For the fourth consecutive year we created festive holiday scenes for our palladium windows facing Franklin Street.  This time around, however, we took the tradition to the next level by making it a team-building and philanthropic project. Groups of wedu staff members worked together to create scenes depicting a theme selected by our nearly 3,000 Facebook fans. In an added twist, we also selected four (4) local non-profit organizations that could win donations from wedu! The non-profits, David’s House, Inc., Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter, Special Olympics of New Hampshire and YMCA of Greater Manchester’s Youth Opportunities Unlimited Program, rallied their Facebook communities and the public to vote online for their respective “windows” through a special Facebook Application (app) created by wedu’s talented tech and creative teams. We challenged the non-profits to earn at least 250 votes to “win” a $250 cash donation – the window receiving the most votes  received the grand prize of a $750 cash donation and $2000 agency credit. All four nonprofits reached the 250-vote milestone, but the grand prize winner of the 2012 wedu Holiday Window Digital Challenge was The Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter.  Their window, “Reindeer Workout,” received 420 online votes! “We were so pleased to be chosen by wedu for this unique fundraiser and grateful to everyone who voted for our window,” said Cassandra Gatsas, Co-President of the Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter board of directors. “We are a no-kill shelter and our resources are extremely limited, so every donation helps. This cash donation and the agency credit will be used wisely and is greatly appreciated.” “As funding sources continue to shrink, nonprofits are being stretched to their limits,” said Sean Owen, President of wedu. “We have seen an exceptional increase in requests for donations, and we thought the ‘Window Challenge’ would be a fun way to help more than one organization, and also to raise awareness within the community and through our collective social networks.” David’s House, Inc., based in Lebanon, the YMCA of Greater Manchester’s Youth Opportunities Unlimited Program and Special Olympics New Hampshire each received a $250 donation from wedu. And the wedu employees who created the winning “Reindeer Workout” window each will receive a bonus vacation day in 2013!