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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - July 1, 2008
Linda Strup Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
July 1, 2008

Reston, Virginia Resident Wins Cash Award To Provide Self-Esteem Building Workshops For Homeless Women


(New York, NY, July 1, 2008) Reston, Virginia resident Linda Strup, 51, is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of creating a better tomorrow for her community. Linda 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. She is the second Hello Tomorrow Fund recipient from Virginia and is among the first winners to be selected by a newly expanded panel of judges that now includes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York and actress Phylicia Rashad. Linda will use her award to support the Giving Circle of HOPE’s workshop program to help homeless women build self esteem through the arts.

The local shelter provides women with the skills to help fulfill basic needs such as food, job placement, and counseling. The shelter also helps children receive enrichment through arts and crafts programs, and very often, mothers and other women are eager to participate as well. Homeless women often have no outlet to express themselves creatively or resources to develop a hobby. While these women are receiving basic care from the shelter, there are underlying issues preventing them from acquiring the skills for long-term success. Low self esteem is often at the root of the problem.

Once her children left for college in 2004, Linda, who has always had a passion for helping people, co-founded the Giving Circle of HOPE, a social investment club that connects various volunteer groups in an effort to help as many people in the community as possible. The club originally had four founding members but has quickly grown to more than 100. The members pool their resources and decide as a group how to allocate money to those in need throughout the community. Through this important work, Giving Circle of HOPE has been able to help immigrants, refugees, homeless, disabled and elderly people as well as HIV and AIDS patients and other members of the community who are in need.

Linda believes, “everyone has something to share - if not money, than talent.” Through Giving Circle of HOPE’s experience bringing craft projects to children at the local shelter, they realized that a similar program might benefit adult women. These women have scarce resources and rarely experience a sense of accomplishment about anything. Linda explains, “in doing this work, they blossom in a creative, holistic way.” With their newfound skills they are also able to complete projects and sell them at Christmastime to generate some income, but more importantly, they feel a great sense of accomplishment that propels them to further success.

Linda will use her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award to provide a series of creative workshops including knitting, beadwork, weaving, sculpture, and fiber art to homeless women. Volunteer teachers will ensure that funds are applied to solely purchase supplies. Linda has a vision to roll out the program to other shelters or low-income community centers and make it more comprehensive. Phase two would offer basic education for business and marketing, and phase three would integrate the selling of handicrafts through a consignment shop or e-commerce site. Thanks to her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award, Linda will give women the chance to build self esteem – an invaluable asset that can be taken anywhere, but never taken away.

Linda’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund met the criteria of clearly presenting 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 personal finance expert, Suze Orman, actress Phylicia Rashad and Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York. “This is a practical, realistic plan to enrich the lives of women in homeless shelters,” notes judge Anne Dowling of Linda’s proposal. “Combining crafts and entrepreneurship is an excellent way to teach business skills while experiencing the healing power of art.”

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