***** Posting with permission of the mods *****

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Hi Ottawa,

I am involved with Sauvetage Bénévole Outaouais - Ottawa Volunteer Search and Rescue (SBO-OVSAR). Can I ask a favour?

We have a chance to win a new vehicle for our team. That would mean a lot to us. Like many charities we struggle to find funds for such large capital purchases.

For background, we entered the Land Rover Defender Service Awards presented by CHASE contest. It is a USA/Canada-wide contest, now open for a second year. There are five award categories, including Search and Rescue, and one Land Rover Defender (a very valuable vehicle) will be awarded in each category. With its legendary off-road capabilities, this vehicle would be an awesome addition to enhance our capacity to provide search and rescue, and disaster response in our community.

We submitted the required 3 minute video application and out of the 800 applicants we ended up as one of 5 finalists in the Search and Rescue category. We are the only Canadian team in this category. The next stage is a public voting stage. Quite simply, the finalist with the most votes wins the vehicle. I was hoping you could take some time to vote for our team and maybe encourage others to do so as well.

What is involved in the public voting?

Voting has begun on October 21st, 2022 and will end on November 6th, 2022 at 11:59pm ET. To vote you would go to the Land Rover site at the following link https://www.landrover.ca/en/experiences/sponsorship/defender-service-awards/vote/search-and -rescue.html, where you would have access to the video applications from each contestant. At the bottom of the screen, you simply need to select the team of your choice, enter your email and click vote! And you could vote once each day for the remaining period that voting is open.

We are also carrying out a social media blitz to generate support. If you can share our posts on Facebook, Instagram or follow us on Twitter, that would be great! Our webpage where a link to the voting page is also available at https://www.sbo-ovsar.ca/ (see green button).

Winning would mean so much to us. One of our trucks is already getting old and this Land Rover Defender would be a great new asset. Winning would also mean a $25,000 cash award and valuable product donations from Pelican, sponsor of the search and rescue category. All this would help us better serve our communities now and into the future.

I hope you like our video entry. We can’t thank you enough. I’ll let you know what happens r/Ottawa!