Time Warner Honors Employees' Outstanding Volunteer Achievements with 31st Annual Heiskell Community Service Awards

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Time Warner Inc. today announced the recipients of its 31^st annual Heiskell Community Service Awards. Named for Andrew Heiskell, the legendary publishing executive and late former Chairman and CEO of Time Inc., the awards represent Time Warner’s highest honor for employees.

“I am once again proud of the selfless, passionate and creative efforts of this year’s recipients to help make a difference in the lives of others and in the communities in which we do business.”

This year, Time Warner presented awards to six individuals and two teams for their outstanding community and public service contributions. The recipients were recognized today at a ceremony at the Time Warner Center in New York City.

“For more than 30 years Time Warner has celebrated the character and volunteer spirit of our employees with the Heiskell Awards,” said Jeff Bewkes, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc. “I am once again proud of the selfless, passionate and creative efforts of this year’s recipients to help make a difference in the lives of others and in the communities in which we do business.”

Each Heiskell Community Service Award recipient receives a $3,000 donation to the nonprofit organization or organizations of his or her choice and a personal honorarium of $2,000. For the Team Awards, Time Warner makes a $10,000 donation to the nonprofit organization of the team’s choice.

The 2012 Heiskell award recipients, who were nominated by their colleagues and chosen from Time Warner's approximately 34,000 employees worldwide, are profiled below.

Individual Awards

Cindy Weber Cleary, Fashion Director, InStyle Magazine, who co-founded Promise Project, an organization dedicated to providing the proper educational resources to children with learning disabilities from lower income families. Cindy, whose son has a learning disability, realized that less fortunate families couldn’t afford the high cost of these additional resources. Inspired to make a change, Cindy joined the Advisory Board of the Center for Attention and Learning at Lennox Hill Hospital. She then co-founded Promise Project in 2010 and created a partnership with Columbia-Presbyterian to conduct evaluations that help to develop programs based on each child’s needs. Cindy has contributed to efforts that raised over one million dollars for the Promise Project.

Laura Diamond, Regional Manager, Cartoon Network Enterprises Asia Pacific, who revamped the English curriculum at the Tung Chung YMCA in Hong Kong, where she has volunteered since 2008. Laura’s role was to teach an English storytelling class to Cantonese-speaking children, but her enthusiasm motivated her to take it much further. Laura restructured the center’s entire English course by rearranging classes by age and skill, introducing new ways to measure progress, incorporating team building skill and recruiting over 30 new volunteers to the center. Laura is now a director of the Tung Chung YMCA and as a result of her efforts, the center has more than 40% new students and over 100 lesson plans.

Daisy Auger-Domínguez, Managing Director, Strategic Sourcing, Worldwide Recruitment, Time Warner Corporate, who has been an active volunteer at the Gregorio Luperón High School for Science and Math in Washington Heights, New York City for eight years. Daisy’s personal appreciation for the value of a good education inspired her to help with the revitalization of the school, which is largely comprised of Spanish dominant, immigrant youth, from the Dominican Republic, much like herself. Daisy’s contributions to the school include creating a professional advisory board, launching a mentoring program, participating in career days and redesigning fundraising strategy. Daisy’s role has helped to make the school a better place for its students to receive a good education, now and in the future.

Scott Forman, SVP and Assistant General Manager, Warner Bros. Pictures, Domestic Theatrical Distribution, who is President of Variety – the Children’s Charity Tent 25. Scott has volunteered at the Variety Boys and Girls Club since he was a young boy. Amongst Scott’s many contributions to the club is a partnership he created with the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation to provide neo-natal ventilators to the St. Francis Compton Hospital. Scott, along with his 13-year old son, also formed Jr. Variety, a philanthropic group that engages teenagers in charitable activities and allows them to hold seats on the club’s board. The Jr. Variety teens have raised over $225,000 to help other kids in need.

Leslie Thurman, Director, Employee Programs and Initiatives, Warner Bros. Entertainment, is being recognized for her influential volunteer work with the organizations HOLA and Fonkoze. Leslie has volunteered for 12 years at HOLA, a charity group dedicated to helping underserved youth in inner-city Los Angeles. Leslie’s efforts at HOLA include recruiting staff, mentoring kids, participating in fundraising initiatives, and her current role serving on HOLA’s Development Board. Leslie is also being recognized for her contributions to Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution of Haiti, through which she has raised over $100,000 to support relief efforts after the 2010 earthquake. Leslie’s dedication has touched the lives of countless victims and their families.

Emily Schendel, Manager, Strategic Acquisitions, Investments and Partnerships, HBO, who co-founded and serves as President and Financial Director of 100cameras, a group that identifies children living in unjust conditions and provides them with cameras to document their lives. The photographs are then used in narratives to raise awareness about the conditions and raise funds that are donated back to the community. The idea for 100cameras originated when Emily and a friend were discussing an upcoming trip to Africa and her friend suggested giving kids in an orphanage cameras to document their living conditions. That’s just what they did, and 100Cameras has since held projects in Sudan, New York City and Cuba and is partnering with Samsung and Whole Foods. The group has raised over $90,000 to aid communities where children are living in poor conditions.

Team Awards

Cartoon Network London’s “Beat the Mozzy” Team

What began as a competition to create an ad for “Malaria No More UK,” took off into a widespread awareness campaign called “Beat the Mozzy.” A team of volunteers at Cartoon Network in London created a campaign around the animated character, Ziii, a malicious mosquito fixated on spreading Malaria.

The team produced four commercials and created a website, a Facebook page, web banners and t-shirts featuring Ziii, delivering powerful messages about the risk of malaria and initiating a call for action to help prevent and treat the disease. “Beat The Mozzy” generated more than 29 million impressions, the “Malaria No More” Facebook page saw a jump of over 50% in page “likes” and the call for action was heard by more than 13 million people.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Japan’s CSR Team

The Japan earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear plant crisis spurred the Warner Bros.’ Japan CSR team into action, launching unique initiatives to help bring hope and relief to victims and communities at a time of despair. First, the team organized fundraising activities in which proceeds of 3.4 million Yen were donated to the Japan Red Cross Society through Project Cheer Up! Japan. The group then launched Project Movie-Bus tour, an initiative that took victims from devastated areas to theaters in less damaged locations and handed out free movie tickets during the holidays. Other relief efforts include Project Greiger, which provided rent-free radiation detectors to communities and Project Sakura, an initiative to plan new Sakura trees in places where the tsunami hit.

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