Nearly 8,000 Wireless Phones Collected During How Sweet The Sound Tour To Be Turned Into Support For Domestic Violence Victims

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — In 11 cities from coast to coast, participating choirs and attendees of the second annual Verizon Wireless How Sweet the Sound™ competition donated no-longer-used wireless phones to the company’s HopeLine® program to benefit domestic violence victims. In recognition of these donations, Verizon Wireless presented the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) with $25,000 to support its Women of Color Leadership Initiative during the tour’s finale concert held Saturday night in Detroit.

The NNEDV is a membership and advocacy organization of state domestic violence coalitions and allied organizations representing approximately 3,000 groups nationwide. The NNEDV will use the $25,000 donation to further its Women of Color Leadership Initiative, which works to ensure that representatives from minority or marginalized communities are actively engaged in program and policy development and helps women of color become leaders in domestic violence awareness from a national, state and local standpoint.

“We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Verizon Wireless for its longstanding support and its commitment to ending domestic abuse,” said Sue Else, president of the NNEDV. “The economic downturn is exacerbating domestic violence, and Verizon Wireless is stepping up to the plate and doing something about it.”

In addition to the donation to NNEDV, the artwork displayed in each city on the How Sweet the Sound Tour is being given to local domestic violence agencies. The fine art pieces reflect local artists’ interpretation of the competition in their home cities.

The $25,000 donation is the result of choirs and concert attendees donating nearly 8,000 old wireless phones. Choirs held HopeLine drives in their communities, then brought the phones to the competition sites to donate to Verizon Wireless’ well-established program. Verizon Wireless presented the choir that donated the most wireless phones in each city with $1,000 in cash. The top collecting choirs were:

• Washington, D.C. – The Remnant Concert Choir from Mt. Ararat Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.)
• Oakland, CA – Angelic Voices of Deliverance Center Choir from East Oakland Faith Deliverance Center (Oakland, CA)
• St. Louis, MO – Metropolitan Inspirational Mass Choir from Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church (Jennings, MO)
• Newark, NJ – The Cathedral Choir of Grace from Grace Baptist Church (Mt. Vernon, NY)
• Philadelphia, PA – Voices of Canaan from Canaan Baptist Church (Philadelphia, PA)
• Detroit, MI – The Bread House Choir from Bethlehem Temple Church “The Bread House” (Lansing, MI)
• Chicago, IL – Voices of Faith Sanctuary Choir from Faith Temple C.O.G.I.C. (Evanston, IL)
• Atlanta, GA – The Rose of Sharon International Choir from The Way, the Truth, and the Life Christian Center Inc. (Decatur, GA)
• Memphis, TN – Good Hope Church Sanctuary from Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church (Stanton, TN)
• Los Angeles, CA – Mt. Rubidoux Seventh-Day Adventist Church Choir from Mt. Rubidoux Seventh-Day Adventist Church (Riverside, CA)
• Houston, TX – Royalwood Sanctuary Choir from United Pentecostal Church, Inc. (Houston, TX)

The almost 8,000 phones given to HopeLine during the How Sweet the Sound competition, like all phones donated to HopeLine, will be refurbished for reuse or recycled in an environmentally sound way. Funds raised from the refurbished phones are used to donate wireless phones with airtime to victims and provide cash grants to local non-profit domestic violence agencies.

For additional information about HopeLine or to learn how to donate a phone, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline. For details about the How Sweet the Sound finale, visit www.howsweetthesound.com.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving 89 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 85,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

About NNEDV
The National Network to End Domestic Violence Fund (NNEDV) is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing public education, training and technical assistance to maintain and develop the professional expertise of advocates working to end domestic violence. NNEDV strives to strengthen advocates as organizers and activists in the tradition of social change movements. For more information, please visit www.nnedv.org.

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