TELUS tops up Jeneece Place campaign to $1 million

VICTORIA, June 22 /CNW/ - As the 2010 TELUS World Skins Game (TWSG) comes to a close, TELUS announced it has raised $925,000 towards building Jeneece Place through its donations and fundraisers, and is topping that up to an even $1 million.

"Jeneece Place will make life easier for families during very challenging times in their lives, and we are committed to seeing it built," said Darren Entwistle, TELUS President and CEO. "Our entire team is deeply inspired by Jeneece Edroff, and delighted we can help her realize her dream of building Jeneece Place."

Jeneece Place will be located on the grounds of Victoria General Hospital, providing a home away from home for families who have to travel to Victoria for medical care.

TELUS started its fundraising efforts for Jeneece Place last July, when Mr. Entwistle announced the 2010 TELUS World Skins Game would be held at Bear Mountain. Mr. Entwistle also announced that the Queen Alexandra Foundation for Children would be the charity supported by the game, with all funds raised going towards Jeneece Place. He kicked off the campaign with a $100,000 donation.

Since then, TELUS has donated an additional $100 on behalf of every new TELUS TV customer, partnered with Samsung to jointly donate $25 for every Samsung handset sold on the island, has donated all money raised during the TELUS World Skins Game's fundraising initiatives, and has matched employee donations to the Queen Alexandra Foundation to help build Jeneece Place.

"We are so grateful for the generosity of Vancouver Island residents and TELUS. I could never have dreamed we would raise $1 million so quickly," said Jeneece Edroff, the inspiration for Jeneece Place. "This amazing donation will go a long way toward making life a little easier for families in challenging times, and far sooner than we would have ever dared dream."

For more information about Jeneece Place, please visit www.jeneeceplace.org or www.queenalexandra.org.

To read more about what TELUS is doing in B.C., visit http://www.telusevents.com/bc.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.6 billion of annual revenue and 11.9 million customer connections including 6.6 million wireless subscribers, 3.9 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers and 200,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed $158 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 3.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Nine TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

For further information: Shawn Hall, TELUS Media Relations, [phone], [email protected]