Baldwin in sixth place in contest for $50K

How would you spend $10,000 improving Baldwin? How about $50,000? Would you renovate a park? Fund arts or sports programs at the schools? Would you buy new computers for the library? Although this may seem like a daydream of a question, it is one Baldwin may have to address next March. The money in question would come from the We Hear You America contest being sponsored by Reader’s Digest. As of now, Baldwin is in sixth place.

Launched in November 2010, the We Hear You America campaign was created to aid small towns across the country that are suffering through the recession. Residents and fans of particular municipalities were encouraged to log on to the Reader’s Digest website and “cheer” their choices for financial support with online votes.

The first contest, which concluded this year, was a massive success. According to the magazine’s website, “residents of more than 50 percent of the cities, towns and villages in the U.S. cast their votes ... The top 20 vote-getting towns received grants that allowed them to kick off (or complete) projects to make their communities even better places to live.” Among the projects the winning towns tackled were historic restorations, fireworks displays and the construction of a splash park.

In response to the success of the first contest, the second has been expanded. The first time around, voting was limited to 10 votes per day, but this time there is no cap and even more voters are expected to participate. The grand prize for the 2011-12 running of We Hear You America will be $50,000 in cash. Two second-place finishers will receive $25,000, while $10,000 will go to five third-place finishers and $5,000 will be claimed by 10 fourth-place finishers. Reader’s Digest will stage a multi-million-dollar publicity campaign to promote the victors and describe the projects they plan to fund.

As of early this week, Baldwin had just under 63,000 votes and trailed the leader, Concord, Mich., by more than a million votes. A groundswell of social media and word-of-mouth support had begun, however, with Baldwin residents urging one another to vote, vote and vote again. The process is simple: Voters log on to wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com, register and enter Baldwin’s Zip code. They are also encouraged to compose a brief statement expressing why their towns are great.

Baldwin’s entries have been inspiring. A voter identified as Mary K said she would use a cash award to “improve our aged downtown commercial district. Baldwin really needs to attract businesses.” Another, Toni M, wrote that the money should be used to “clean up Baldwin! Baldwin needs revitalization.” Mary R said she would use the prize to “restore our beautiful little town so that its residents can say with pride ‘I live in Baldwin.’”