Virginie Update

First off, due to my lackluster abilities in French translation, I misunderstood the end date for voting. The contest continues until October 31st, rather than the 15th. If only I paid more attention in French class! (Okay, I never had a French class...if only I had taken a French class! I need to start watching French in Action again...)

In the past three or four days, "domi jack" has commented on the original post I wrote up regarding this contest. This person has challenged me to discover how much of the prize money Virginie will be donating to the Burundi, and how much will she be keeping for myself [editor's note: this typo should read herself, of course. I'm getting no money at all for anything]. I appreciated this call to accuracy, and apologize for not digging into this sooner. In a world of scams, I can understand a general wariness and perhaps even cynicism.

I naively assumed from an email alerting me to the whole thing (translated by a mutual friend of Virginie's and mine) that Virginie was giving all of her prize money, should she win. So to follow up, I tracked down Virginie's email and asked her about it. She wrote me back and confirmed and clarified a few things.

Should she win, she intends to give half of the prize money to the Imuhira project in Burundi(this site is all in French, but the photos show you some of the construction progress they've made). On the Pantene website, the prize is 5000 euros (I used an online exchange rate calculator, as you know my computation abilities are about as strong as my talents in French translation. If exchanged today, the dollar amount would be: $6,258.99. So half would be 2500 euros, or $3,129.49).

She explained that she has always wanted to work in humanitarian aid, but in Belgium it's not easy to find a job of this sort. People often work as volunteers, she said, or have years of experience on the field making job openings even more scarce. So when someone came to her church and spoke about the Imuhira project, she realized that this was a way to contribute to a project, helping out and making a difference while continuing with her real job.

"I have chosen to work on projects like the Imuhira Village, beside my real job, to help where and when it's needed," she wrote. "With this contest and the prize money, I hope that the Imuhira project will be better known and I hope that this will contribute to the work's progress in Burundi."

Please accept my apologies for unintentionally giving the impression that she was going to donate the entire 5000 euros if she wins. It's my fault, not Virginie's. She never said she was giving the whole thing; it was naivete and negligence on my part to assume and not confirm details before enthusiastically promoting the contest.

Now that I have interacted with her, I wanted to be sure you knew that it is half.

Still...half!

When I think that this is just a beauty contest and she could just keep the prize money to do whatever she wants, that seems like a lot to give away. To be a young couple starting out in life choosing to donate 2500 euros, wow. In fact, 3000 dollars is more than my husband and I could donate to one cause in one chunk.

Personally, I still think it's cool. And if my daily vote propels her to francophone Pantene Ambassadrice 2007, and the Burundi project gains 2500 euros in part because of my painless "click," it seems to me like a simple, positive act that I can do from my office while sitting at my computer.

However, I understand if you prefer to stop. I didn't mean to mislead anyone, but I can understand if, like "domi jack," you feel frustrated. I did, after all, "advance the project" just because I thought it was neat.

Either way, it's totally up to you. No pressure intended.