New Yorker Wins $50,000 In Examiner.com's America Inspired Contest

DENVER, Feb. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Examiner.com, one of the nation's leading online publishers featuring local expertise from over 85,000 contributors (called Examiners), today announced Hideki Kinoshita as the Grand Prize winner of its America Inspired contest. Kinoshita, also known as Kino, has won the $50,000 cash prize award for his extraordinary work and inspiration throughout his community. Running Examiner Kimberly Bogin nominated Kino for the America Inspired contest.

Kino has used his passion for running to answer his calling of giving back. He ran 63 marathons and 10 ultra-marathons, including three 100-mile races and three 24-hour runs – all in the span of 39 months. Kino runs to raise money for charities that have a personal meaning to him, including the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCan), as Kino lost two loved ones to pancreatic cancer, and the World Trade Center Health Program, as he is native New Yorker. So far, Kino has raised $53,000 for these charities and in addition, has donated over $5,000 of his own money. Furthermore, Kino has pledged to raise over $50,000 for charities by running 26 100-mile races in 2013.

"We were incredibly moved to hear about the work and good deeds of so many people across the U.S.," said Ashish Kapur, COO, Examiner.com.  "Since we opened this contest, we received close to 1,000 nominations from our Examiners, who are in the local communities and were able to surface these unsung heroes in their communities across the country.  The America Inspired contest was a great way for us to honor those who have had a positive influence on their communities without expecting anything in return."

The competition set out to spotlight people in communities across America who inspire others across five categories including: leadership, sacrifice, overcoming adversity, passion and outstanding youth. Examiner.com contributors (Examiners) nominated almost 1,000 unique individuals from communities across the U.S. who inspire them and other local individuals each day.

The Examiner.com editorial team and advisory board, comprised of respected veteran journalists, chose 25 finalists for the contest. Public voting for America Inspired occurred from January 9, 2012 through January 27, 2012 to select the winner and runners up.

Kinoshita represented the passion category. The majority of Examiner.com readers voted for him over the 24 other finalists – to award him the grand prize. Additionally, four runners-up will each receive $10,000 for their inspirational work through leadership, sacrifice, overcoming adversity, and being an outstanding youth.

•         Cari Meyers, Leadership
•         Anthony D'Urso, Sacrifice
•         Sabrina Cohen, Overcoming Adversity
•         Sean Young, Outstanding Youth

About Examiner.com
Examiner.com is an enterprise-quality publishing and community platform where independent, self-motivated contributors write on topics that matter to them and share content at scale for audiences around the world. A leading content provider with more than 20 million unique monthly visitors, Examiner.com offers high-quality, relevant content from 85,000 contributors. The Examiner.com team and review board curates a rich content library of 2.5 million articles, with 2,300 original pieces of content added every day. Examiner.com is a division of the Clarity Digital Group, LLC, wholly owned by The Anschutz Company, one of the largest sports and entertainment companies in the world.

SOURCE Examiner.com