The results so far of the Reader’s Digest magazine’s campaign “We Hear You America” show that the attractions of the North Olympic Peninsula are, indeed, a well-kept secret.
Thousands of dollars, in 10 awards, will be given to cities that can gather the highest number of “cheers,” or votes online, said Barbara Hanna, Sequim’s marketing and communications director, in an announcement Jan. 13 in which she urged residents to vote for Sequim in the online contest that ends Monday, Feb. 7.
Sequim ranked 239th, with 977 cheers, a check late Thursday night found.
But it was far ahead of other Peninsula towns.
Port Angeles had 45 cheers and was ranked 1,263rd.
Forks had 10 cheers — the same as Olympia — and a ranking of 2,610th.
Port Townsend — which Budget Travel magazine selected as one of the 20 coolest small towns in the nation — had three cheers in the Reader’s Digest contest, with a ranking of 3,747th.
Port Ludlow had two cheers — the same as Friday Harbor — and was ranked 4,802nd compared with Friday Harbor’s 5,085th ranking.
The top prize will be $40,000, plus the winner will be featured in the May issue of the magazine and be a stop on the Reader’s Digest RV tour.
The second-place winner also will be included in the magazine and listed as a stop on the tour. It also will be awarded $25,000.
Four runners-up will get $10,000 each. And four others, which will be selected with an eye to the size of the city, will also get $10,000 each.
The top six aren’t necessarily on anyone else’s list of top spots in the nation — unless you live in Michigan or Illinois.
Three of the top five are Michigan cities: Grand Marais, which is in first place with 552,578 cheers; Albion, in third place with 447,521 cheers; and Saint Johns, in fourth place with 413,735 cheers.
Second place is held by Fairbury, Ill., with 534,125 cheers; fifth place by Genoa, Neb., with 325,946 cheers; and sixth place by Jacksonville, Ill., with 288,746 cheers.
Some usually popular places have a poor showing. Santa Fe, N.M., had cheers in the teens, and Santa Cruz, Calif., a vacation spot on the Monterey Bay, had gathered eight cheers — putting it on a par with neighboring Castroville, Calif. (which claims to be the artichoke capital of the world) — by Thursday night.
In Washington state, several places trailed behind Sequim, among them Vancouver, Wash., with 918 cheers; Kirkland, with 762; Poulsbo with 249; Bainbridge Island with 178; Port Orchard with 84; and Seattle with 63.
Walla Walla had more than Moses Lake — 33 to 30 — while Fairchild Air Force Base pulled in more cheers than Bremerton — 20 to 13.
All did better than Hoquiam, which had one lone cheer and a ranking of 5,404th.
Last on the Reader’s Digest list was Irons, Mich., which had no cheers and was ranked 8,210th.
To vote in the contest, visit www.readersdigest.com and click on “Sweepstakes” and “We Hear You America.” Enter the name of the town you want to cheer on.
Participants can vote up to 10 times per day.
As of early Saturday afternoon, Port Townsend had 3,549 votes in Budget Travel’s contest for the coolest small town and ranked 13th.
The top town, Lewisburg, W.Va., had 57,464, while Astoria, Ore. — the only other town from the Pacific Northwest — held steady in second place with 53,254 votes.
The winners will be featured in the September issue of the magazine. No cash will be won — only bragging rights.
Voting can be done in that contest five times a day at http://tinyurl.com/ptiscool.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.