Once upon a time, in the land of books and publishing, Harlequin asked readers, authors and fans to help choose the recipients for the 2012 Harlequin More Than Words award—a program that recognizes and rewards women making extraordinary contributions to their community. The story continues when the winning recipients are paired up with Harlequin authors and the recipients’ journeys become the inspiration for three fictional short stories.

After more than 111,000 online votes and 7,800 Facebook shares, the 2012 recipients of the eighth annual Harlequin More Than Words award are Mindy Atwood of Hilliard, Ohio, who runs Patches of Light, a nonprofit organization where anonymous angels pay the rent for parents of desperately ill children; Helen McGovern of Tacoma, Washington, who oversees Emergency Food Network, which distributes food to 67 food banks, meal sites and shelters, including those with health restrictions; and Sally Spencer of Toronto, Ontario, who manages a mentoring program that rescues at-risk children.

“We are thrilled that our readers and fans have voted for such deserving and diverse causes and the heroic women who champion them,” said Donna Hayes, Publisher and CEO of Harlequin.

This year was the first time the public was invited to vote to determine the award recipients.  By visiting www.HarlequinMoreThanWords.com, voters selected their favorite nominee from a list of five finalists.  The three nominees with the highest amount of votes were chosen as the 2012 Harlequin More Than Words award recipients.  The voting phase was open for four weeks, from October 7, 2011 to November 11, 2011.

Since 2004—the inception of the program—an internal Harlequin employee committee has selected the winners of the Harlequin More Than Words award from written submissions, which were judged on specific criteria, including capacity to inspire others and contribution to the community.

The initiative is Harlequin’s corporate social responsibility program that is dedicated to celebrating the women who make a positive difference in the lives of others. Each of the honorees will receive $15,000 for her charity, equaling a total contribution by Harlequin of $45,000. Three of Harlequin’s authors also donate their time and talent to write short stories inspired by the life and work of the recipients.  The short stories will be available in 2013 in ebook format to download at no cost.

PATCHES OF LIGHT, a nonprofit organization that helps families of critically ill children by anonymously covering expenses to make it possible for parents to stay at their child’s bedside, was almost out of funds for the 30 families currently awaiting assistance. Mindy Atwood, who founded the organization after two of her four sons faced life-threatening pediatric cancer and open-heart surgery, is delighted that she can once again provide assistance.  In eleven years PATCHES OF LIGHT has assisted almost 10,000 people. “Our mission is to bring a patch of light to families during the darkness of their child’s illness. Winning this award has brought me my own patch of light and reinforced the importance of our work,” Mindy said.

Emergency Food Network (EFN) has been covering a growing demand for food in an awful economy, including food for people with dietary health restrictions. Executive Director Helen McGovern is thrilled that this nonprofit distributor serving more than 67 food banks, meal sites and shelters in Pierce County, Washington, can continue to feed its neighbors. “It is an honor to have been chosen by a successful and admired organization like Harlequin to participate in this experience.  We are so grateful for the donation being made to Emergency Food Network to purchase food during this most difficult time,” Helen said.

Youth Assisting Youth (YAY), a peer-mentoring program for at-risk children, encourages children to stay in school and helps keep them on a positive trajectory. YAY has reached nearly 30,000 children ages 6 to 15 since 1976 by assigning a positive, trained mentor between the ages of 16 and 29. CEO Sally Spencer will use the funds from this award to directly support YAY’s One-to-One Peer Mentoring and Group Mentoring programs. “I am honored and humbled at being one of the recipients of the 2012 Harlequin More Than Words award.  It is overwhelming to think about how many thousands of people supported me throughout this amazing and inspiring journey.  And being the only Canadian winner makes it so very special.  Thanks to all of the incredible support that I received, the kids at Youth Assisting Youth will be the ultimate beneficiaries and the true winners.  Thank you again to Harlequin and everyone who made this possible,” Sally said.
About Harlequin  Harlequin is one of the world’s leading publishers of books for women, with titles issued worldwide in 31 languages and sold in 111 international markets. The company publishes more than 110 titles monthly and more than 1,200 authors from around the world. Harlequin is a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation, a broadly based media company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TS.B). Harlequin’s website is located at Harlequin.com. Harlequin has offices in 19 countries, including offices in Toronto, New York and London. For more information, please visit www.Harlequin.com.

At the end of year, Emergency Food Network (EFN) Director Helen McGovern looked at EFN’s food distribution numbers and was able to quantify the state of the emergency food system in 2011. Our emergency food system had surpassed its 2010 total by more than 2 million pounds. For all of 2011, area food programs had distributed 19,396,885 pounds of food. That translates to 15,517,664 meals, more than 1 million more meals than the prior year. Emergency Food Network provides 80% of Pierce County’s emergency food.

The demand continues to increase, and EFN continues to keep pace with the demand. “We are ending the year at EFN with hope, as we faced the largest challenges we have encountered in the near 30 years of Emergency Food Network,” says McGovern.

Area food programs see an average of 147,000 visitors each month. Demand for emergency food in our community increased 43% from 2008 to 2010, and then grew an additional 6% this year. Total visits to food banks, meal sites and shelters topped 1,285,000 visits, an increase of 74,000 over 2010.

EFN distributes nutritious, staple food to 67 food banks, shelters, and hot meal sites in Pierce County. They do this through a combination of sources, including purchased food, food donated from grocery stores and food distributors, food received from food drives, fruits and vegetables gleaned from residential gardens and area farms, and food grown at EFN’s 8-acre organic Mother Earth Farm, which produced 160,000 pounds of fruits and veggies in 2011, distributed to food banks on the day of harvest. Eighty percent of all food in the county makes its way through EFN’s 22,000 square-foot warehouse in Lakewood.

Keeping the emergency food system running is an endeavor accomplished through the help of thousands of donors and volunteers. This year, the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs foundation contributed $100,000 to help EFN purchase food. The Gary E. Milgard Foundation granted EFN $75,000 to support warehouse operations, and the Washington Women’s Foundation contributed $50,000 towards food purchase. EFN’s Abundance charity auction raised over $200,000 for the organization and the Pierce County Hunger Walk raised an additional $130,000. EFN received $100,000 from the Murdoch Charitable Trust to help replace its roof, along with $50,000 from the Puyallup Tribe and $50,000 from an anonymous donor to help with roof construction. EFN also receives funding totaling more than $400,000 from the federal government, the State of Washington, the City of Tacoma, the City of Lakewood, and Pierce County.

Emergency Food Network received an infusion of holiday funding from numerous local foundations at the close of 2011. EFN counts on personal donations that tend to arrive in greater quantity close to the winter holidays. Many businesses and community groups collect funds and food for EFN at this time of year. Widows of the four fallen officers in Lakewood worked with the Lakewood Police Department to raise over $40,000 and more than 40,000 pounds of food during the 2^nd annual Fallen Officers Food Drive. The Pierce County Transportation Club collected $23,000 for EFN at their holiday luncheon. The Ben B. Cheney Foundation contributed $7,500 towards the purchase holiday-oriented foods such as whole chickens and traditional side dishes as well other staple food items that EFN regularly distributes to feeding programs throughout Pierce County. The organization partners with Northwest Harvest and Coastal Harvest to find the best deals by the truckload.

Emergency Food Network received other gifts around the holidays, including $25,000 from the Walmart Foundation, $10,000 from the Safeco Insurance Foundation, and $5,000 from the William Kilworth Foundation. EFN also received $10,000 from the Hendrix Foundation and $5,000 from Quadrant Homes for Mother Earth Farm. And infusion of personal donations helped a great deal too as many people sent in checks and online donations as 2012 approached.

A decline in food donations from regional distributors places a strain on EFN’s resourcing program, necessitating a recent emphasis on purchasing staple foods that local food banks can count on throughout the year. A significant portion of end-of-the-year gifts to EFN go towards purchasing shipments of 8 staple nutritious items that EFN offers food banks and meal sites in quarterly installments throughout the year. By serving as a reliable source for beans, vegetables, fruit, protein items such as ground turkey, oats, pasta, rice, and soup, the entire emergency food system inPierceCountybenefits from the stability offered. Food programs can then build around the staple shipments, augmenting these eight items with other food.

The organization’s increased emphasis on Food Purchasing capitalizes on EFN’s ability to leverage purchasing power to distribute $12 worth of food for every $1 donated. The organization’s overhead is less than 4%.

McGovern stressed that food insecurity does not fade after the holidays and that there are opportunities to volunteer time and contribute financial support throughout the year. “Individuals, corporations and foundations stepped forward to join us in the fight against hunger. We have hope in our hearts that the need does not continue to grow however we now know that our partners are there to make sure no one in Pierce County goes hungry. We are very grateful for all our partnerships.”

For information about the Emergency Food Network, to donate, or to learn about volunteer opportunities, visit www.efoodnet.org