Umpqua Bank, which recently moved into Phinney Ridge at 7120 Greenwood Ave. N., is giving away $10,000 each to the three communities that raise the most votes through its “We Heart” campaign. With one week to go in the contest, our neighborhood is in fifth place.
Jo Figurelli, manager of the Phinney branch, explained that anyone who lives, works or shops in our neighborhood, can text, Facebook or submit a paper vote for any business, person, or thing that they love in our neighborhood.
“You can vote for a business; you can also vote for anything in Phinney, so you can vote for the zoo, a certain animal at the zoo, or a park, whatever,” she said.
You can vote by text for each person or thing up to five times per week; and you can vote for an unlimited number of things. The winning business gets $1,000, and the three neighborhoods with the highest number of total votes gets $10,000 each for a community project of their choosing.
Ten neighborhoods are participating, although Bellevue is counted as a neighborhood, and it’s currently in third place. As of yesterday, the vote totals for the top five were:
- Magnolia — 6,500
- Queen Anne – 6,348
- Bellevue – 5,356
- Roosevelt – 4,000
- Phinney Ridge-Greenwood – 3,472
However, Figurelli said she had a stack of paper votes that people filled out at last weekend’s PNA Winter Festival that she still needed to count, so our numbers will go up.
A stack of We Heart votes waiting to be counted at the Phinney branch.
“We’re not far enough behind where we couldn’t be one of the top three, but we need to start pulling some votes out for sure,” she said. “If we do win the $10,000, then what happens is people that live and work in Phinneywood submit their entries on where they want the money to go…then the neighborhood votes on it.”
To vote in the We Heart campaign, write down a paper vote at the Umpqua Bank branch, or pick up a paper heart at any of the local businesses that have a We Heart sign outside, go to the We Heart Facebook page (Facebook votes now count double), or text your vote to 99158 (type in “Phinney” and then whatever you want to vote for).
(Disclosure: Umpqua Bank is a PhinneyWood sponsor.)
