So, I've been a lurker for way too long ... but now I come to the community here, hat in hand, to ask for your assistance.
Please vote on Facebook for us to help the children of Appalachia.
I work as an attorney at a small non-profit here in Princeton, West Virginia-- we are dedicated to providing legal representation to children who become involved in the Court system, most commonly as Guardian ad Litem in Family Court cases (divorce, custody, domestic violence, guardianship) and in Circuit Court (abuse & neglect, adoption, juvenile criminal). We provide services in the county we are located in and a number of the surrounding counties. The local Teen Court program is also run out of our office, this is an alternative disposition program for teen offenders. We have a website, ChildLaw Services, so feel free to check us out.
We run on a shoe string budget of various grants, donations, fund raisers, and limited billing to the state for court appointed work. However the WV court appointed fees pay an attorney $45/hour for out of court services and $65/hour for court appearances-- for you lawyers, or those of you that know lawyers, imagine trying to run a law office with those as your hourly rates.
Here's where you come in, Chase (yes, I have lots of problems with them as an institution as well, but I'm not above taking money where I find it) is running a program, where any person with a Facebook account can vote for charities nationwide, with the top 200 vote getting charities receiving a share of $5 million they have set aside for this purpose. The least an organization will get is $20K. We can put $20K to a lot of good down here. Voting closes July 12th.
So here I stand, hat in hand, to implore you, if you are a Facebook member, please go to Chase's website there is a link below the log in box to click on to vote, and please vote for ChildLaw Services, Inc., if you search for ChildLaw, like that with no space we're the only one that comes up.
I can't promise you great reward, but if you comment below that you voted I'll rec you for a little mojo-- besides that all you get is a nice warm feeling of having done a good deed and perhaps a little karma to work off that 4th of July debauchery.
Of course if you look on our website we also take donations through paypal, so if if you are so moved ...
Thanks in advance to all of you that take a few minutes to drop us a vote, it really was time well spent.