And the winner is....

That was your drum roll.



Addie said that there's a 3 way tie: JACQUI, ANNETTE and BRENDA AND MOLLY share the honor. Congratulations. Cate and Addie and I are still deliberating the form your award will take, but will be in contact with individually your for your FJC interviews. Thanks for your thoughts all!

For your reference, the Contest.

The girls and I talked, then thought, then came back and talked again. The truth is we liked all the ideas and wished we could do all of them. Even the "keep it" ones made us smile. Ultimately we decided on a few basics. We'd keep the whole 50$ together and hand it over intact, which knocked a few entries that entailed breaking it up out. We wanted to give it to a person and not an organization or gift administrator, so that left a few more out. We really liked Jacqui's thinking points and considered them throughout the deliberation. We do look at it as an investment more so than as a gift, like a planting of a seed. But we also wanted to wait for inspiration, to be a bit spontaneous about it as Brenda and Molly suggested. Annette's story about someone in trouble right in her own kid's school made us realize that we wanted this small bit of cash that blew in on local winds, to stay in our community, we wanted to plant it in our own backyard, so to speak. In fact, all three of the winners had that in common, the reminder that there are people who might need a boost up right next to us, if we are willing to see.

Nicely played winners and all entries. Reading through the original finding of the bill, the contest rules, the submissions... really gave Cate and I some food for thought as we enter 2010. We will both be focusing a bit more on the fact that we have enough so that we are not in need, that we have enough so that we might share more.

On to execution of the hybrid plan. We have a few gardens in mind to plant this little seed in, but we're still talking about it. On our list are those that would take this tiny windfall as a sign to do a good turn for someone else. And of course, the tale of the handing over will be found here on Farmer John Cheese...someday. I know better now than to throw out time frames.

All the very best in 2010 and every year that follows.
Terri, Cate and Addie