Fire District a finalist for State Farm grant

Sep. 29--SOAP LAKE -- Grant County Fire District No. 7 needs your vote.

In fact, it wants all 10 of them. Every day until Friday.

The fire district, which covers Soap Lake north to near Coulee City, is one of 200 finalists for State Farm Insurance's $25,000 Neighborhood Assist grants.

"It's a crowd sourcing program," said Ty Cordova, a State Farm corporate responsibility analyst and specialist in community relations and philanthropy in Washington. "Last year, 163,000 people cast 4.4 million votes."

Cordova said that each year, the company gives out $1 million in $25,000 grants to 40 organizations across the country, selected from the 200 finalists by voters across the country. Each voter gets 10 votes every day that can be spread out between recipients or given to one deserving organization.

"Voting started on Sept. 23 and runs to Oct. 2," Cordova said. "We will announce the winners on Nov. 4."

Kirk Sheppard, fire chief of Grant County Fire District No. 7, said the district would use the money to help recruit and train new volunteer firefighters.

"We only have 19 right now," Sheppard said. "We cover 155 square miles out of two stations. Ideally, we'd recruit another five or six volunteers."

Out of 200 finalists, as of Monday, Grant County Fire District No. 7 is at 81, behind the Mobile Food Pantry of Chelan and Douglas counties at 68, but ahead of the other two Washington finalists, Share's Backpack Program in Clark County, which fills backpacks with food for needy school students for the weekends, and Donated Care of Pierce County, which coordinates medical appointments for people who do not have health insurance.

"We're the only fire district in Eastern Washington in the running," Sheppard said. "We're in such a rural area, and we're competing against agencies out east in urban areas."

Cordova said State Farm accepts 2,000 applications for Neighborhood Assist grants in mid-summer and winnows them down to 200 finalists prior to the voting in late September.

It's also possible for agencies and organizations in small towns and rural areas to win if they rally the community to vote early and vote often, Cordova said.

"Then the votes start racking up," he said.

To vote, you must first register at State Farm's Neighborhood Assist website www.neighborhoodassist.com. You must be 18 or older to register, Cordova said, but once registered, you can cast up to 10 ballots a day until the voting ends.

"It's a great program," he said. "And it's a way we can have the community involved."

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].

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