XO Laptop Contest: You choose who wins

Thirteen people entered. Here are the top five, in no particular order. Please read and vote for who should get this laptop. There's a poll at the end. Voting closes on Thursday, March 20th, at 11PM, CDT. I'll post the winner and the blog poll graphic on Friday, March 21st.

Voting is closed. There were four email votes from people receiving error messages. Three were for #5. One voted for #1.

See what I crossed out? See how I deleted the poll? This became a "who can tell the most people about the contest" poll instead of a who deserves it the most. So, beginning now, at 7:25pm CDT, you must comment under a name for the number. Don't make this a popularity contest. Make this about which essay touched you the most. I am trying to do something good with this XO laptop while teaching my own privileged children a lesson. I don't want the lesson to be about popularity only. Please vote again. You have 24 hours. Comments will not be shown. I'll post the winner on Wednesday. My apologies to you all.

One more thing . . .

It is acceptable, wonderful, lovely that some of you asked friends to vote for a certain person. What went horribly wrong was that a spam message (as the moderators of MySpace and Facebook declared it) got disseminated broadly--not just to those who were related, friends, part of a support group for some of the entrants involved.

Oh, Crikey! Such lovely words of why you chose one over the other. I'm showing the comments (with the one exception of the person who asked me not to. I wasn't referring to you, by the way, in regards to popularity. Honest.).

1. Who do I think deserves this computer? That’s easy. My daughter Emma.

She’s thoughtful, she’s sweet, and in her own words, she deserves the computer because she’s “smart and knows how to use it”.

Emma’s my little rock. She’s part of the reason I stayed sane after having her 3 younger brothers in under 2 years. When our family life was thrown into chaos when I spent 10 weeks in the hospital, she kept her sweet smile and plugged along. When my hands were chapped and bleeding from changing diaper after diaper, she brought me lotion and helped change diapers. When I need help cooking, cleaning or running errands, she’s always willing. She’s just a good little kid.

As far as birth order goes, she’s the second child, second girl of five. This means she gets seconds of everything. Yet she never complains, always takes what she can get with a smile. And never begrudges her siblings anything.

She also struggles with infections. She gets infections very easily and as a result has undergone test after test after test only to find that there isn’t an answer. Just a hope that she’ll grow out of whatever causes them. To combat the infections, she takes a low dose of antibiotics every single day. Not the yummy tasting kind, though, the kind she takes almost makes her throw up every single day. The bacteria she gets is resistant to many antibiotics, so the one she takes is it. And even with it, she still gets infections, which breaks my heart, because the symptoms of her infections are sad for both of us.

Emma started kindergarten this year, and I haven’t spent as much time working with her as I should. Since she is never demanding, I find myself getting to her last. She always gets booted off the computer by me and her sister, so to have her own laptop to learn and play would be a joy. A pure joy. And that’s what I want for my special girl. Something all her own that makes her happy.

When school is over she is already planning on cutting off more than 10 inches of her beautiful, unique, silky hair to donate to a child that needs a wig. And that tells you the type of girl she is. She’s a giver, she’s deserving, but most of all, she’s truly loved.

2. We have a neighbor who is 8 years old and has been diagnosed with Hodgekins and Non-Hodgekins Lymphoma. She comes from a very poor family and is very intelligent. I just think she would be a awesome canidate for your give away. She has to be homeschooled because her immune system is so low.

Her name is Autumn Doke. SHe is a adorable little girl. She breaks my heart. She has been given a year To a year and a half.

3. I am nominating a family with 4 kids, 2 large dogs, and 1 modest income. They gave up the competition and debt of modern suburban living for a lifestyle which many would call inadequate but which has enriched their lives beyond compare. Their kids are age-appropriate for the laptop. They don't have room for a hard-wired machine. Most importantly they would gladly give back to others in response to your generosity.

I nominate them because they took on the challenge of stepping away from society's expectations in order to achieve what their hearts most desired.

They gave up the new, modern house in the high tax district close to family for the tiny 1-bath bungalow in a low tax area.

They gave up a solid second income so that they could provide the level of parenting that their children deserved.

They gave up a mountain of debt in favor of living more simply.

They gave up shame and guilt in favor of pride and faith.

They gave up indulgence for a savings account.

I nominate them because of what they "kept" despite all the funding cut-backs.

They read together as a family. They use the library. Reading is fundamental in their home.

They maintain discipline. By living in close quarters, they reinforced the value of sharing, caring for possessions, picking up after oneself, etc.

They kept after-school activities. They value a well rounded child.

They still have date nights once a month. They value their time as a couple.

They each have their own weekends away. They understand that breathing room is equally important.

4. Hi, We are William and Rita A and have 6 adorable children. Four of them are adopted from other countries and 3 of them have that little extra something special called Down Syndrome. We are blessed beyond measure to have all of them in our family. William is in the military and we are blessed with good insurance but it sure would be great to have a nice laptop for the girls so they can use it for all their learning games and playtime.

We would truly love to have this opportunity to give our girls something they can use to better their education and this could be a good start to something great!!

5. My daughter is 9 years old and a 3rd grader. She LOVES computers. She used to have a desktop, but it is 5 years old now and full of viruses we cant shake no matter how many times we reload windows. When she was very small, we started using something called "Concept Development Therapy". It utilized a touch screen to teach her concepts like colors, numbers, letters, words. It was as though a light came on in her brain and she got it. My daughter happens to have Down syndrome. Computers have become a way for her to interact with the world, her voice when her words were not intelligible enough to be understood, via speech translation programs. It was her window on the world, a way to show her the things she loved even though we live in Maine, in the sticks, and rarely see much more than snow and loons and wild bears. We could see a circus and talk about the animals, visit Kenya, even tour Disneyworld, all from the desktop.

She learned to read at just shy of 4. Educational software taught her math, science, reading, and opened her mind to a bigger world. Today, she reads at a 2nd grade level, and is doing very well in math. Her speech is much-improved, but she still uses the Vista voice program (on my computer) to write book reports, etc.Her compter is Windows 95, with not enough memory or performance to take an upgrade. She cannot take her desktop with her to school, obviously. And so all the amazing tools available via computer are not available at school, where she needs them most. The school tried to help, but the old laptop they have there is even older and in worse shape than hers here at home.

That "little" laptop you have there could be the key to unlocking her world at school as much as it is at home. The wireless...wow. THAT would be incredible. We are not a poor family. We are not a rich family. But we are a family who cannot afford a laptop for a child right now, even though it would be well-loved and treasured. I can promise you, if my daughter were to receive this as a gift, it would not only be appreciated, it would be immensely valuable to her education. We have software from EduMark, Scholastic, even Clicker 5 and Clicker paint. They sit here unused. We appreciate the chance to try to win your laptop, and are sure that whoever wins it will be blessed with it. Thank you for the opportunity.



Choosing the top five proved to be more difficult than I thought. Please vote for the entry you feel explains the need the best. Who should get this laptop?

Voting closes on Thursday, March 20th, at 11PM, CDT. I'll post the winner and the blog poll graphic on Friday, March 21st.