Hi everyone-

If this topic is not appropriate, please accept my apologies.

I am a dedicated lurker and occasional poster when I can find something worthy enough.

This is from another forum I frequent, actually a sports forum, and it was posted by a respected regular.

It is a worthy, charitable competition from American Express. If you don't want to vote for this particular organization, find one that appeals to you and vote for that one. American Express is doing a good thing and WE get to decide who reaps the benefits!

Here's the post:

"Some of you may know from previous posts on this topic that my family and I support a group, C3 Missions, that takes care of orphans in the third world. Here is a link to their website for more information -- note that 100% of contributions go to the kids; the family behind the organization underwrites every penny of C3's operating overhead. C3 Missions International

Before the end of August, you have a chance to help feed, house, clothe and educate orphans too, with nothing more than a few minutes of your day and a few keystrokes from your computer. Note that voting ends in 10 days on August 31st.

What I'm asking you to do is just like any of the "vote for my nephew to be all-star of the week in the local paper" or similar sorts of "log-in and vote" requests ... except that if your vote pushes what I'm going to tell you about to the #1 spot in the voting, American Express will give $1.5 million dollars to help C3 take care of orphans.

Winning a $1.5 million gift from American Express allows FULL development of a children's village for 1,000 children (homes, medical facility, schools, all centered around the local church) and funds the village for 2 years. If the project doesn't get to #1 overall, but finishes highly, there is another $1 million to be spread around amongst other projects that received sufficient votes.

Here's what we need from you:

1. Vote for our project.

Go to AmEx's Member Project home page and log in.
Members Project

Search for "C3" in the search box, and vote by clicking the "nominate" button. If you do not have an existing log-on for American Express, you may have to create one.

2. Get some of your friends and family to take 30 seconds to do the same.

If we do this, I believe we can get thousands of votes for the C3 Community in a flash and get in the hunt for the dough."

Thanks everyone! I never knew something like this existed.

I voted. It sounds like a great charity