S. VETS Barbers Point, Kapolei, Hawaii, with 2,247 votes.
“We’re working real hard to get out the votes,” said Brown, a retired Air Force senior master sergeant. She urged people to continue to vote and also to ask all their friends to vote.
The AMVETS Career Center provides career services such as computer skills and career coaching for veterans, active-duty service members, National Guard and reserve members who have served honorably or currently are serving.
If AMVETS Post 44 wins the $25,000 Home Depot gift card, it plans to enlarge its career center, add energy-efficient windows and make various other updates to make it a better and more-comfortable place for veterans,” Brown said.
In addition to the $25,000 gift card, the monthly winner receives a set of 50 Ryobi 18V ONE+ power tools to help fund a community-improvement project as well as the opportunity to go up against 10 other monthly finalists early in 2013 and compete on Facebook for $250,000 from The Home Depot Foundation.
Organizations that garner the second- and third-most votes in the contest finale will win $150,000 and $100,000, respectively. The monthly runner-up organizations receive a $5,000 Home Depot gift card.
AMVETS Post 44 Career Center was nominated by Buddy Colley, manager of the Boardman Home Depot on Southern Boulevard and Team Depot captain for the year.
“Help us make a difference by voting every day on Facebook, and tell everyone you know to do the same. You don’t need to be a veteran to vote. We need everybody’s help so we can help more veterans,” Brown said.