Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Malden community rural identity contest is seeking entries about the town to be considered for the community section of the Whitman County website.
The contest is the brain child of Malden resident Colleen Cross who began the Malden Positivity Campaign in 2014 and has posted a new spring contest every year that promotes Malden.
This year, she is using the contest to generate a blurb about Malden in the hope of getting it posted on the county’s website.
The parks and rec section of the county’s website includes a map of the county showing all the towns and communities and listing information about many of them.
Malden was one of 12 places without its own blurb.
The others are Dusty, Elberton, Ewan, Hay, Hooper, Lamont, Pine City, Riparia, Steptoe, Thornton and Winona.
Cross asked the parks department and parks board about posting information for Malden. She received a thumbs up and made up a flyer to promote the spring contest and pitched to sponsors to generate prizes for the top three entries.
Cross went door-to-door in Malden to ask if people would consider entering the spring contest with a written description of Malden in 50 works or less.
She handed out 39 flyers about the contest and anticipated 10 percent participation by the May 5 deadline.
As of Monday morning, eight entries had been received.
“It would be great to get additional entries, and wonderful to have more voter participation,” Cross stated.
Voting on the entries is open to anyone who lives in or near Malden and can be done via Facebook or the contest station in Malden on Main Street.
Cross also has prize sponsors for the top three entries.
First place will receive a $60 gift certificate from The Red Brick Café in Rosalia, second a $45 gift card to Tick Klock Drug and third a $30 gift card to Tekoa Hardware.
While the main goal is to get the information posted about Malden to the county site, Cross added it would be great if doing so sparked the opportunity for updates for other communities as well and new links to community websites.
Regardless of who the winner is, it will still be up to the discretion of the county IT director whether the entry is posted or not.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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