If they get enough votes, the Decker family of Orem may be touring 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic sites this August, courtesy of China's Olympic Committee.

Karen Decker and her two sisters, one in Highland and one in Idaho Falls, Idaho, are feverishly entering votes daily online at the Beijing Olympics Web site (family.beijing2008.cn) in their bids to win the free trip.

On June 1, a total of 12,679 registered families from 62 countries were narrowed down to 50 Chinese and 50 foreign families, according to the official Web site.

The five Chinese and non-Chinese families with the most online votes by June 30 win a free tour of China's Olympic cities Aug. 8-16, a year before the Beijing Games begin.

As of the last count, Decker and her sister's families were still in the top five contestant families outside of China and the Deckers themselves had tallied over 64,000 votes since April.

"It's tough," she said. "It's tough to stay on top."

Online voters can cast one vote per minute and can vote for more than one family with each e-ballot cast. Each family competing for the trip routinely posts new stories and family photos on the Web site for voters to view.

"Every time I vote for us, I vote for my sisters," Decker said, and vice versa.

To get the maximum number of votes in the shortest amount of time, Decker and her sister Nani Bertola of Highland have enlisted the help of their children, extended family and friends. The Bertola's have set up a virtual media center of 10 computers with different ISP addresses in their home, and Decker's daughters Andi, 17, and Amanda, 14, make almost daily trips to their cousins for voting parties.

"We're there five hours constantly voting," Amanda Decker said. "It's like an all-week thing."

The Decker family loves the Olympics, particularly the Winter Games, and though they'd love to win the trip to China, there's another reason it would mean more than simply a vacation.

Several years ago, Amanda Decker's best friend's family, the Cassanis, adopted three children from China and Amanda often babysat the kids. She would teach them English words and she, in turn, would glean some Chinese 101 from them.

Each year the Cassanis return to China so that their adopted children retain a portion of their heritage. They always bring back something for Amanda.

"They all had outfits and huge fans and really cool decoration stuff," she said.

Karen Decker said Amanda has wanted to travel to China for years, but the family simply couldn't afford it.

"That's why we started doing this," she said. "Part of the contest is about dreams, and that's her dream."

She's hoping sister Nani Bertola's knack for winning contests will give all three families a little luck.

"Nani is notorious for winning things," Karen Decker said.

In the end, a panel of Beijing Olympic Committee contest judges will tally the votes, evaluate the stories and photos and pick the five Chinese and foreign winners, she said.

If they win the trip, the Deckers hope to see historic and Olympic sites, but there's another location that holds a special significance to the family.

There's a fountain in the Beijing area where parents who can't care for their children and abandon them. Decker said it's the same fountain where the Cassanis' adopted children were found and placed in an orphanage.

Like any typical teenager, Amanda has her own short list of tour stops she hopes to tour if the Deckers win.

"The Great Wall, and I'm definitely going to go shopping as much as I can," she said. "And, plus, the Olympic stuff will be really cool."

To vote for the Deckers, log on to family.beijing2008.cn/en/list_1.html, put a check mark next to DreamBeijing, the Decker's contest moniker, enter a provided verification code and click vote.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.