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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - December 11, 2007
Victoria Pettibone Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
December 11, 2007

New York, New York Resident Wins Cash Award To Outreach & Leadership Through Media Literacy Program Foro Teenage Girls


(New York, NY, December 11, 2007) New York, New York resident Victoria Pettibone, 33, is committed to improving the lives of women and their families in her community. Victoria 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. Victoria will apply her award towards WET’s Risk Takers Film Series, a free leadership and media literacy program for teenage girls designed to bolster self-esteem and offer guidance on healthy, empowering risk-taking through film screenings and discussions.

Victoria and her childhood friend, Sasha Eden, who both have careers in theatre, co-founded the Risk Takers Film Series three years ago. Risk Takers – run by Women’s Expressive Theater, Inc., also co-founded by the two – was borne out of a desire to combat the negative influences and pressures facing teenage girls today, which is often reinforced by the media. Risk Takers utilizes communication tools – film as a launching pad for discussion – and a process that teaches girls to address the issue of risk taking while looking deeper at the detrimental patterns of the media. Films screened have ranged from “The Breakfast Club” to “North Country.” Through both discussion with peers and mentorship from the program’s volunteers, students learn to avoid behaviors such as unsafe sex, substance abuse, and eating disorders, and are instead inspired to be empowered and take healthy risks to achieve their aspirations.

To help further distinguish empowering risks from damaging risks, and to introduce the girls to positive female role models, the Risk Takers program involves leading women in the media, including actors, directors, writers, and producers, as special guest speakers. Drawing from past relationships in the theatre, Victoria has been able to attract as speakers many women who have successfully followed their dreams without compromising their integrity, such as Olympia Dukakis, Frances McDormand, Mary Louise Parker, and Kerry Washington.

With the help of some 30 volunteers, Risk Takers has served approximately 100 girls each year since its inception three years ago. Girls from the “tri-state” area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut attend the free program, which meets one Saturday each month from January through June, and the participants hail from the area public and private schools.

Through Risk Takers, Victoria and Sasha, who were both raised in New York City, wanted to create an empowering environment for teenage girls, which they have clearly accomplished. As Risk Takers enters its fourth year, Victoria continues to be inspired by the young women the program has touched. “One of our participants wrote on her final evaluation ‘a Risk Taker is someone who has made a change in their life that can better them’,” shared Victoria. It is this impact on teenage girls that makes her dedicated to the program.

Thanks to her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award, Victoria will be able to continue to have a positive impact on the lives of another 100 girls next year. The award money will cover program costs such as outreach to promote the program, as well as transportation stipends for the guest speakers who volunteer their time, and food and refreshments for the attendees and volunteers at each monthly session.

Victoria’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund fell under the category of “Community Service,” one of three areas the Fund supports. Her proposal met the 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. “Victoria’s idea is original, creative and offers a great deal of inspiration for inner city girls!”, noted Orman of Victoria’s application.

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