Important: Please read these rules before entering this contest (the "Contest"). By participating in this Contest, either by submitting an entry or accepting a prize, you agree to be bound by these Official Rules and represent that you satisfy all of the eligibility requirements below.

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

Contest Introduction

As the power supplier for Ohio’s 24 electric co-ops, Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives (“OEC” or “Sponsor”) values human energy and appreciates the people who make our communities better. That’s why we’re launching a contest to honor inspirational community members across the state of Ohio. This is an opportunity for members of OEC affiliated co-ops to nominate someone who has made a positive impact in their community. In addition to being recognized, the person you nominate could win one of six (6) cash prizes.

Contest Sponsor

The Sponsor of this Contest is Buckeye Power, Inc. and Ohio Rural Electric Cooperatives, Inc. d/b/a Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives (“OEC” or “Sponsor”), 6677 Busch Boulevard, Columbus, OH 43229. The Contest’s prizes will be solely managed and awarded by OEC. The Contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Contest Period

The Contest consists of an Entry Period followed by winner selection by a panel of judges selected by OEC. The Entry Period begins at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time (“ET”) on May 3, 2021 and ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on June 4, 2021. Winners will then be selected by the panel of judges and announced in July 2021.

How to Enter

You (Nominator/Entrant) can enter the Contest through the Contest website by nominating someone who has had a positive impact in your community (Nominee). To enter during the Entry Period, submit a photo and answer three nomination questions that complies with these Official Rules (“Entry”) to the Contest website.

Your nomination answers should creatively showcase how your nominee positively impacted your community.

All Entries will be reviewed by Sponsor for compliance with these Official Rules. Visit www.Ohioec.org/wpyo and follow Contest instructions to submit an Entry. In addition to uploading a photo and answering questions about your nominee, you will be required to complete and submit an entry form with your first name, last name, zip code, local co-op name, and email address for official entry into the Contest.

Entrant/Nominator and Winner Eligibility

To enter, you (Nominator) must be the legal age of majority in Ohio, a resident of the state Ohio and a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident. Any individual you nominate (Nominee) in your Entry must also be the legal age of majority in Ohio, a resident of the state of Ohio and a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident. By nominating an individual and featuring him/her in your Entry, you (1) represent and warrant that you have the individual’s permission to feature the individual and his/her name, image, and/or likeness in your Entry, and (2) the Nominee has granted permission for your Entry to be publicly posted in any form, manner or media and for OEC to use your Entry and the Nominee’s name, image, or likeness for any commercial or non-commercial purposes. If any Nominee objects to these terms, or their appearance therein, the Entry will be disqualified.  Entrant/Nominator or Entrant’s/Nominator’s immediate family (spouse or parent) or other persons residing in the same household as Entrant/Nominator must be a member of an OEC member electric cooperative.

Employees, officers, and directors of OEC or any OEC member electric cooperative are not eligible to be a Nominee and thus cannot win any prizes in the Contest. Employees, officers, directors, agents, and representatives of any OEC member electric cooperative may submit Entries as a Nominator; however, as noted above, their Nominees cannot be employees, officers, directors, agents, or representatives of OEC or any OEC member electric cooperative. Entries of this type will be disqualified and ineligible to win any prizes in the Contest.

Single Submission

Entries should be limited to one entry per Nominee.   Multiple entries per Nominee will not increase the Nominee’s chances of winning. 

Entry Criteria:

Your Entry must depict how your nominee has made a positive impact in your community. This may be accomplished, for example, by including a caption with your Entry.

In addition, your Entry must meet the following criteria:

  • Entries will be allowed that were previously submitted to a #WhoPowersYou contest but did not win a prize, as long as such Entries meet all of the criteria described in these Official Rules.

  • Entries that were previously submitted to another contest or promotion not sponsored by OEC or that were otherwise featured in any public media may be submitted, provided that such Entries meet all of the criteria described in these Official Rules. In addition, such entrants represent and warrant that they have the right to submit the Entries to this Contest and OEC’s use of the Entries will not infringe on any third party’s rights or violate an Entrant’s obligations to a third party.

  • Must be in keeping with OEC’s image and reputation, and cannot contain any offensive, defamatory, obscene, lewd, discriminatory, unlawful, or inappropriate content, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion.

  • May only contain content for which you have, or have the power to grant, all required consents and approvals.

  • May only contain or depict the name, image, likeness, and personally identifiable information (PII) of individuals who expressly consented; provided, however, that in no event may any Entry contain sensitive PII, or such other sensitive information, like health information or social security numbers. If requested by OEC, Entrants must be able to provide proof of consents received by the nominated individuals and shall timely deliver such consent to OEC as requested.

  • Cannot feature any individuals who are minors, without the express written consent of the minor’s legal guardians, which must be provided to OEC consistent with the above.

  • Cannot include any third party trademarks (logos, names), copyrighted materials (music, images, videos), or any other type of protected intellectual property that you do not own or have the right to use for purposes of an Entry in this Contest, and for OEC’s future use.

By submitting an Entry you agree to these Official Rules and confirm your Entry conforms to the Entry requirements. Sponsor will, at its sole discretion, disqualify any Entry received in excess of the Entry limit and any Entries not meeting the Entry criteria.  By submitting an Entry, you (Nominator) and Nominee grant Sponsor and its representatives, agents, and assigns a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free right and license to use your Entry in any media whatsoever now known or later invented for any non-commercial or commercial purpose, without further permission from or compensation to you (Nominator) or the Nominee. You and Nominee further agree to have your and Nominee’s name, image, likeness or state of residence displayed online and in print or in any other media, and used by Sponsor for any purpose, at any time, without any fee or other form of compensation. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify an Entry, without notice, and for any reason.

Winner Determination and Prizes:

OEC or its agent will review all Entries for appropriateness before posting them at www.Ohioec.org/wpyo

The public can “like” or “share” submissions, however, quantity of “likes” or “shares” has no influence on the selection of the winning entries.

Following the close of the Entry Period, a panel of judges selected by OEC will review all eligible Entries and select winners based on the following judging criteria, each to be weighted equally: (1) creativity and originality; and (2) the nominee’s positive impact on your community. The six (6) Entries with the highest score will be deemed potential winners.  In the event of a tie, an additional tie-breaking judge will determine the potential winner(s) based on the judging criteria. Sponsor reserves the right to select fewer than six (6) potential winners in the event that Sponsor does not receive a sufficient number of eligible Entries. The decisions of the judges are final and binding.

Contest Prizes and Collection

Prizes will be awarded to the Nominees who are profiled in winning Entries Contest submissions, not the Entrant/Nominator who submit Entries. The Entrant/Nominator shall receive no prize money or other award under this Contest. 

Prizes for Nominees are as follows:

Each of the six (6) winners - $1,000 awarded in the form of a check

Total value of all prizes= up to $6,000

Sponsor will work with winning Entrants/Nominators and their nominees (Prize Winners) to manage prize delivery. Entrants/Nominators will be notified via email within fourteen (14) days following the end of the judging period. During this time, Entrants/Nominators are required to provide current and active contact information for their Prize Winners. Sponsor will then contact potential Prize Winners using the contact information provided by the Entrants/Nominators who nominated them. Entrants/Nominators and Prize Winners may be required to complete and sign an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability and Publicity Release (unless prohibited by law) and any other documents or tax forms required by Sponsor, which must be returned within ten (10) days of date appearing on notification. If any notification or prize is returned as undeliverable, if Sponsor is unable to contact Entrants/Nominators or Prize Winner within a reasonable time period, or if no response is received within the specified prize claim deadline, Sponsor may award the prize to the next highest scoring Entry or chose not to award the prize at all. Prize Winners may not substitute, assign, or transfer any prize, but Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to substitute any prize with one of comparable or greater value. If Nominee is unable or unwilling to accept Nominee’s prize, Sponsor will award it to an alternate potential Prize Winner or chose not to award the prize at all. If Nominee accepts a prize, Nominee will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting the prize.

Odds of Winning

The odds of winning each prize depend on number of eligible Entries received.

Other Conditions:

By entering this Contest or accepting any prize, Nominator/Entrant and Nominee agree: (a) to abide by these Official Rules and decisions of Sponsor and judges, which shall be final and binding in all respects relating to this Contest; (b) to release, discharge, indemnify and hold harmless Sponsor, and all of its respective affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotion agencies, law firms, and service providers, and the respective officers, directors, shareholders, members, employees, agents and representatives of the forgoing (collectively, “Released Parties”) from any and all injuries, liability, losses and damages of any kind to persons, including death, or property resulting, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from Nominator/Entrant’s or Nominee’s participation in the Contest or any Contest-related activity or the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any prize; and (c) to the use of Nominator/Entrant’s or Nominee’s name, Entry, photograph, image or likeness for any commercial or non-commercial purposes including, without limitation, programming, advertising, and publicity, in any and all media, now or hereafter known, worldwide and on the Internet, and in perpetuity by Sponsor and its designees, without compensation (unless prohibited by law) or additional consents and without prior notice, approval or inspection. Nominator/Entrant and Nominee agree to execute specific consent to such use if asked to do so. Released Parties are not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, illegible, damaged, inaccurate, stolen, delayed, misdirected, undelivered, or garbled Entries; or for lost, interrupted or unavailable network, server, Internet Service Provider (ISP), website, or other connections, availability or accessibility or miscommunications or failed computer, satellite, telephone or cable transmissions, lines, or technical failure or jumbled, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions or computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties, or other errors or difficulties of any kind whether human, mechanical, electronic, computer, network, typographical, printing or otherwise relating to or in connection with the Contest, including, without limitation, errors or difficulties which may occur in connection with the administration of the Contest, the processing or judging of Entries, the announcement of the prizes, the incorrect uploading of an Entry in any Contest-related materials. Released Parties are also not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by site users, tampering, hacking, or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Contest. Released Parties are not responsible for injury or damage to any person's computer related to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading materials from or use of the website.  Persons who tamper with or abuse any aspect of the Contest or website, who act in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner or who are in violation of these Official Rules, as solely determined by Sponsor, will be disqualified and all associated Entries will be void. Should any portion of the Contest be, in Sponsor’s sole opinion, compromised by virus, worms, bugs, nonauthorized human intervention or other causes which, in the sole opinion of the Sponsor, corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness or proper play, or submission of Entries, or in the event the Contest is unable to run as planned for any other reason, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to suspend, modify or terminate the Contest and, if terminated, at its discretion, select the potential winners from all eligible, non-suspect Entries received prior to action taken using the judging criteria outlined above. Should multiple users of the same e-mail account enter the Contest and a dispute arises regarding the identity of the entrant, the authorized account subscriber of said e-mail account at the time of Entry will be considered the entrant and must comply with these Official Rules. “Authorized account subscriber” is defined as the natural person who is assigned an e-mail address by an Internet access provider, on-line service provider or other organization, which is responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address.  All rights and obligations of Nominator/Entrant and Nominee in connection with the Contest shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of Ohio, without giving effect to the conflict of laws rules thereof.

CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE THE WEBSITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES AND OTHER REMEDIES (INCLUDING ATTORNEYS’ FEES) FROM ANY SUCH INDIVIDUAL TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, INCLUDING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.