Can Collingswood Take the Title for Top Town?

Collingswood continues to rally residents to show their hometown pride and vote for the borough in the Reader’s Digest “We Hear You, America” contest.

Collingswood, as of this writing, holds the 29th place nationwide with 32,896 votes—about 20,000 votes short of the No. 1 town so far, Lake City, IA, and below the No. 18 slot required to get prize money for civic projects.

Does Collingswood have what it takes to climb to the top? Collingswood’s director of community development, Cass Duffey, certainly thinks so.

Collingswood’s place on the list is “an amazing feat and it’s thanks to people that are passionate about town making sure they’re heard each day by voting for Collingswood,” Duffey said. “Collingswood can win recognition and cash for civic projects by placing in the top 18 towns. The only way we can win is to rally a townwide effort and we need everyone to pitch in.”

In past years, winning towns garnered a half-million votes with populations less than 2,000. Duffey believes Collingswood, with a population of almost 14,000 as of the last Census, can use its larger populace to trump that.

Collingswood Community Theatre is getting in on the effort by keeping a laptop open during rehearsal breaks. That allows theater participants to vote repeatedly.

Duffey is interested in any other groups organizing a similar get out the vote campaign for the contest. You can share your efforts at Collingswood’s Facebook page.

The borough already has its own get out the vote day scheduled. On Jan. 11, residents are encouraged to vote en masse in the contest, and keep the momentum going through the March 1 voting deadline.

“If just 1,000 people voted 50 times each we would double our vote total and move up dramatically,” Duffey noted.

To vote in the “We Hear You, America” contest, log on to ReadersDigest.com/America, enter your ZIP code and, if you haven’t voted before, register. You only need to register once. Click on the vote button and presto, another vote for Collingswood is in the bag.

People can vote an unlimited number of times.