NEW YORK, NY (December 13, 2010) – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, a division of Hachette Book Group, and Stephenie Meyer have donated 1.5 million dollars to the American Red Cross International Response Fund from their proceeds from The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: an Eclipse Novella. As previously announced, one dollar for each book sold in the US from the first printing would go to the American Red Cross. The donation was made today by Hachette Book Group CEO David Young and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Publisher Megan Tingley to The American Red Cross Senior Vice President of International Services David Meltzer.
“I’m so grateful that Little, Brown, the American Red Cross, and my fans made this generous gift possible,” said Stephenie Meyer. “It’s amazing to have the opportunity to help those so greatly in need.”
“We’ve had the incredible great fortune to have one of the biggest publishing phenomenons in recent years along with The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner becoming one of the top selling titles of 2010,” said Hachette Book Group CEO David Young. “Giving back is extremely important to the company, so it is particularly gratifying to be able to share our success with an organization as worthy as The American Red Cross.”
After the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12th the International Response Fund (IRF) afforded the American Red Cross the ability to provide immediate funding for food and other urgently needed emergency relief items.
“The generous contribution of Little, Brown to the IRF is essential to the ability of the American Red Cross to provide help and hope for people during their darkest hours,” said David Meltzer of the American Red Cross. “After the devastating Haiti earthquake, which took the lives of more than 230,000 people, the IRF allowed us to quickly purchase, ship and distribute aid. The Red Cross is extremely grateful for the support Little, Brown is providing toward our humanitarian mission.”
In the weeks and months following the Haiti earthquake, the American Red Cross worked with the global Red Cross network and other partners to secure enough food for 1 million people for one month; provide tarpaulins to one of out every three homeless people in Port-au-Prince; and vaccinate almost 1 million children and their parents against common diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, pertusis, measles and rubella. Since the early days of the response, the Red Cross has also provided safe, drinkable water for approximately 250,000 in the capital each day.
The International Response Fund allows the American Red Cross to partner with other Red Cross societies immediately following large-scale disasters by providing financial assistance and relief supplies and by deploying trained disaster relief staff. For example, in the last year the IRF has supported the American Red Cross response to the floods in Pakistan, the earthquake in Chile and the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas in the Caribbean to name just a few disasters. The IRF also supports a number of other humanitarian services around the world, including global health programs to combat HIV/AIDS, measles and malaria, disaster preparedness projects, reconnecting families separated by disaster and war, and educating American students about the humanitarian rules in war.
“This kind of donation helps us provide a depth and breadth of services which is hard to match,” said Meltzer. “Last year, the American Red Cross helped 68 million people through programs funded by the International Response Fund.”
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner has become one of the biggest selling titles of 2010 and has dominated bestseller lists both in the US and around the world. The novella, the first new work from Meyer in nearly two years, debuted at #1 on the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and IndieBound bestseller lists as well as bestseller lists in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the UK.
In five years, Stephenie Meyer has become a worldwide publishing phenomenon. The Twilight Saga’s translation rights have been sold in nearly 50 countries and 116 million copies have been sold worldwide.
The American Red Cross name is used with its permission, which in no way constitutes an endorsement, express or implied, of any product, service, company, opinion or political position.
ABOUT HACHETTE BOOK GROUP: Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a leading trade publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the second-largest publisher in the world. HBG publishes under the divisions of Little, Brown and Company, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Grand Central Publishing, FaithWords, Center Street, Orbit, and Hachette Digital.
About the American Red Cross: The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org
