Off the fashion subject again, more importantly, Refugees International News

RI is losing a contest that it can and should win. Victory depends on you, but you have to act by Oct. 31.

The Ploughshares Fund has chosen RI as one of 12 organizations to participate in its Peace Primary, a contest designed to boost donations to small groups that work for peace and justice. The attached document—Speak Out—explains the contest and leads you to the donation page. Every dollar donated up to $1,000 from a single individual counts as a vote. At the end of the month, the organization with the most dollars or votes will win a $100,000 prize.

About half a dozen board members have contributed. Thank you. However, we need 100% participation. So far the leading organization has raised only $69,000. We ought to be able to do much better than that. The winner will be the organization that best uses viral marketing to generate support.

So please do the following:

1) Open the attached Speak Out document and follow the instructions for making a contribution. Although the contribution goes initially to the Ploughshares Fund, the money will flow back to us. You can also donate by going to http://www.refugeesinternational.org
2) Ask you spouses, partners, and children to make contributions or just make them for them.
3) Ask friends on your email list to help. We are getting a lot of contributions from Jackson, WY because of good work by board members there.
4) If you have a personal website or blog or are on Face Book, My Space or any other social networking site, ask your contacts to contribute. You can merely pass on the Speak Out attachment.
5) If you run a company or a firm, please consider giving your employees and customers an opportunity to participate.
6) If you are part of an email community through a college or university list-serve, forward the Speak Out attachment to everybody on the list serve, asking them to participate.