[John]

I hope this is permitted here. AMEX is donating $5 million dollars to the project that receives the most votes from its members. The ALS project has already made the top 25 cut and is now in the running for the top 5 run-off. It is in 7th place at the moment. Voting closes on July 22. It need fewer than 500 more votes to get into 5th place. You must be an American Express card holder to vote. Go to http://www.membersproject.com/intro.htm register and vote. Apparently it takes about 2 minutes. If nothing else, AMEX donates $1 for every vote cast for a project.

If you're not a member you could pass this to friends or post it on an ALS forum that you know of.

[BobbyB]

Northport students wage national fight against ALS
BY DEBORAH S. MORRIS
deborah.morris@newsday.com


July 24, 2007, 4:56 PM EDT

The Northport High School Honor Society fought the good fight, but in the end fell just shy of its goal to win at least $1 million for research toward a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease.

The club placed eighth out of 25 for their participation in The Members Project sponsored by American Express. The online initiative offered the chance for someone to have their pet project funded by American Express based on cardmembers' votes.

"Finishing eighth is a great accomplishment," said Don Strasser, advisor to the club. "Especially when you consider 7,000 ideas were submitted. We're happy with where we finished."

The club will now focus it's efforts on the fourth annual "A Midwinter's Night Dream," fund raiser for ALS research to be held January 10.

Strasser said the students participation in The Members project helped them learn a valuable lesson in networking, asking for help and ultimately bringing attention to the disease.

"We felt that we definitely raised awareness about ALS which is very important to do," said Strasser. "It showed them it takes a coordinated effort to get things done."

For more information about the January fund raiser go to www.amnd.org.