Facebook article in newspaper

I am a published author. Ok, I've been a published author for several years now. Does having articles published in your local newspaper count as being a published author? I doubt it, but this is my FIRST front page article. It will be published in the Wednesday, June 23, edition. Comments in blue are notes from me & will not appear in the paper, LOL

Facebook users can vote for county charities (I think that's the title of it.)

By RaNAE BARTLOME
Citizen copy editor (Rod wasn't going to give me a byline credit, but I didn't want Tom, who writes as CITIZEN STAFF, to get credit for MY story.)

The power of giving is in your hands at Chase Community Giving on Facebook. A few months ago Chase gave away $5 million dollars to 200 charities. They are back to give away another $5 million. We can help decide which 200 charities receive donations.

Eleven Franklin County charities, and many others throughout Cache Valley, are entered in this go round. These charities are the Oneida Stake Academy, Franklin County Healthcare Foundation, Preston Community Food Pantry, West Side School District, Preston Education Foundation, Franklin County Theatre Arts Council (FCTAC), Franklin County Senior Center, Wyatt Foundation, United States Bowling Council, Idaho Sportsman for Habitat and Northern Cache Valley Theater Guild (NCVTG). (Don't vote for NCVTG. It is no longer a valid charity. They changed their name 6-7 years ago! It is now FCTAC.)

All we have to do is vote for them. However, there are over 7,000 charities entered. As of Monday, the top vote getter had over 1,000 votes, the lowest of the top 200 only had 61. If Big J’s (a local fast food restaurant) can get over 1,000 (Facebook) fans in just 2 weeks, the potential is there for one or more of our charities to make it into the top 200. If a charity just makes it into the top 200, they will receive $20K. How easy is that? You don’t even have to remember to go to the library or the Robinson Building (local community center) to vote (and spend 5 minutes arguing with the election person that your last name really doesn't have an "h" in it. After all you know how to spell your last name better than she does). All you have to do is log into your Facebook account and vote from there.

Here’s how to get started. Log into your Facebook account, type in Chase Community Giving in the search bar at the top of the page, above your name. That takes you to the home page of Chase Community Giving. Halfway down the page it says, “Voting Open Now.” Click the “Like” button and you are in. There is a button that says “Search & Vote.” Click the button and enter 83263. Franklin County charities are on the first three pages. Each participant has 20 votes.

Chase will close the initial voting on July 12.

Another round of voting will begin in which the top 200 vote getters from the current round of voting competes. The top charity receives $250,000, four will receive $100,000 and 195 others receive $20,000!

I blogged about Chase Community Giving a few months ago here and here.

I would really like to see these 7 charities up there in the top 200 charities. Right now there are only 9 votes for the Oneida Stake Academy & 3 or 4 for the other 7. NCVTG has 2 votes, mine & Don's. That was before we found out that NCVTG was no more. Three of the charities have no votes because I voted for 5-6 SMA charities.