Bobbi-Jo LeClair was an active teenager until she suffered serious injuries in a car accident. (CBC)

The hopes of a western P.E.I. family were dashed Wednesday when they failed to win an Aviva Community Fund award despite earning the most online votes.

The LeClair family of Tignish was looking for $150,000 to build a new wheelchair accessible house so they could bring their daughter home from hospital.

Seventeen-year-old Bobbi-Jo LeClair was seriously injured in a car crash a year ago and has been in hospital most of the time since then.

The LeClairs got the most on-line votes of any of the 30 finalists, but the panel of judges did not pick them as one of the dozen winners.

Glenn Cooper of Aviva Canada said the voting is only one of the criteria in the judges' final decision

"I've been talking about the Aviva community fund all day today and I'm looking on Facebook and seeing some quite disappointed people from the P.E.I. area that are very disappointed in us," said Cooper.

"I'm sorry to see that. We were very happy to award 12 great ideas with funding and unfortunately that did mean there are 18 that didn't and [I] hope they can continue and secure funding in other ways."

Some of the other criteria the judges consider are the number of people impacted and originality of the proposal.

Amongst the projects that did receive money were equipment for a soup kitchen in Kamloops, B.C., an accessible playground in Elmira, Ont., and a gym designed for seniors in Dundas, Ont.

Cooper said Aviva Canada will review its criteria for next year to see if they should include personal causes in the competition, such as the LeClair family's submission.