When it comes to the Pepsi Refresh contest story, it’s a tale of two metro dailies.

In Erie, the Times-News chats cheerily about the power of social media and how the Kanzius Cancer Research Fund has very effectively leveraged Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about voting for the fund globally. The Blackberry-wielding concertgoers in Manhattan, the FDNY firefighters, the blogs, the tweets all contributing to the vote totals.

In St. Louis, about an hour south of the Benld, IL school that is in the middle of a slow-implode due to abandoned coal mines beneath its foundation, the Post Dispatch’s coverage is full of words like “cheaters,” “hurtful,”  and “desperate.”

In the stltoday.com post, Ben-Gil Boosters supporter Mark Cunningham accuses some Kanzius supporters and those of some other causes of playing the system:

“We have worked our tails off all month long by voting and promoting, and many of us are really ticked off about getting rolled over by a couple of cheaters,” said Benld parent Mark Cunningham. He said those gathering votes for Kanzius and other causes are asking supporters to set up 100 or so e-mail addresses and to vote from each daily. The rules of the contest say that “you may vote up to 10 times per account per day, but each vote must be for different projects.” Cunningham also said the comments left on the site bashing Benld and other proposals are inappropriate.

Other supporters of Ben-Gil are more reserved in their accusations in the article, but all quoted, including Kanzius Foundation director Mark Neidig, voiced dismay at where the level of discourse went in the comments on the Pepsi website. Efforts to reach Mr. Cunningham on Facebook were unsuccessful. UPDATE: Read Mr. Cunningham’s response here.

I’m thinking that the Ben-Gil parents ran into the total Erie media onslaught behind the Kanzius effort and didn’t know what hit them; and the Post-Dispatch reporter somewhat bears it out. In fact, I did about an hour-long search last night for news related to individual causes in the Pepsi contest and there has been nowhere near the local coverage that the Kanzius effort received here in Erie.

For that Erie media should be proud. Meanwhile, whether it is to support cancer research, or get kids back into a healthy school environment, let’s remember that hope and encouragement trumps negativity and cynicism every time.