Happy 2009 everyone!

It's been quite a year for IWON! With the launch of our new site this past October, we've had a lot of fun and exciting times. In this last year, we added new IWON profiles, chat rooms, lots of cool new games, and of course, our proudest accomplishment to date - IWON's Team Challenge! I've seen this program grow from a small, friendly contest to a massive, fierce competition featuring teams that are dedicated to helping their favorite causes. It's been great getting to know some of our Team Challenge members, and I look forward to watching the action continue in 2009!

That said, I'd like to congratulate all our Team Challenge participants for contributing to a program that now in its fourth month, has donated nearly $100,000 to local and national charitable organizations.

And now, the news you've been waiting for - who scored top honors this month! Congratulations to our three National Charity Team winners!

First Place - $10,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Second Place - $2,000 to Best Friends Animal Society
Third Place - $1,000 to Susan G. Komen Foundation

And congratulations to our Member-Created Team winners!

First Place - $10,000 to Wounded Warriors
Second Place - $2,000 to Bell Ringers - Salvation Army
Third Place - $1,000 to Common Cents

I'd also like to announce our second place team which was never finalized in November. Congratulations to Tiger's Against Diabetes! They picked up another $2,000 for the American Diabetes Association. Incredible

Thank you all for your support this past year - you all made Team Challenge a huge success! We have another exciting year ahead of us, and I hope you are as psyched as I am to kick off the New Year with another batch of Team Challenge winners! So keep your spirits high and continue recruiting your friends and family to Team Challenge and hopefully, we'll see you in the Winner's Circle next month!

Good luck!

-Marie