UPDATE and correction: Voting ends tomorrow at http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf11449.
Also, corrected the spelling of Betty Gelean's name.
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The Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter Society is getting closer to a major windfall as the organization has made it to the semi-finals for the Aviva Community Fund competition.
Beginning last Monday, people were able to start voting in the newest round to see which proposal makes it to the finish line for $150,000.
Shelter founder Angelika Langen was quite shocked to see the shelter get as far as it did.
“I honestly didn’t believe we had even the smallest of chances,” she said.
A woman named Betty Gelean had contacted Langen at the end of September, she said, and offered to get the shelter involved in the Aviva competition.
“I said ‘Sure, go ahead,’ … but I didn’t think it would go anywhere,” said Langen. “And then the next thing I know we get these two high profile bears…and our numbers on our Facebook site went from 500 people to 1,500 people and the numbers on the Aviva site were just going up and up and up.”
They had to be in the top 10 to get into the semi-finals and she started to get excited about making the next round after seeing her numbers. But people on Facebook seemed intent to settle for nothing lest than first place and they eventually got that. There were over 10,000 votes and there are over 2,000 supporters.
On Sunday, Langen was putting together a budget for $150,000 — a job requested by Aviva for making it this far in the competition.
“It’s a huge opportunity for the shelter,” she said.
After 21 years, the area with the animals has no power, water or a kitchen, and she said that with the money they could make that happen and build more enclosures.
“The neat thing is it doesn’t really cost anybody any money,” she said. “All they have to do is start voting…and do it for 12 days. I think we really might have a chance at this.”
The shelter is now included with 30 projects and must be in the final 10 to receive any money.
“We have an awesome team going here that reminds people [to vote] and some great prizes that have been donated for the people to vote, so I think we’re just going to make a really fun event out of it and hope for the best.”