Five Vt. non-profits compete in Cars For Good | Vermont – WPTZ Home

BURLINGTON, Vt. -Five Vermont non-profits are in the running to win a brand new car from Toyota. It’s part of Toyota’s “100 Cars for Good” contest where the car maker will give 100 cars to 100 American non-profits in 100 days. Toyota picked 500 finalists from over 4,000 applicants.“We didn’t think we’d get picked, we just threw it in, and we’re thrilled!” said Liz Helrich of the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.

Every day through August 21st, Facebook users can visit the contest’s page and vote for one of five daily finalists. The Vermont finalists and their voting dates are:

• The Central Vermont Humane Society (May 28th)
• Fold Family Ministries (May 30th)
• Hunger Free Vermont (June 1st)
• Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf (June 15th)
• The Common Place at the Art House (August 11th)

While the prospects of getting a new car for free are definitely attractive, these local organizations are also in need. At the Food Shelf, Helrich said the car would help them get students from their Community Kitchen program around town and also would be used for home bound delivery.

“We have 150 households we visit every month, and these are people who for reasons of disability, some of the them are senior citizens, they cannot get to the Food Shelf so we deliver to them,” explain Helrich.

At Hunger Free Vermont, a limited transportation budget has made it difficult for the non-profits 16 employees to get around the state to teach nutrition education.
“We’ve had to ask the staff to be very creative and do a lot of carpooling, which we still want to continue, but if we had a company vehicle we’d be able to expand our outreach,” said HFV’s executive director Liz Parisi.

And if they win?

“We’ll probably dance around the office, but it will really mean a lot to our organization,” exclaimed Parisi.

For more information on the organizations and voting dates, visit the Cars For Good‘s Facebook page.