Help from long-time, forum friends
 

Hi,

I've been a member of this forum almost since it began. I've met many nice people through the forums, some in person at Forum Fests, but most through the anonymity of member names. I normally don't want the spotlight, but I'm making an exception as I'm hoping for some help from my long-time, forum friends.

My wife, Lyn, has always dreamed of attending The Kentucky Derby. There is an opportunity for her to do so in a way that would have incredible meaning for her. But it requires votes...lots of them. Hence my request for help.

You can read her story here, http://survivors.kentuckyderby.com/survivors/1863

If you are so moved, I'd ask you to help by voting early and often. It appears it will take a lot of votes to be considered. Feel free to forward or share far and wide. You can vote every day.

Make it a part of your routine. Shower, coffee, and vote for Lyn! They track the votes by IP address, so you can actually vote twice (or more!) if you vote from home, work, coffee shop, etc.

And thanks in advance to any who vote, whether we make it or not.

Vote is in
 

Good luck and hopefully she will get there.

Done!
 

And I hope she wins big at the derby!! :)

Dan

Done.
 

I wish them well.

More than happy to help. I just voted for her and will again tomorrow and every other day. My wife is also a survivor. God bless you both and best of luck.

Done
 

Good luck.

Done
 

I will vote for Lyn each and everyday & pray her dream come true!
My sister is a survivor <3

You have our votes. And I'll make sure I add to them. Best of luck!

Derby fun!
 

I had the pleasure of attending the Kentucky Derby once. The weekend event was a blast. I have voted for her to go and will continue to vote. Good luck!

Well you have all of my votes. I have passed this along to so many of friends and they will also pass it along. Thoughts and prayers go out to your family.

I'll be voting everyday.. good luck!

202 and climbing...

Pack your bags Lyn!
 

Make that 203 Vita

Voted and shared. Lyn has our votes and heartfelt prayers.

Voted and I will pass this on to my thoroughbred racing family.
Good luck Lyn and Carpe Diem!

Somewhere in my message is the name of this years "Run For The Roses" winner!;)

Derby
 

Voted and will continue to do so until you say otherwise

Good Luck

on it. rinse repeat

I voted
 

I forget everything so constant reminders (sticky thread?) will help me vote each day.

IG aka another Carolyn

I knew I could depend on this wonderful circle of friends! Thanks to all!

We’re off to a great start. Over 200 votes in the first day. Based on a random sampling, I figure we need ten times that to even compete. Please keep it up.

I’ve received a lot of questions offline. I will try to answer for all here.

• Please VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN, especially those who have, thankfully, shared the page. While running errands yesterday, I was able to vote 4-5 times while on different wi-fi hotspots.

• If you have a smart phone, you can easily vote twice, once when phone is on wi-fi, once with wi-fi off and using cell network.

• The prize is the honor of walking in a parade at The Oaks race on the day before The Derby. If we win, we’ll still need to get there, find lodging, and hopefully get to The Derby the next day. But the experience will be wonderful if we get in. There is an FAQ page if you want to learn more.

Thanks again to all for your support!

Another Forum
 

Merry M.

I am going to post this on another forum that I belong to. I think it will increase the votes. The folks on the other forum are all in for this type of thing.

ToW

In lieu of a "sticky note"...
 

...only read this thread once per day.

After you open it on any given day, go to the first post, click on the link, vote, and then close it down.

During the rest of the day, resist the temptation to open the thread, and it will remain in your older posts, but not read area in the list of "new" posts. Next day, open it up...

Voila!:)

Done
 

Lovely story. Wish you both well.

Done and maybe more
 

Happy to vote but it sounds like a long shot. One other thing you might want to try is putting her story up on a crowdfunding site. This way friends, family, forum members and people who care can throw a few bucks in to make sure it happens. I think it would get a lot of backing. Just a thought. Best of luck and god bless.

Top Crowdfunding sites:

DreamFund
FirstGiving
Patreon
Giveforward
CroudRise
Causes
YouCaring
Teespring
Indiegogo
GoFundMe
Plus dozens more

Thanks for the clarifications
 

We should keep this voting going and use the crowdfunding site to pay for the trip. After reading all the responses I don't think it is such a long shot anymore

Best of everything Lyn. We hope u win. Voted and will keep voting!!!!!

SteveO,

While I very much appreciate the thought, we don't need funding for the trip. We've been lucky in life and there are many other, more deserving needs that crowd sourcing can help. I'm just hoping for votes. The experience of walking on the Churchill Downs track and seeing the horses up close would give her more than money can buy!

While I too wonder about the method of some of the voting, and won't resort to some of the devious ways this could be manipulated, I understand the reason they've done this. Think of how many more know about their work as a result of this social media spread.

As for a long shot? Frankly, I thought so too, until we got almost 500 votes in a little more than 24 hours. We ARE catching up! The top 141 go (and reading some of the stories, it's heart-wrenching to think many won't go). But a random sample shows the voting drops quickly after the top 10. I'd like to see Lyn be one of them!

Please keep up your voting, and again, THANKS!

I don't think I have ever done that before. It surprised me how simple it was and I didn't have to go through a long signup routine which I hate. So I hope others will vote. Good luck, Merrymeeting!!

Voted! And it was easy. Really hope that she gets to go!
CA sucks.

Bumping
 

Reminder that you can vote today too! Let's keep this going!

Need only four more votes to break 600. Let's go for 700 today.

Done, good luck!

Voted every day! Go Go Go!!!!!!!!!!!!

voted!
 

Merrymeeting, your wife as a breast cancer survivor maybe interested in this program... a great weekend with other ladies that have gone through or going through breast cancer.

http://castingforrecovery.org/cfr-ve...new-hampshire/

Just crossed 700!

I did an analysis today. A random sample of ~150 entires (of about 500). 700 puts her in the top 3rd! But now it gets harder as the top entries are also getting daily votes. We just need to get a few more each day and catch up!

Thanks again to all!

Use you phone as well
 

Only one vote per IP address per day. Other computers at home share a common IP address and can not be used for more votes. However your phone, as long as it is not running on the home wifi, will have a different IP address and can be used for an additional vote each day.

As they say, vote early and often.

Other site is helping?
 

Merry M,

Looks like the other site I posted to is helping out.

I keep bumping the request for post and the vote count goes up each time.

ToW

Thanks Terry. But on her list of things she'd love to be doing, fishing isn't in the top 10 (or 100) ;)

over 800
 

Glad to see the vote total climbing when I voted tonight!

Web Master can you make this thread stick to the top of this forum?

Great idea. I second the motion!

I didn't know you could vote again everyday!
I'll keep at it now.
Has anyone put this on the New Hampshire page on Reddit.com?

Edit: I didn't see it on there so I put it up on the site.
there's over 5K active people so it might help.

http://www.reddit.com/r/newhampshire/

Voted today from work...voted tonight from my iPad....then shared on my Facebook. I hope you guys make it there....and god bless u all. I will do my best to keep voting.

Up to 853!

Thanks Dave. Another site I was unaware of!

And thanks very much to Don for making this thread a sticky one.

Hoping we pass 1K votes sometime today.

Getting there!

vote!
 

Just voted again and again with WiFi! Vote her up!! :)

voted it hit 1215!

Today at 5:15 added one to make 1240.

Here's another one Lyn!
 

1241 and climbing!

Bumping again. Up to 1320!

Today at 9.55 1359.

up to 1435 now

Keep voting!

Let's hit 1500 before midnight

Four more to 1500!
 

1496 in the Bank!

1497 as of last click. Godspeed!

1500+ votes in less than 6 days! Thank you all!

I believe we are now in contention for one of the 141 spots. But it's going to be a long 2.5 weeks until this ends. Hopefully we can keep up with the voting.

Again, based on my random sampling of votes (there isn't an easy way to track all the entries), we are in the top 25% of about 550 entries, and we've been averaging more votes per day than most. So if we can keep this up, it looks good.

You guys are great!

I just voted three times. Had previously been voting once, sometimes twice a day. Just realized the different ways to vote. Love the sticky! Thanks for sharing Carolyn's story, Merrymeeting. Good luck.

1665 with my last post.

There's 2 a day coming from here! We will get this done!!!!!!

1922 and still climbing!!!

Done and done. 1941.

Go Lyn! :)

1960 lets get to 2K today!



Puffin
Bolton Ma. :)

Over 2000!

2047 at 8:45am.

Just back from a trip so I'm late with the help, but now I'm in. Good luck

2116 including my morning vote.

Aaaaaaaaand 2132...

2203 at 8:45!:D

2240 at 10:45pm:)

Posted number 2253

Top 141
 

Where are we in the rankings? I can't seem to see the top 141 when I enter their web site. Thanks

I believe it is intentional on their part, but you cannot see any rankings other than the Top 10. The only way to figure it out is to visit each nominees page to see their votes.

But, my son had a friend who did exactly that a few days ago. His informal analysis showed us somewhere in the 80-100 range. But as Lyn's score has changed (thanks!), so have the others.

I think if we can maintain the 250-300 votes/day we've been getting, we'll be in good shape. Only time will tell.

Thanks merrymeeting. That makes sense to handle the voting in such a manner. It sounds like we are looking good rounding the turn. Let's hope our horse shifts into high gear coming down the stretch! I'm sure it will.

This makes 2506.

So I have been voting every day from home,work, cell...I iust keep trying! I just sent out two group texts ...one to my friends and one to family...asked them to vote....i immediately got 4 responses back that said "done". One did say...who is Carolyn? I said...I don't know really but a friend's wife needs support and the response was "done". Folks ..just sharing the link though a text can go a long way. Do it....lets get Carolyn to the Kentucky Derby!

This makes 2633

2640 ...;)

Feel the love Lyn....:)

2700
 

Just made 2700

2794 and counting. Let's keep voting her up!

at 2799, one more for 2800!

2820 at last click!

What a great way to start the day
 

Another click for Lyn!!!:)

Been away but I am in.

2926!

one more...
 

The count has reached 2938

Carolyn now has 2971 votes

This makes 2978

Almost to 3000
 

We're at 2989 - C'mon folks - Let's get Carolyn to 3000 tonight!

Our daughter is a night shift nurse. She cast vote #3000 in the early AM. Amazing! Thanks to all.

Two more weeks...

3043
 

Just did 3043.... :):banana:

This is 3065

3070
 

3070

Keep it up

Share This Link!
 

After you cast your vote, please share it with your friends on FaceBook!

http://survivors.kentuckyderby.com/survivors/1863

3330 ♥ we are like the little engine that could. Slow but steady. Lets get this done! :)

3368 plus 1 more.

3372 - voting 2 times a day using 2 computers! Home and at work. :D

Bumping it up again, 3629!

My ip address is misbehaving:)
Your IP Address has already voted today.ooooops

This makes 3735.