Verizon Wireless Announces Donation To Lincoln's Friendship Home In Nebraska

LINCOLN, NE — Verizon Wireless today presented Friendship Home with a $5,000 donation. Friendship Home is a domestic violence agency that provides 24-hour emergency shelter as well as transitional housing and programs for battered women and their children in the Lincoln area.

“We are very grateful for this generous donation from Verizon Wireless,” said Amy Evan, executive director of Friendship Home. “The donation will be used for emergency shelter services. Most women enter the shelter with few belongings and often little to no access to their homes. Friendship Home provides all services, utilizing a strength-based interventions model which empowers battered women and their children to become survivors.”

The donation is the result of a recent Verizon Wireless Golf Scramble and a matching grant from Verizon Wireless’ HopeLine® program. Through its award-winning HopeLine program, Verizon Wireless collects wireless phones and accessories from any wireless provider. Phones donated to HopeLine that can be refurbished are sold for reuse, and those without value are recycled in an environmentally sound way under a zero landfill policy. Since the October 2001 launch of the HopeLine program, Verizon Wireless has collected more than 7 million phones and has distributed more than 90,000 phones with free wireless service to victims of domestic violence. In addition, more than $7.9 million cash grants have been awarded to organizations working to prevent domestic violence.

“Verizon Wireless has a long-standing commitment to help victims of domestic violence and their families,” said Seamus Hyland, president-Great Plains Region, Verizon Wireless. “We would like to thank our employees at the Lincoln Customer Service Center, staff members from Friendship Home and members of the community who made our golf outing such a success.”

Verizon Wireless also has committed to making an additional donation of $5,000 to Friendship Home’s Safe Quarters program, a community-wide effort to collect financial contributions for women and children seeking refuge from violence. The culmination of the Safe Quarters program is a one-day effort on Oct. 10, 2010, during which volunteer teams canvass the city of Lincoln to request support. Last year, the program raised $99,000.

For more information about Friendship Home, visit www.friendshiphome.org. For additional information about the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program and store locations, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.  

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving more than 92 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 79,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: 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.

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