With the help of votes on Facebook and Liberty Mutual, a local charity may win a cash prize.
Harford Family House is participating in Liberty Mutual's "Like My Community" campaign, which awards $30,000 each to the top three organizations with the most votes on Facebook by Aug. 1. As of Thursday morning, Harford Family House was in third place by a small margin.
The Harford Family House, according to Director of Development Mary Barry, was initially started to help homeless families in Harford County. The business runs out of an Aberdeen office and offers fully furnished apartments to homeless families.
"We provide services and support and housing for families," she said, "to help them get back on their feet."
It started in 1989, when a single mother and her child approached an Episcopal church in Harford County for assistance, according to the website.
Now, more than 20 years later, it is the Harford Family House, changed from the Holy Family House, and is the only shelter in Harford County that can serve an entire, intact family, according to the website, and as of Thursday was helping 20 families with 43 children.
Dana Temple, a local Liberty Mutual agent, selected Harford Family House to be a part of the program, Barry said. For Temple, Harford Family House stood out as a local organization that helped families.
"What's near and dear to me is anything that has to do with families," Temple said, adding that she is a mother herself.
Picking a Harford County organization was also important to her when she was selected to pick an organization. She, too, stressed that Harford Family House needed more votes to secure their place in the competition.
"They're doing great work helping out families that are in need," she said.
Harford Family House is the sole Harford County organization going up against larger Baltimore ones, including Maryland Food Bank, Barry said. Although they are thankful that more than 8,500 votes have gone to them so far, Barry urged people to keep voting to secure their spot, once a day, every day until Aug. 1, when the contest ends.
"That's enough money for us to support a homeless family of four for an entire year and help them become self-sufficient and get on their feet," she said. "So that's a big deal for us."
To vote, go to http://www.facebook.com/libertybaltimore.