ALPENA –Residents of the area have less than a week to vote for their favorite video in the Alpena Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s 2020 Fresh Takes video contest.

The winning video will be used by the CVB to help market and promote the Alpena area and help to attract tourists from well outside Northeast Michigan.

Mary Beth Stutzman, CVB president, said entries in this year’s contest are on the Alpena: Sanctuary of the Great Lakes Facebook page, where people can watch, judge, and vote for their favorite, which will be awarded the People’s Choice Award.

An independent panel from outside the CVB will also judge the videos and determine the first-, second-, and third-place winners.

Stutzman said this is the fourth year for the event, and it has increased in popularity and the quality of the videos has also improved.

She said the goal of the videos is to give people who watch them a sense of what Alpena is about.

“It is a way for us to showcase some of our amateur videographers and filmmakers in the area and give them a platform to show off their work,” Stutzman said. “They film videos that consist of their own interpretation of Alpena, as it fits with our branding and the character of our community.”

Stutzman encouraged people to not only go online to watch and vote on the videos, but to share them, as well, so more people can participate.

She said voting will end at noon Monday and the winners will be announced at a special event at the B Royal Movie Theater inside Bob’s Bullpen in downtown Alpena from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

“It is a free event, and we want the public to see the videos and be there for the announcement of the winners,” she said. “The videos are fantastic, and I think people will really enjoy them.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.