The Milkweed Mercantile needs your help!

Our business here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, the Milkweed Mercantile, is in the running for a $10K award with a website called Ideablob. As incredible as it sounds, the winner is determined each month simply by who gets the most online votes.

It seemed crazy NOT to apply. We are hoping our extended community of friends and supporters will help us get the financing we need to FINALLY open this December.

What we need from you: THREE minutes of your time now (between Sept. 15-20) and one minute next week (Sept. 21-27 for the final vote). This four minutes could make an enormous difference in the success of the Milkweed Mercantile. And it will cost you nothing.

To vote for us you will need to go to the Ideablob website, register, confirm the registration in your email, and then go back to the Ideablob website and vote for us. We timed it, and it takes less than 3 minutes.

To register and vote now, click here: http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/3233-Strawbale-off-grid-business-ope

A bit more about us: In order to remain as ethical as possible we do not accept advertising on our website, nor do we have outside investors. This means that we're operating on a shoestring BUT we don't have to answer to anyone but ourselves - the Mercantile is run cooperatively, and is profit-sharing. Our goal is to be a business incubator for members of Dancing Rabbit, enabling people here to earn a living doing what they believe in most - sustainablilty, caring for the earth, and sharing what we've learned.For even more info see our website: http://milkweedmercantile.com

This kind of "no-strings attached" grant is ideal for us. If we win we also qualify for an additional $10K (which is donated each month by the Advanta Credit card company if the winner holds an Advanta card. When we decided to enter the contest, I applied and got one).

Our goal is to use the $20k towards a windturbine and tower (which will cost approximately $40,000). Being sustainable isn't cheap!

Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate your support. If you have friends who might help us we would appreciate it if you would forward this to them. We are available to answer any questions at any time.

We understand that people are often reluctant to register at online sites. I registered at Ideablob 5 months ago and only hear from them once a month when they ask me to vote for the best idea of the month. One could also 'unsubscribe' after the final vote (for us) during the week of 9/21-27.

Thanks again!