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Just One More Round to Go! Cabot Creamery Cooperative Announces the Latest Round of Reward Volunteers Winners

Cabot, VT (June 12, 2012) – The results are in for round four of the Reward Volunteers program, and nearly 30 participants will be receiving prizes, including a grand prize of $3,000 cash. Cabot Creamery Cooperative, the farm family owned dairy cooperative best known as the makers of “The World Best Cheddar,” created the program to “reward volunteers” who selflessly do great things for their communities. In the latest round of the program, almost 10,000 volunteer hours were logged using the Reward Volunteers web widget and iPhone app.

“We’re rolling along, and the program just keeps growing,” says Cabot Director of Marketing/Integrated Services, Jen Neary who worked with Chalo, Inc., a Vermont-based startup, to create the Reward Volunteers iPhone and computer widget. “We now have more than a thousand users logging hours for more than 700 volunteer organizations. Each week in May, Reward Volunteers gained an average of 28 new organizations. The dairy farm families who own Cabot are very excited by the participation from volunteers across the country. Giving back is a pillar of the cooperative model, and it is great to recognize those who give their time, skills and energy to make their communities better.”

With round four in the books, Reward Volunteers is now in the fifth and final month of program. “This is the last chance for volunteers to log their time and enter themselves, and the organizations they serve, in the race for the best prizes yet,” continues Jen. “In addition to another $3,000 cash prize, we will be giving away an Alaskan cruise for two, a Smugglers Notch vacation and a Liberty Hill vacation.”

Reward Volunteers uses Facebook Connect to enable participants to log their volunteer activity and share the volunteer experience with friends via Facebook, email, and the app itself. The more hours logged, the more ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ received, and emails opened, the more likely participants are to win prizes each month, now until July 7, 2012, the weekend the final grand prizes are awarded.

Since the February 14 launch date, thousands of volunteers from 12 countries and 46 U.S. states have used Reward Volunteers, logging more than 30,000 hours, to track the service that improves their communities. They’ve logged time working at food banks, women’s shelters, animal rescue centers and hundreds of other vital non-profits across the nation.

The top performers for the fourth round have been selected as June’s Reward Volunteers Winners of the Month.

“I am extremely excited to be the winner of the big cash prize,” says James Fox, a volunteer at the Friends of Somerville Public Library in Massachusetts who will receive $3,000 for his volunteer efforts this month. “I plan to support a series of author talks at my local library with part of with my winnings. It is great that Cabot and the other sponsors are rewarding people for doing something good for their communities. Thank you for providing this platform, opportunity, and incentive for folk to volunteer.”

“Thank you so much,” said Bridget Young, the winner of the trip for four to Liberty Hill Farm in Vermont. “I am already so rewarded by my work, this is just the greatest surprise.”

Other winners will receive prizes such as a vacation for four to Liberty Hill Farm in Rochester, Vermont, Cabot Cheddar gift baskets, Keurig K-Cup Brewers and copies of Sending Milk, a photography book by Skye Chalmers.

June Reward Volunteers Winners Include:

$3,000 Cash
James Fox, Massachusetts – Friends of the Somerville Public Library

Trip for four To Liberty Hill Farm
Bridget Young, South Carolina – Greer Police Department

Cabot Gift Basket
Joe N., Wisconsin – Northwest Church

Keurig K-Cup Brewer
Jessica B., Arizona – Beads of Courage
Lilli L., Arizona – East Valley Adult Resources

Sending Milk, Photography Book by Skye Chalmers
Paul T., Maryland – Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department
Chris F., Washington – Liberty Bible Church
Wanda A. B., Texas – Pentecostal Church of God
Mindy M., Connecticut – Huntington’s Disease Society of America
Teya H., Washington, D.C. – AmeriCorps VISTA
Crystal A., Arizona – Arizona Desert Dogs Rescue
Carey K., New Hampshire – Daniel Webster Council, Boy Scouts of America
Betsy N., Ohio – Junior League of Cleveland
Karen D., New Jersey – Antler Ridge Wildlife Sanctuary
Francesca G., Texas – Holocaust Memorial Museum San Antonio
Stacy D., Virginia – Central Virginia Food Bank

A complete list of the organizations benefiting from the Reward Volunteers can be accessed at: http://www.cabotcheese.coop/orgs.html

ABOUT CABOT CREAMERY COOPERATIVE
Cabot Creamery Cooperative has been in continuous operation in Vermont since 1919, and makes a full line of cheeses, yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese and butter. Widely known as makers of “The World’s Best Cheddar,” Cabot is owned by the 1200 dairy farm families of Agri-Mark, the Northeast’s premier dairy cooperative, with farms located throughout New England and upstate New York. For more information on Cabot, visit: http://www.cabotcheese.coop

United Nations Declares 2012 “International Year of Cooperatives”
2012 recognized by the UN as the International Year of Cooperatives.  As proud members of the Cooperative Community, Agri-Mark and its Cabot and McCadam brands support and promote the cooperative business model in recognition of the fact that cooperatives drive the economy, respond to social change, are resilient to global economic crisis and are serious, successful businesses creating jobs in all sectors.  To learn more about the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives, go to: 2012 IYC