function checkContactForm(form) {
	
	// validate first name--------------------------------------------------------
	if(form.contact_first_name.value == '' || form.contact_last_name.value == '' || form.contact_email.value == ''
		|| form.contact_email_repeat.value == '' || form.contact_message.value == '') { 
		alert("You have not entered all the required information.");
		//form.contact_first_name.focus();
		return false;
	} 
	// regular expression to match only alphanumeric characters and spaces 
	var re = /^[\w . @ ]+$/; 
	// validation fails if the input doesn't match our regular expression 
	if(!re.test(form.contact_first_name.value) || !re.test(form.contact_last_name.value)
		|| !re.test(form.contact_email.value) || !re.test(form.contact_email_repeat.value)
		|| !re.test(form.contact_phone.value) || !re.test(form.contact_message.value)) { 
		alert("Error: Input contains invalid characters!");
		//form.contact_first_name.focus();
		return false;
	} 
	
	if(form.contact_email.value != form.contact_email_repeat.value){
		alert("The email address do not match!");
		return false;
	}
	
	// validation was successful
	return true;
}