SCRANTON -- The Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeastern Pennsylvania gives hundreds of kids a hot meal every day. And employees there are hoping the social media site Facebook, and some of their friends, help them continue to feed those kids.
Boys and Girls Clubs Executive Director Tricia Dibiasi-Thomas and her staff in Scranton entered a contest without expecting anything. Now, almost 1,000 votes in, they're spending a lot of time on Facebook pushing for more votes.
"We're very very thrilled to be so close and be in the running for such a substantial grant. $20,000 means a ton to our organization and to be able to feed about 250 kids in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties just thrills us," Dibiasi-Thomas said.
All the buzz is over a national contest from Walmart. 60 non-profit organizations from across the country will each be awarded a $20,000 grant if they garner enough votes online.
The money must be used to feed the club's members.
Volunteers with Boys and Girls Clubs have been using social media to spread the word. Like John Walsh, he's voted every day in April and then shares the info with his online "friends".
"Facebook, you can go on there and vote daily. And just trying to get the word out to everybody to help them out," Walsh said.
The Boys and Girls Clubs of NEPA have a $1 million dollar budget, so $20,000 is pretty huge. They feed 250 kids in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties every day and the grant would help feed all of those kids for almost a year.
"We've been voting, we've been asking our friends to vote, our board members, friends in the community, other non profits in the area. And everyone's been very supportive so far," added Dibiasi-Thomas.
There's only a week left to vote. But the club's only about 100 votes away from a spot in the top 60.
If you'd like to cast a vote you can visit www.bgcnepa.org and click on "vote daily".