Last day to VOTE!

What a month, eh? We are so thankful for all of your support over the past month. It's been truly incredible to see so many people do whatever they could to encourage others to care enough to click! No matter what, we have made new friends, and now, more people than ever know about the importance of the foundation you support. Thank you. Thank you so much.

We're still at #4 this morning, and with all the flipping and flopping that has happened in these categories, we obviously have a strong and steadfast group that is defending our position! Pepsi does audit voting. Apparently last month, a couple ideas were tossed out at the last-second for cheating--so there is still a chance. ;)

PLEASE NOTE: Even though it's the last day, your vote is CRUCIAL, especially to our friends in the $50K category. A couple are dangerously close to missing out. They've provided tremendous support to The Kyrie Foundation, so please be sure to cast votes especially for St. Michael the Archangel School, Three Ring Ranch, Tuscon Nursery School.

Please visit St. Michael's voting site, www.smawin.com, where you can vote for The Kyrie Foundation AND OUR PARTNERS ALL 3 WAYS TODAY!

1) Text 103447 to Pepsi (73774) for The Kyrie Foundation
and now you can vote for our partners with separate texts:

103090 - St Michael the Archangel School

103073 - Three Ring Ranch

102961 - The Arizona Center for Responsible Fatherhood (ACRF)

102429 - Tucson Nursery School

103048 - Somtech Recycling

103061 - Outer Limits School

102833 - Jobs for Arizona's Graduates (JAG)

100220 - Parks and Rec Nanty Glo
100879 - Erin's Dream

2) Facebook App voting here: http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh.  Then copy and paste this line: 

erins ring.ranch somtech tns acrf leawood outer kyrie kyrie jobs.jag nanty

You'll be able to see all 10 partners' ideas at once with The Kyrie Foundation at the top.

3) Visit this Pepsi Refresh Everything Site to see all 10 partners in the group at once. The Kyrie Foundation will be at the top. It's just like the www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation.
So today, please cast your votes for Kyrie, Ethan, Taya, Anna, Kate, Lucy, Max, Alexander, Julian and all the other children who still need us to do this work.

Keep up the WEEKEND VOTING!

You just never know. ;)

That's what one of our veteran voting partners told us. Votes get audited. Ideas get investigated. And there has been game-changing, last-second changes in past months. So ... Like I mentioned ideas have voting strategies of their own this weekend, so if you're at a party, can you get everyone to text? Or send out a Happy Halloween e-mail with the treat being to cure kids with brain cancer?

Remember, you can give 3 votes per day:
1) Text 103447 to 73774 (Pepsi's mobile number)
2) Visit Pepsi Refresh's FB page and click "go to application" to vote.
3) Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation

AND PLEASE keep voting The Kyrie Foundation today and tomorrow! Plus, our friends and St. Michael's really need our help. They were at #1 int he $50K category for weeks then slipped to #2. Today we see them at #3! That's how quickly things can happen.

Please visit St. Michael's site to vote ALL 3 WAYS for them, us and our partners! www.smawin.com

Let's make today Partner Day!

Remember you get 10 votes a day to spend with the Pepsi Refresh Project! This means that you can support those ideas that are also supporting us. For the past several weeks, we've had a team of ideas work together to help each other through this competition. Our local partner, St. Michael the Archangel school in Leawood, KS, has been #1 in the $50K category for a long time and has slipped to #2, so we need to do all we can to bring them and our other partners up, up and up!

Please visit their voting site, www.smawin.com, where you can vote for The Kyrie Foundation AND our partners ALL 3 WAYS TODAY!

1) Text 103447 to Pepsi (73774) for The Kyrie Foundation
and now you can vote for our partners with separate texts:

103090 - St Michael the Archangel School

103073 - Three Ring Ranch

102961 - The Arizona Center for Responsible Fatherhood (ACRF)

102429 - Tucson Nursery School

103048 - Somtech Recycling

103061 - Outer Limits School

102833 - Jobs for Arizona's Graduates (JAG)

100220 - Parks and Rec Nanty Glo
100879 - Erin's Dream

2) Facebook App voting here: http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh.  Then copy and paste this line: 

erins ring.ranch somtech tns acrf leawood outer kyrie kyrie jobs.jag nanty

You'll be able to see all 10 partners' ideas at once with The Kyrie Foundation at the top.

3) Visit this Pepsi Refresh Everything Site to see all 10 partners in the group at once. The Kyrie Foundation will be at the top. It's just like the www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation.

Just keep voting!

I am beyond delirium at this point. ;) Up for too long. Trying so hard. Think and wondering, hoping and praying. I can tell that this month's journey has been highly enlightening to understand human dynamics, motivation, intent and goodness. I could write a mini tell-all best-seller!

All we ask is that you just keep doing what we know to be true and hold fast to that which is good.

Remember, we need you to vote these 3 ways EVERY DAY until October 31:

1) Text 103447 to Pepsi (73774) for The Kyrie Foundation
and now you can vote for our partners with separate texts:

103090 - St Michael the Archangel School

103073 - Three Ring Ranch

102961 - The Arizona Center for Responsible Fatherhood (ACRF)

102429 - Tucson Nursery School

103048 - Somtech Recycling

103061 - Outer Limits School

102833 - Jobs for Arizona's Graduates (JAG)

100220 - Parks and Rec Nanty Glo
100879 - Erin's Dream

2) Facebook App voting here: http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh.  Then copy and paste this line: 

erins ring.ranch somtech tns acrf leawood outer kyrie kyrie jobs.jag nanty

You'll be able to see all 10 partners' ideas at once with The Kyrie Foundation at the top.

3) Visit this Pepsi Refresh Everything Site to see all 10 partners in the group at once. The Kyrie Foundation will be at the top. It's just like the www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation.

With the race getting hotter,

we're holding in 4th PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we have 8 days to go!!!!!!!!!!! Woo-HOO!!!!!

BIG THANKS to all of our enthusiastic volunteers who made sure everyone at the Fall Festival knew about the vote. The float looks great--filled with kiddos!!!!!!

We also discovered this Facebook video, which Mimi agreed to share with us. The same morning we share this powerful video—the reason why we're fighting so hard for attention & votes—we learn the little Alexander met Kyrie yesterday morning, too. Our hearts ache for Alexander's family. For me, it reignites the fervor with which we need to make sure potential voters know how important each click is.

We've got a big job ahead of us this week, but I'm confident that we've climbed this far for a reason. Let's take it to the top!!!!!!

Remember, we need you to vote these 3 ways EVERY DAY until October 31:

1) Text 103447 to Pepsi (73774) for The Kyrie Foundation
and now you can vote for our partners with separate texts:

103090 - St Michael the Archangel School

103073 - Three Ring Ranch

102961 - The Arizona Center for Responsible Fatherhood (ACRF)

102429 - Tucson Nursery School

103048 - Somtech Recycling

103061 - Outer Limits School

102833 - Jobs for Arizona's Graduates (JAG)

100220 - Parks and Rec Nanty Glo
100879 - Erin's Dream

2) Facebook App voting here: http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh.  Then copy and paste this line: 

erins ring.ranch somtech tns acrf leawood outer kyrie kyrie jobs.jag nanty

You'll be able to see all 10 partners' ideas at once with The Kyrie Foundation at the top.

3) Visit this Pepsi Refresh Everything Site to see all 10 partners in the group at once. The Kyrie Foundation will be at the top. It's just like the www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation.

When kids help kids ...

Have I told you how much we love that? And who knew that kids with their cell phones could be such a powerful force for good! 

4th PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ginormous thanks to Andover Central High School!!!

And the person responsible for Go, Kyrie, Go Day?!? She rallied the troops in more way than she could ever know.

Thank you, Shelley Electric, for you incredible support!!!

Go, Kyrie, Go Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7th PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your votes and my votes and their votes are really working! THANK YOU! Just 5 more spots to really change the world!

The lovely Easter Bunny/Frosty/Dorothy, who organizes all of those great toy trips to Wesley hospital each season, designated Wednesday, October 20 as Go, Kyrie, Go! Day!!!!! So what does that mean?

• wear any Kyrie Foundation tee you may have from an event or our official designer tees.
• tell anyone & everyone about the vote, thank those who have and remind them to keep it up.
• print and pass out flyers from a couple weeks ago. This could be at tonight's ball game, at your bunco group, at happy hour, at the mall, at Wal-Mart, at dance practice, at the office, around the neighborhood—whatever idea you can dream up.

• get a group to text vote all at once--the more the merrier!
• leave a comment on the EK Success Brands Facebook page and the Spotted Canary Facebook page in the week of 10/15-10/22, and we'll earn $1 per comment!

Remember, we need you to vote these 3 ways EVERY DAY until October 31:

1) Text 103447 to Pepsi (73774) for The Kyrie Foundation
and now you can vote for our partners with separate texts:

103090 - St Michael the Archangel School

103073 - Three Ring Ranch

102961 - The Arizona Center for Responsible Fatherhood (ACRF)

102429 - Tucson Nursery School

103048 - Somtech Recycling

103061 - Outer Limits School

102833 - Jobs for Arizona's Graduates (JAG)

100220 - Parks and Rec Nanty Glo
100879 - Erin's Dream

2) Facebook App voting here: http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh.  Then copy and paste this line: 

erins ring.ranch somtech tns acrf leawood outer kyrie kyrie jobs.jag nanty

You'll be able to see all 10 partners' ideas at once with The Kyrie Foundation at the top.

3) Visit this Pepsi Refresh Everything Site to see all 10 partners in the group at once. The Kyrie Foundation will be at the top. It's just like the www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation. 
Okay, team, we really are the little charity that could here. So the friends who you know haven't voted yet? October 20 is the day to help them change that.

Just 10 more spots to climb because

we're in 12th place!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU to everyone who keeps sending out the word to your e-mail friends, Facebook friends, work friends, passing out flyers, getting everyone to take out their cell phones —it's all working for our group! So many ideas in the partnership really made upward strides this week thanks to everybody supporting everybody else. Isn't that the epitome of goodness?

Remember you can vote 3 ways EVERY DAY:

1) Text 103447 to Pepsi (73774) for The Kyrie Foundation
and now you can vote for our partners with separate texts:

103090 - St Michael the Archangel School

103073 - Three Ring Ranch

102961 - The Arizona Center for Responsible Fatherhood (ACRF)

102429 - Tucson Nursery School

103048 - Somtech Recycling

103061 - Outer Limits School

102833 - Jobs for Arizona's Graduates (JAG)

100220 - Parks and Rec Nanty Glo
100879 - Erin's Dream

2) Facebook App voting here: http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh.  Then copy and paste this line: 

erins ring.ranch somtech tns acrf leawood outer kyrie kyrie jobs.jag nanty

You'll be able to see all 10 partners' ideas at once with The Kyrie Foundation at the top.

3) Visit this Pepsi Refresh Everything Site to see all 10 partners in the group at once. The Kyrie Foundation will be at the top. It's just like the www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation.

Feel free to copy and paste our blog posts into the e-mails you're sending out.

SWEET

16th PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO exciting to see what a group who cares enough to click can do!! Two things to note:
1) The company I work for, EK Success Brands, just posted this on their Facebook Page:

Megan Thome, EK Success Brands Media Manager, is passionate about more than just our Brands, in 2007 she and her husband started the Kyrie Foundation, ...to raise research funds to cure pediatric brain cancer. On October 1st, she got word the Kyrie foundation qualified for Pepsi’s October Refresh
Everything $250K competition! To help support Megan and this great cause, we’re asking that you Post to support this charity.

It’s EASY, for every individual post we get between October 15th and October 22nd, we will donate $1 to the Kyrie foundation (up to $1500). If 1,000 people post to our page this week, we’ll donate $1,000.

Please visit http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation to find out more about the Kyrie Foundation and to vote for this charity in the Pepsi Challenge. Spread the word, encourage others to post to our page, and help us raise money for this great cause.

AND ... they've posted it to their Spotted Canary Facebook page, too! So what does this mean? Post a comment on either or both of their Facebook pages, and they'll donate $1! Plus, they're encouraging new Pepsi voters, and you can, too!

2) The Easter Bunny/Frosty/Dorothy has initiated

Wednesday, October 20 as

"Go Kyrie, Go Day!"

Ask everyone who has one to wear their Kyrie t-shirt…

either from a Crop, Twilight Walk, Golf Klassic, Hit for the Cure, 50K Grant, etc.

On that day have lots of posters/flyers with you and

HAND THEM OUT!

Give each person several flyers.

Ask them to keep one for themselves and pass on the others.

KEEP IT GOING!!

Would you like to participate with me in

"Go Kyrie, Go Day!" ?!?!

:-)

Susan Jae

You can access and print flyers from our earlier blog posts. SO GREAT TO SEE THIS SUPPORT TO SAVE THESE CHILDREN!!!!!!! Keep voting for us and our Pepsi voting partners here!

Voting Partners!

We've mentioned here over the last couple days the need for "people power" when it comes to the Pepsi Refresh Project voting contest this month. It has been incredible to see the scope of goodness and light that has been spread as a result of this opportunity—an opportunity to save children's lives.

As we near the halfway point, we're looking at 26 spots left to climb. I think that's totally do-able ... with a few more voters! So how? Where?

A friend of mine (Thanks, Janet!) suggested that we reach out to the #1 leader in the $50K category who happens to be local to Kansas City, St. Michael the Archangel school in Leawood. She knew they had voting partners and wondered if they might add The Kyrie Foundation.

I did contact them, and in a lovely and strange turn of events, we are now voting partners with St. Michaels and eight other ideas! A HUGE blessing! So what does this mean?

You know those 10 votes you get each day? Well, you can now share them by voting for the partners in our new voting group. Their voters help us. We help them. And since there are multiple winners for each category, it gives us the opportunity to make the world a better place in all sorts of ways for those kids who survive brain cancer. Pretty awesome, huh?

How can we vote? Don't worry. It's still the same 3 ways each day, but to help our group, now you can include this:

1) Text 103447 to Pepsi (73774) for The Kyrie Foundation
and now you can vote for our partners with separate texts:

103090 - St Michael the Archangel School

103073 - Three Ring Ranch

102961 - The Arizona Center for Responsible Fatherhood (ACRF)

102429 - Tucson Nursery School

103048 - Somtech Recycling

103061 - Outer Limits School

102833 - Jobs for Arizona's Graduates (JAG)

100220 - Parks and Rec Nanty Glo
100879 - Erin's Dream

2) Facebook App voting here: http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh.  Then copy and paste this line: 

erins ring.ranch somtech tns acrf leawood outer kyrie kyrie jobs.jag nanty

You'll be able to see all 10 partners' ideas at once with The Kyrie Foundation at the top.

3) Visit this Pepsi Refresh Everything Site to see all 10 partners in the group at once. The Kyrie Foundation will be at the top. It's just like the www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation.

There's also a comment section in the lower portion of each idea's page. I like leaving comments so that other ideas know that The Kyrie Foundation was there.

So this is a FANTASTIC development for the cause! When we work together, amazing things can happen! Okay, team, let's vote for these kiddos and the families who need us! Go, Kyrie, Go!!!!!!!!

still holding

at 28th PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, team, we need a surge, a jolt, a boost. Last night I learned of a whole team of guys working at a plant who all take out their cell phones to vote before their daily status meetings. AWESOME! Do you have a team that meets everyday?

If your HR manager is resistant to send out a company e-mail, would your supervisor let you send the info to just your work group?

Are you a small business? How 'bout using this as a cause marketing campaign? Send out the info to your client list. It's totally free and makes your business look really good.

Remember, you can give 3 votes per day:
1) Text 103447 to 73774
2) Visit Pepsi Refresh's FB page and click "go to application" to vote.
3) Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation

UP TO

28th PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We're working on a couple more ideas to increase our daily votes. The more the friends we have to spread the word, the better our chances at WINNING will be!

That said, we've been told that our current rank is staggering given how new & small we are. That's a direct credit to YOU!!! So please accept our thanks and pass it on to your friends and their friends who are making this happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember, you can give 3 votes per day:
1) Text 103447 to 73774
2) Visit Pepsi Refresh's FB page and click "go to application" to vote.
3) Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation

and climbing!

to 31st place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep it up everybody! Here is a printable flyer to help get text votes

and here is a printable flyer to help spread the word about all ways to vote.

And check out what's here from EKSuccess Brands, the company that bring us Martha Stewart Crafts!

I can't tell you how excited we are to be moving up in the ranks, like the little charity that could!

Remember, you can give 3 votes per day:
1) Text 103447 to 73774
2) Visit Pepsi Refresh's FB page and click "go to application" to vote.
3) Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation

Movin' on up!

To 36th PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is SO amazing to see FREE votes battling cancer!

Another good idea was sent to us: If you are a member of any message boards, would you mind posting the news and encouraging votes? Thanks for the brilliant idea, Willie!

And if you run a small business, would you mind sending out an e-mail with the news to your database? Good for you as "cause marketing" and good for us in the voting contest!

Remember, you can give 3 votes per day:
1) Text 103447 to 73774
2) Visit Pepsi Refresh's FB page and click "go to application" to vote.
3) Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation

IT'S WORKING!

So we started in the Pepsi Refresh voting in 332nd place out of 1152 applicants. This was based on where we lined up in the submission order. As of tonight, your votes raised us to

45th PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's just in 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I admit that I'm tremendously biased, but looking at the current leaders ahead of us, I have to say that babies battling cancer in their little brains might be a little more crucial, to me, than building an ambulance garage or constructing a teen employment agency or rebuilding a wooden roller coaster. Not to say that there are not a lot of good ideas that need attention and dollars, but if I had to rank them according to need, according to causes that already have tons of people, donors and sponsors, according to long-lasting improvement to the world, curing pediatric brain cancer might just trump it all, specifically because even if a child survives, the likelihood of life-changing brain damage as a result of treatment is all too frequent. I just keep thinking: Kids have to be alive to need a literacy program. Kids have to be alive to need an anti-tobacco initiative. Kids have to be alive to need a community theater.

Know that we've done our absolute best to communicate our intentions. Crossed Ts. Dotted Is. When looking into the top-ranking $250K ideas for successful examples, I discovered in the #2 applicant's profile, there's $20K that unspecified. Yikes!

So, WELL DONE, KYRIE FOUNDATION VOTERS!!!!! LET'S KEEP IT UP AND SPREAD THE WORD EVEN MORE!

Remember, you can give 3 votes per day:
1) Text 103447 to 73774
2) Visit Pepsi Refresh's FB page and click "go to application" to vote.
3) Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation

Triple your votes!

Thanks, Janet, for sharing this info: 3 WAYS TO VOTE, EACH WAY GETS 1 VOTE!

1) Text 103447 to 73774
2) Visit Pepsi Refresh's FB page and click "go to application" to vote.
3) Go to http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation

I voted each way today and you can, too!

Also, feel free to grab the image below to use as your temporary Facebook profile pic or to place on your own blog.

Keep voting with me!!!!!!

A lesson from really incredible kids.

I've spent the last two days telling anybody and everybody about the chance to receive a grant that could change the trajectory of this small but mighty organization, which in turn will gain ground against cancer's terrorizing domination over these families. About 15 of  my 250 Facebook friends picked up the news and passed it on.  This is the prevailing struggle we have: to catch someone's attention enough to care. The silliest thing is that caring means curing. That's the connection; that's where this war will be won.

So when I saw this from Kyrie Foundation supporter Niki who just happened to be at Andover Central, I melted.

We ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT, and we especially love it when kids help other kids.  THANK YOU students and teachers of Andover Central High School. You set a fantastic example for all of us.

Stamina.

So day one of voting is done and we're in for another 30 more! The most difficult thing might just be remembering to vote, right? And then reminding your friends to keep voting, too, right? Here are some ideas:

• Write it on the calendar. whether it's in your planner, on the family calendar in the kitchen, the calendar in your office or on your e-mail system's calendar, this is a super easy way to remind ourselves this month.

• Set alarms. I can set a daily alarm on my cell phone for any time I want. You probably can, too, plus a little message pops up. Also, I can put a daily "meeting" on my e-mail systems calendar. It logs into my "daily tasks" app, and pops up with a reminder, too.

• Bookmark http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation. You can sometime pull your absolute favorite into your toolbar, too. Great that it's right there.

• Temporarily make http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation you home page. It will automatically be the first page that shows when you open your browser.


• Use the buddy system. This might be my favorite idea. Get a pal or two together and remind each other via phone, text or e-mail.

There have been some GREAT ideas come our way in the last 24 hours! People have forwarded an e-mail to everyone in their address book. Posted on Facebook. Posted on LinkedIn. Contacted our friends at KFDI, KAKE and KZSN. People are passing it to their HR departments for company support. A dear friend shared the info with the computer science teacher at the high school, who is allowing her kids to vote in class this month! Amazing! We LOVE it when kids help other kids!

And we been asked why our ranking hasn't moved yet. Here's an answer we found:

Yes, the leader board updates every 30 minutes. All ideas are updated based on the number of votes received. During the first two days of each month the leader board does not show much movement as votes are being accumulated. For this short timeframe, "ranking" is based on the timestamp of a submission. After the 3rd day if a user's idea does not receive any votes their ranking continues to be based on the timestamp of submission trailing all ideas that have received votes.

WE'RE IN!!!! WE'RE IN!!!

OKAY, EVERYBODY--IT'S GO-TIME!!!!

http://www.refresheverything.com/kyriefoundation

And if you're not near a computer, TEXT IN YOUR VOTE!!

Vote from your mobile phone

Text* 103447 to
Pepsi (73774)
*Standard text messaging rates apply.

I believe I was mistaken about getting to give your 10 votes per day to one choice. I think you can only vote for one idea, but you have another 9 votes to spread around to other ideas, too.

So once you register and cast your vote, then what? SPREAD THE WORD BIG TIME! Will you HR let you ask your fellow coworkers to vote? Are you part of a club? Work at a school? PTA? Hanging with friends tonight? Going to a game this weekend? ASK PEOPLE TO VOTE! That's how this thing works! And every day that we forget to vote is a missed day; we can't get that back, so the sooner you share this with people, the more potential votes we can earn!