The votes are in and SEVEN Iowa schools were winners in UnityPoint Health's 'Imagine the Amazing' contest.

The contest included over 2,600 non-profit schools in Iowa, along with portions of Illinois, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin that are serviced by Unity Point Health. Your votes determined the winners and did you ever vote... more than 1.6 million votes came in in total, or nearly 114,300 each day!

A total of ten schools each won $1,000. Seven of the ten were in Iowa. They are:

  • Don Bosco High School in Gilbertville
  • Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Elementary in Hartley
  • Highland Elementary School in Riverside
  • Immaculate Conception School in Charles City
  • Louisa-Muscatine High School in Letts
  • Mt. Olive Lutheran School in Des Moines
  • South Tama County High School in Tama

The other schools that won $1,000 prizes are:

  • Jordan Catholic School in Rock Island, Illinois
  • Seton Catholic School in Moline, Illinois
  • Nuestro Mundo in Monona, Wisconsin
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The school that won the $25,000 grand prize was Annawan Grade School in Annawan, Illinois.

How did schools do it? They got out the vote. Jane O'Leary, Principal at Highland Elementary in Riverside said,

We had one parent who started challenging other parents to vote for our school and it created a ripple effect in getting out the vote for Highland Elementary. We have such awesome support from our parents.

O'Leary says the money will go towards a wheelchair accessible playground:

We have been working very hard to make our playground accessible to all students. The $1,000 prize from UnityPoint Health is going to help us move closer to our goal of being able to have a surface that is wheelchair accessible. We want children of all abilities to be able to access our playground, so they are able to play with their peers.

Great job to all the winning schools and THANK YOU UnityPoint Health for helping make a difference at these eleven midwest schools!

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