Patch is holding a contest this month that could bring a big chunk of change to Newton Public Schools.  The contest asks locals around the country to submit photos of their houses all decked out for the holidays. Residents can submit photos from now until Dec. 26 and once they submit, residents in the community can vote for their favorite houses online. The top 24 houses in the country receive $500 toward their December electric bill and the grand prize winner wins $100,000 for his/her home school district, no strings attached.  Even if the winner has children in a private school, it’s the public school district in the winner’s town that gets the money.

I know the times are tough and money isn’t necessarily available to be spent on holiday decorations…not to mention the large number of families who don’t decorate houses! I can totally relate. One suggestion was to actually get a group of families together to decorate one house as a team, and then get a whole neighborhood to work on voting for that house.  There are a few more details available for the contest, and they’re in this article here: http://newton.patch.com/articles/deck-your-house-and-win-100-000-for-newton-public-schools.  To upload photos of houses visit : deckthehouse.patch.com/contest/newton. If you know any Newton residents with great, decked-out houses, encourage them to post — it could bring $100K to NPS.  If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to call or email Newton Patch.