Iron Mountain, Michigan, Area Domestic Violence Survivors Benefit From Verizon Wireless Grant

IRON MOUNTAIN, MI — Domestic violence survivors and their children in Dickenson County will benefit from a $1,500 donation made by Verizon Wireless to Caring House, one of the area’s leading domestic violence prevention and education centers.

According to the Michigan Department of State Police, there were 101,388 domestic violence victims in Michigan in 2007. The HopeLine® from Verizon grant will help fund support services provided by Caring House, which serves the greater Iron Mountain community.

“Domestic violence is a pervasive and often silent issue that affects more than 30 percent of American women during their lifetime,” said Roger Hendrickson, manger-retail sales of the Verizon Wireless Communications Store at 1102 S. Stephenson Ave. in Iron Mountain, Mich., in presenting the check to Caring House. “Verizon Wireless recognizes the role we can play in helping organizations like Caring House work to put an end to this destructive force and to provide assistance to victims of domestic abuse.”

“Verizon Wireless is a valued community partner,” said Marti Swisher from Caring House. “This grant is an investment in our efforts to break the cycle of domestic violence in our community. The funding will help us sustain programs which are critical to our efforts to raise awareness of the issue.”

The $1,500 gift was made possible by the HopeLine from Verizon program, which converts no-longer-used wireless phones into support for survivors of domestic violence.

In addition to the monetary donation, Verizon Wireless also donated 20 refurbished wireless phones to the organization, each with 3,000 minutes of free airtime, to be used by survivors in times of emergency and as they go through the life-rebuilding process.

Since HopeLine’s national phone recycling and reuse program was launched in 2001, Verizon Wireless has collected more than seven million phones, distributed more than 90,000 phones with the equivalent of more than 300 million minutes of free wireless service to be used by domestic violence survivors and awarded more than $7.9 million in cash grants to domestic violence agencies and organizations throughout the country.

HopeLine wireless phone donations are accepted at all Verizon Wireless Communications Stores across the nation, including the Iron Mountain location. Phones given to the HopeLine program are refurbished and resold for reuse or disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

For more information on the HopeLine program, 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 93 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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