New Jersey Resident Wins Cash Award To Promote Career Options Conference For Working Mothers

June 5, 2007 - PRLog -- (New York, NY, May 1, 2007) New Jersey resident Meghan McCartan, 34, is now one step closer to fulfilling her dream of creating a better tomorrow for her community. Meghan was named this week’s winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, a weekly $5,000 cash award program from Avon Products, Inc. to support individuals in their work to empower women. Meghan will apply her award to help fund the “Detours and OnRamps” conference, which aims to provide working mothers with unprecedented access to the resources that will equip them to make informed decisions about balancing work and family. The conference is a unique concept, allowing working mothers direct access to information that was previously only available to companies.
Over 50% of working mothers quit their jobs post-childbirth, listing dissatisfaction with their career options as the number one reason. “Detours and OnRamps” will help provide these women with a variety of educational opportunities to allow them to be better informed about their options: Q&A sessions, panel discussions, guidance from experts, and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to engage in dialogue with other women in the same situation, who are facing the same challenges. Meghan hopes that the discourse the conference will generate between working mothers will create a forum for addressing those challenges that still exist, and will encourage these women to develop proactive solutions and recommendations for positive change.
With her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award, Meghan plans to help cover the costs of implementing the conference, including outreach efforts, speakers and marketing materials, and opening the door to as many working mothers as possible by keeping the cost of attendance affordable. “I am a working mother now,” said Meghan. “I saw the need for this conference when I looked around to examine my own options, and realized that by putting this event together I could help many women and create a forum for ongoing discussion and change.” When presented with the broadest spectrum of options available, Meghan believes that virtually every mother who wishes to have both a rewarding career and a home life can do so. In addition, she hopes that the conference will serve to remind these women that their contributions to the workplace are valuable, and that is why it is so imperative to help find a balance that works for them. Meghan also hopes to partner with corporate sponsors who believe in making the synergy between career and motherhood a reality, in order to promote those businesses as viable options for the conference’s target audience.
Meghan’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund fell under the category of “business development,” one of three areas the Fund supports, and outlined a plan to create a new business. Her proposal met the Fund’s criteria to clearly present unique and achievable objectives to empower women or girls and ultimately improve society. It was selected from a pool of strong contenders by an expert panel of judges, including Suze Orman, America’s most recognized expert on personal finance. “I spent much time on this applicant’s website and was seriously impressed with the actions she has already taken and put in place to make this dream a reality,” said Orman of Meghan’s application. “I truly believe that with or without this award she would have succeeded and that inspires me.”
The Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund will announce and award $5,000 each week through April 2008 to a deserving U.S. individual who has submitted a compelling application to help realize a program, project or idea to empower women in one of three areas: business development, community service, or awareness and outreach. Meghan was one of more than 700 applicants from across the U.S. who applied for an Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund in the first of four quarterly application cycles.
“The Hello Tomorrow Fund is the latest realization of Avon’s profound commitment to empowering women around the world,” said Andrea Jung, Chairman and CEO of Avon Products, Inc., which created the Fund. “Given the resources, women can impact their lives, families and communities in meaningful ways. Women can change our world. It is in this spirit that we have created the Hello Tomorrow Fund, and I am especially gratified that the Hello Tomorrow Fund is also launching in various forms in 18 countries around the globe. Avon understands women, and we also understand the power of the individual to effect significant change.”

About the Hello Tomorrow Fund
In the U.S., the Hello Tomorrow Fund will provide one $5,000 award per week to a deserving individual who will be selected from the pool of applicants by an expert panel of judges. Women and men are eligible to apply, and the winning programs must present unique and achievable initiatives to empower women or girls and ultimately improve society in one of three areas:
•   Business Development: A for-profit business that directly empowers women through its mission, product or service, or through the means of doing business.
•   Community Service: A non-profit project or program that helps women of any age realize their full potential or overcome obstacles.
•   Awareness & Outreach: Educate others about an issue that affects women to inspire and empower other women and have a positive impact on the issue.
Applications and guidelines will be available at all times as of March 8 at www.avon.com/hellotomorrowfund. Application submission and selection of winners will be organized in a quarterly cycle. One winner will be publicly announced every Tuesday through the Hello Tomorrow website beginning April 17, and profiles of the winners will be featured on the website to further share their inspiring ideas.

To further support women’s empowerment, www.avon.com/hellotomorrowfund will also offer links to resources and organizations in the areas of the awards – business development, community service and awareness and outreach – as well as general women’s issues. This service will provide information to all persons interested in these issues regardless of participation in the Hello Tomorrow Fund.

About the Judges
Every application will be thoughtfully and carefully reviewed by an expert panel comprised of notable public figures, philanthropic leaders and heads of business, including:
•   Jillian Dempsey: influential makeup artist, beauty industry icon and entrepreneur
•   Anne T. Dowling: President of the Institute for Cultural Enterprise (ICE), a nonprofit agency; past President of the Texaco Foundation and Director of Corporate Contributions for Altria
•   Carol M. Kurzig: Executive Director of the Avon Foundation
•   Joan LaRovere, M.D.: Associate Director of the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at The Royal Brompton Hospital in London and co-founder and Vice President of the Virtue Foundation
•   Suze Orman: personal finance expert, Emmy Award-winning television host, author, magazine and online columnist, writer/producer, and motivational speaker. Suze's new book, Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny, was just released February 27.
•   Maria Peninger: Vice President of Representative Development for Avon Products, Inc. and strong advocate for women’s empowerment
•   Cynthia Rowley: award-winning fashion designer, author and entrepreneur
•   Joseph Salim, D.D.M.: tireless humanitarian, co-founder and Executive Director of the Virtue Foundation
•   Lynn M. Stekas: nationally-recognized leader in corporate community involvement, philanthropy and volunteerism, and former President of the MONY Foundation

# # #

The Detours and On Ramps Forum is a one-day conference to be held in October 2007 in New York, NY and Spring 2008 in Washington, DC and Boston, MA. The Forum was founded to address the needs and issues of mothers, especially those grappling with their choice to work full time, part time, or from home.  The Forum was designed to bring intelligent women together to discuss the issues facing all-women and the marketplace both benefit when talented mothers can contribute both at home and at work.

Website: www.onrampsforum.com