How Sweet The Sound Names Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Philadelphia's Best Church Choir

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Verizon Wireless announced Mount Pleasant Baptist Church as the Overall Winner of the Philadelphia-area semi-final round of How Sweet The Sound(SM), the search for the nation’s best church choir. As an added highlight of the evening, multiple GRAMMY®, Stellar and Dove award-winning artist CeCe Winans performed with the winning choir. The Philadelphia semi-finalist winners include:

• V CAST People’s Choice Award: The Lord’s House Ministries
• Small Category Winner: Mount Pleasant Baptist Church
• Large Category Winner: The Lord’s House Ministries

Philadelphia marks the mid-point of the 11-market tour, which culminates in Atlanta on Nov. 8. Mount Pleasant Baptist Church now joins other regional winners – New Sunny Mount Missionary Baptist Church (St. Louis), Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Atlanta), Grace Baptist Church (Newark, N.J.), Burning Bush International Ministries (Detroit) – and choirs to be named as they compete in the grand finale for a cash prize of up to $30,000 and the title of the best church choir in America.

GRAMMY-winning songwriter, producer, arranger and music director, Donald Lawrence, serves as tour emcee and, at the finale, he will be joined by Marvin Sapp, Hezekiah Walker and other guest celebrity judges.

Verizon Wireless’ How Sweet The Sound tour continues in the following U.S. cities:

• September 26: Washington, D.C. (Verizon Center)
• September 29: Chicago (United Center)
• October 2: Memphis, Tenn. (FedExForum)
• October 6: Houston (Toyota Center)
• October 10: Oakland, Calif. (ORACLE Arena)
• October 13: Los Angeles (LA Memorial Sports Arena)
• November 8: How Sweet The Sound Finale Concert in Atlanta

Tickets can be purchased via Ticket Master or the venue Box Office and are $7 for floor seats and $5 for upper level seats.

Music fans planning to watch their favorite choirs compete during this event are encouraged to bring their no-longer-used wireless phones and donate them to the Verizon Wireless HopeLine® program. Phones will be collected at booths set up at different locations throughout the concert venues.

HopeLine is Verizon Wireless’ exclusive phone recycling and reuse program that collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any wireless service provider to benefit victims of domestic violence. Proceeds from the HopeLine program are used to provide wireless phones and cash grants to local shelters and non-profit organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention and awareness. Since 2001, HopeLine has collected more than 5 million phones and awarded more than $5 million in cash grants to domestic violence agencies and organizations throughout the country.

Those who cannot make it to the show can drop off their used wireless phones, batteries and accessories at any Verizon Wireless Communications Store at any time of the year.

For more information about Verizon Wireless and the HopeLine program, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.

About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 68.7 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 70,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, go to: 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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