Vote for Tacoma's Shoe Crew

File it under the category of “better late than never,” but we just caught wind of a cool project going on at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma. And they need your help to win.

Artistic students at FP are competing in a contest sponsored by Vans shoes. They aren’t competing to win sweet kicks for their own personal shoe collections, though. Instead, these high school students are competing for funding for their school’s art program. $50,000 worth of funding, in fact.

The national Vans Custom Culture shoe design contest, in which Franklin Pierce students have competed (and placed in the top five) for the last two years, asks students to develop creative designs for the brand’s signature sneakers. The grand prize is $50,000, and runners-up get $4,000.

This is where you come in – they need your votes to win. Visit “www.vans.com/customculture/vote”:http://www.vans.com/customculture/vote/, and look for Franklin Pierce High School under the Northwest schools list to see their shoes and cast your vote for the Tacoma high school.

To learn more about the contest and the Franklin Pierce students competing, see the story from “King 5”: http://www.king5.com/news/local/Franklin-Pierce-Highs-Shoe-Crew-finalists-in-Vans-shoe-design-contest-149174845.html.

VOTE NOW.