Don't cell 'em short

SELAH, Wash. -- Stickers on paper cups at Java Jitters Espresso House on Fremont Avenue remind customers to vote.

So do the electronic reader board at the McDonald's on the main drag and Burma-Shave-esque signs on light poles heading out of town on South First Street.

Fliers at banks and other businesses do the same. And then there's old-fashioned word-of-mouth.

Supporters of Selah schools --
parents, grandparents, teachers, students, alumni and business owners -- have been reaching out to relatives, calling friends and family members, and crossing state lines. Folks from Alaska and Arizona to as far away as Florida have been casting their votes for Selah's Robert Lince Elementary School.

"There's a huge push," says Leana Anderson, president of the school's Parent Teacher Organization. "It's amazing."

The stickers, signs and other publicity are part of a community effort to help Lince Elementary win $100,000 through U.S. Cellular's two-month Calling All Communities campaign. In its second year, the contest invites people to rally around their favorite schools to share $1 million.

Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time tonight. (That's 9:59 p.m. in this time zone.) And the clock is ticking.

Supporters who pick up a voting code at a U.S. Cellular store can vote online for their favorite school anywhere in the country.

Schools that finish in the Top 10 will each win $100,000.

"We feel like we have a real chance," says 42-year-old Marissa Zambito, the mother of a Lince first-grader and secretary of the school's PTO. "The teachers, the parents, everyone is behind doing this 100 percent."

The winning schools will be announced in February.

If Lince wins, the plan is to split the cash between the Selah School District's five schools: John Campbell Elementary, Selah Intermediate, Selah Junior High, Selah High School and, of course, Lince, which has nearly 800 students in preschool through fourth grade.

"Whether we win or not, it's nice to see a community come together, backing up something that's so important, like education," says Richard Duarte, a 60-year-old Selah High School social studies teacher who's been encouraging students to help spread the word about the contest.

Just before Christmas, Lince had moved up three spots to seventh place.

"We have to still be up there," says Anderson, who -- along with other members of a core organ-izing committee -- has been stationed at the Subway shop in Selah all week, rustling up votes from people waiting in line for sandwiches.

Volunteers have been camped out at a couple of tables with their laptops, wearing white T-shirts with blue lettering declaring: "Selah Wins $100,000, Ask Me How."

The group of about 15 organizers formed in mid-November, a few days after the campaign officially started.

"We invited everybody, and we all decided to share," says Anderson, who has a first-grader at Lince and a sixth-grader at Selah Intermediate. "We have people behind the scenes. We have people in front of the scenes. It's amazing how many people we actually have."

The idea behind the drive was to run a truly districtwide effort, led by representatives of all Selah schools. Phone calls were made. E-mails were sent out. So were text messages.

Anderson, 39, contacted all 10 of last year's winners, asking for information and input on their $100,000-winning strategies.

"They would not -- abso-lutely not -- be specific," she says. "They were supportive -- very, very supportive -- but secretive."

Last year's winners were: Heritage High School, Maryville, Tenn.; Brogden Primary School, Dudley, N.C.; Kuemper Catholic High School, Carroll, Iowa; Assumption High School, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.; Humphrey St. Francis, Humphrey, Neb.; Destiny Christian School, Del City, Okla.; St. John the Evangelist School, Carrollton, Ill.; Bearden High School, Knoxville, Tenn.; Preston High School, Kingwood, W.V.; and Washington High School, Washington, N.C.

Like the winners who wouldn't elaborate, Brian Ayers, a spokesman for U.S. Cellular based in Omaha, Neb., won't reveal the current Top 10. But he says the total number of votes will likely double last year's tally of 120,000: "Last time I checked, we were at 205,000 votes."

And that was Wednesday.

"Across the country, the economy has had an effect on all of us in some way, shape or form," Ayers says. "But through this contest you see ... how (people) can come together as a community and do something to make their community a better place for their kids."

Lince isn't the only local school taking part in the contest. Yakima's Robertson Elementary School was listed in the Top 100, at 89th place, just before Christmas.

U.S. Cellular started its Calling All Communities campaign at the end of 2008, a couple months after a study from the American Association of School Administrators reported two-thirds of superintendents described their districts as "inadequately funded."

Facing a $2.6 billion budget shortfall this legislative session, state lawmakers will likely be making cuts to education funding.

Meanwhile, the Selah School District -- which serves about 3,400 students -- is asking voters to replace an expiring maintenance and operations levy.

"Every little bit helps," Selah Superintendent Steve Chestnut says of the U.S. Cellular voting campaign. He points out the district will still need to make some cuts if the levy passes because of the state budget crunch.

"I think it's fabulous everyone's working so hard to make this happen because Selah deserves it and we need it," says 44-year-old Jami Yeager, owner of Java Jitters and a supporter of Selah schools.

One Selah grandfather encouraged folks at his high school reunion to vote for Lince. An Alaska teacher -- a relative of a Selah woman -- encouraged his students to do the same. And a Selah mom urged guests at a wedding reception she attended -- in California -- to cast their votes for the school, two states away.

Locally, a radio station -- 92.9 "The Bull" -- came up with a song promoting the contest. (To listen to "Song for Selah Schools/U.S. Cellular Contest" log on to http://twaud.io/sz2.)

And volunteers have been setting up voting stations at the local library and Valley Mall in Union Gap in addition to the Selah Subway.

There, Anderson has held people's places in line so they can go next door to the U.S. Cellular store, pick up a code, return to the sandwich shop and vote on her laptop.

"If we don't win, I'll be sad," says 45-year-old Nicole Hutt, a member of the Selah Intermediate PTO who has a fifth-grader and seventh-grader in Selah schools. "But we'll just come up with some new things to do next time because we can win."

She called relatives around the United States to ask them to vote -- from Chicago to Georgia, Texas, Arizona and Florida. And this week, she's been stationed at Subway with a laptop, encouraging people to vote.

"If we win," Anderson says, "we're buying pizza for the whole school."

* For more information, visit www.uscellular.com/callingallcommunities.

* Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.