Help Wanted: Miracle Workers

This is a remix of several posts I've written or hosted since July 5th. It seemed fitting to end Alphabe-Thursday's alphabet soup finale by focusing your attention on 5 letters of the alphabet: CJMNS. Please stick with me until the end to read about the importance of each of these letters in July.

Let's start with JM. In a nutshell, Juvenile Myositis is a rare autoimmune disease that affects approximately 17,000 children and adults. The Cure JM Foundation is in the running for $250,000 grant through the Pepsi Refresh Project. Only the top two vote-getters out of 278 finalists will win a quarter of a million dollars. Cure JM is a tiny, all-volunteer organization created around a disease that only 3 in 1,000,000 kids are diagnosed with every year in the United States.

The odds of Cure JM winning, like the odds of your child actually developing juvenile myositis, are exceptionally and astronomically poor. Right now, Cure JM's idea is actually sitting in 12th. It needs to move up to at least 2nd to be funded. They need a miracle. And you could be part of making that miracle happen.

I've been voting for other Pepsi Refresh ideas all year long. That experience allows me to say without a trace of uncertainty that there have been NO negative repercussions from signing up to vote. I've never received an email from them nor has my spam increased one iota.

Registering is fast and easy. All you need is a valid email address. It takes about a minute and a half. By the way, I sorta cheat. I've registered all 6 family email accounts. I vote 6 times each morning and it takes me about 5 minutes. This is time I can certainly afford to spare.

Moving on to the last 3 letters: CSN. Back at the beginning of July, the lovely Eileen at CSN stores asked if I'd like to host a $60/£60 CSN gift certificate giveaway on my blog. I gave it some thought—all of 30 seconds worth of thought—and responded, hell yeah count me in!

Since I'm trying to change my undomestic ways, I took a tromp through some of their stores. They have everything from cookware and bakeware to home furnishings to every imaginable style of ceiling lights! I'd like a new bathroom combo ceiling light and exhaust fan. Here are my favorites.

Each is at least 58% off, cost just a little bit over $60, and come with free shipping. Now, if each came with installation, we'd be in business.

So how can you, yes you Gentle Reader, enter to win this fantabulous giveaway? First of all, I don't care if you follow this blog. Bet you're breathing a huge sigh of relief about that one. Be honest, you're already following too many blogs. Besides, the point is to bribe entice you to do something worthwhile while giving you the opportunity to be richly rewarded.

On with the enticement. In order to enter to win the $60/£60 CSN gift certificate, you must register and vote at least once for Make Juvenile Myositis a Memory.

With all the other CSN Stores giveaways running right now, why would you want to go through the hassle of signing up and voting to enter this one? Here are 4 very good reasons.

Parker, diagnosed at age 4;

Gracie, diagnosed at age 10;

Mason, diagnosed at age 17 months;

and, of course, Thing 1, diagnosed age 2.5.
Thing 1 is the daughter of Always Home and Uncool.

You can earn extra entries by voting for this idea every day from now until July 31st. Simply vote and then leave a comment on this post telling me just how great you feel about casting your vote. To make that first visit easier, just push on the Vote for this idea button below.

This post will stay in your browser and out will pop a new screen taking you to Cure JM's voting homepage. Let 'em know you're new, sign up, vote, submit, and close that puppy down. Leave a comment here to let me know you voted. {If you want a daily reminder, add that to your comment.} If you verified funny words, plug them into your comment. I can always use a laugh. My favorite so far is fat blaster.

Some pop-up blocker software can hinder access to this site. Mine activates but doesn't block access. If yours does, you may have to unblock for just this one site in order to participate.

Thank you all in advance for joining the movement to help fund a cure for JM. No kid should have to feel trapped in this disease because it's so rare it gets overlooked and unfunded.

Good luck in the giveaway. Your odds of winning are greatly improved with each daily vote and comment. And those odds? They're better than the odds of Cure JM actually winning this grant without more help. Please spread the word.

The voting and this contest end July 31, 2010. The mysterious random.org number generator I keep in my wall safe will be used to select the winning entry on August 1st. Look for the results to be posted soon thereafter.

The gift certificate can be used in any of CSN's 200+ stores. Folks from the US or Canada can shop here. Residents of the UK can shop here.

No compensation of any kind was given to me to write about CSN Stores, Pepsi Refresh, or Juvenile Myositis. You're undying devotion is repayment enough.