Here's how it is.

Seems one of our fellow Browncoats had him a mighty dream to do some good in the Verse. He spent quite a bit of and his own time and money creating something shiny to share with us all. He knew he would never make a dime off of it, but he went ahead and did it anyway- perhaps out of some strange sense of pure altruism. That’s Mike Dougherty for you.

It also seems he's found himself in all kinds of trouble and could use a bit of help with his project.

So here's the job: we are teaming up with Mike D, director of Browncoats: Redemption, to run a little contest here on the Cortex. He and his crew have put together a fan film for all of us to enjoy and all the profits go to five charities that are favored by our Big Damn Heroes. Unfortunately, his team has fallen a bit short of their goal. To date, DVD sales have reached a total of approximately $40,000, and that's great... except their goal is $500,000- the same amount that Serenity made in theaters.

Now, we're not going to ask you to go out and buy the film. The way we figure it, if you want to do that, you will. No- what we’re here to ask you for is your help in promoting awareness of Redemption.

So here’s the contest:

What you’re sending in:

1. Flyers of BC: R that can be posted up around the real world. Flyers should be in PDF format.

OR

2. Web banners and badges to help promote the cause around the internet. These can be in any standard image format (.tiff, .jpeg, .gif, or .png).

Why we’re doing this:

Well, ‘cause it's a good and noble thing! Charity is pretty great in our book.

Who can participate:

Everyone- we know you’re out there, so let your creative juices flow!

Where you’re sending your work:

Send submissions directly to onthecortex@gmail.com. If you have any questions or any difficulty in sending your submission, please contact one of the administrators at the same email address for assistance.

When to submit:

As soon as possible! The deadline for submission is April 17, 2011 at midnight (EST). Voting will commence on April 19, 2011 and end at midnight (EST) on April 26, 2011.

Now, we're sure you are wondering- what's the payoff for you? That's where it gets real shiny! See, it seems that someone out there in the Verse believes in Mike and his team and really wants them to be able to help out the charities that our Big Damn Heroes love so much. They believe this so strongly that they have decided to donate two DVD copies of Browncoats: Redemption to the contest for the winners. To sweeten the deal, Mike D himself has tossed in two t-shirts as prizes. There will be one winner in each category, and each will receive a t-shirt and a DVD directly from Mike.

You may create as many designs as you wish to submit, but you can only use graphics and images from Browncoats: Redemption. You will also need to include the sales code for ordering from BC: R, as well as the URL of his website in the design so that we can track how many sales our project generates. The inclusion of any graphics, images or quotes from Firefly or Serenity, well... that could get us into a fair bit of trouble that we’d like to steer clear of.

The sales code is "thecortex" (no quotes).

The Browncoats: Redemption official URL is http://browncoatsmovie.com/

Both the sales code and the URL will need to be on the flyers in some fashion.

The font used for Redemption is Papyrus, which quite close to the font used for Serenity.

Mike has images up and will be adding more as soon as he can. You can find them at-

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186723&id=92335898058

Once the badges and banners are available to post on other sites, you can turn the image into a link to the following URL-

http://shop.browncoatsmovie.com/index.aspx?dc=thecortex

There are two categories to choose from, and there will be one winner per category. If the same person wins both categories, then the submission with the highest votes will qualify for the prize, and the second prize from the other category will go to the runner-up.

In the event of a tie, a panel of judges will determine the final winner. The winner will be announced no later than April 30, 2011. All prizes will ship directly from Browncoats: Redemption. The Cortex will provide Browncoats: Redemption with the email contact information of the winners only to verify their identities and arrange shipping of the prizes according to their standard shipping schedule.

Once all submissions are in, they will be voted on by you. However, should there be a tie, well, we've got that covered with a panel of judges to decide the final winners. Voting will commence on April 19, 2011 and end at 12 a.m. EST, April 26, 2011.

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Now... for all you folks who don't fancy the job, we could still use a bit of your help when all this is over. If you could print out the flyers and post them up where they're allowed in your corner of the Verse and put up the web badge or banner on any site or blog that you might have, it would be greatly appreciated. If you need help in linking it back to Mike, we can handle that too. So, let's see if we can drive up those numbers and help a lot of good people out!

Here's the thing. There are those out there who don't think that this is possible- that Mike and the crew of Browncoats: Redemption can’t meet their target. Mike only has until September 2011 to reach his goal, and then all that shiny that he's been trying to sell for the benefit of others will have to be destroyed. That's coin lost for such a noble group of charities just trying to do good works...

...except we've heard those words before, and we’re here to tell you that we know Browncoats are mighty and can do the impossible. It's sort of our specialty. Let's see if the Cortex can’t help Mike get the most sales generated out of all the other communities in the Verse!

Sincerely,

Leif Henrikson, Søren Hough (AKA kimonoko), and Christine McKnight

Administrators of the Cortex

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You are providing your information to the administrators of the Cortex and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for contest entry and prize delivery.