Local youth will benefit from $300,000 in donations from new TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board

New community board brings together local leaders and TELUS employees to make decisions about philanthropic initiatives



Kelowna, B.C. – Youth in the Thompson Okanagan region will get a $300,000 annual financial boost from the new TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board.



Launched today, the mission of the TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board is to work collaboratively with local grassroots organizations that are carrying out important work helping young people improve their quality of life and reach their full potential. The board brings together community leaders and local TELUS employees, who have the best understanding of where funding will have the most positive impact in Thompson Okanagan communities. The board will select local charitable projects for grants of $1,000 to $20,000. The TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board will donate a total of $100,000 to charities for the balance of this year, and then $300,000 annually to a region that includes Kamloops, Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton, and Osoyoos.



Chaired by Nancy Greene Raine, Olympic ski champion and Senator for British Columbia, the TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board will work to support local charities that benefit youth in the areas of arts and culture, education and sport and health and well-being.



“This initiative by TELUS is a unique opportunity to provide much needed funding for philanthropic initiatives in our community,” said Senator Nancy Greene Raine, Chairman of the TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board. “TELUS is the only corporation to entrust its philanthropic efforts in the Thompson Okanagan to people who live and serve in this community and I am excited to work with the board to identify and support the work of our community’s charitable organizations.”



“At TELUS, we wholeheartedly believe that in order to do well in business, we must ‘do good’ in the communities where we live, work and serve,” said Darren Entwistle, TELUS president and CEO. “TELUS Community Boards put philanthropic decision-making in the hands of local leaders who know their communities best and we will look to members of the Thompson Okanagan Community Board for their local insight, knowledge and inspiration to determine where and how we can make the greatest difference for people right here in this region. I want to thank Senator Greene Raine and the new members of the Thompson Okanagan Community Board for their commitment to support these critically important grassroots charities that make a real difference for people in these communities.”



Today’s launch of the TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board builds upon the company’s longstanding commitment to the region, which stretches back more than a century to the founding of the Vernon Nelson Telephone Company in 1889. Over the last decade alone, TELUS, team members and retirees have contributed more than $4.5 million and 292,000 hours of volunteer service to Thompson Okanagan charities and non-profit organizations. This includes almost $600,000 raised for


the Kelowna Family YMCA-YWCA expansion fund through a TELUS TV community campaign that involved donating $100 on behalf of every new Optik TV subscriber in the community. Furthermore, the TELUS Community Ambassadors work closely with charities across the region. Since 2007, these retired and active TELUS team members have provided more than 2,700 school backpacks for children less fortunate and 11,000 Comfort Kits containing personal hygiene items for homeless citizens.



TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board Chairman Nancy Greene Raine will be joined by the following board members: Dr. Gur Singh, retired neurosurgeon and Past President of the BC Medical Association; Ross Fitzpatrick, owner of Cedar Creek & Greata Ranch Estate Wineries; Michael J. Ballingall, senior vice-president, Big White & Silver Star Resorts; Sean T. Pihl, Principal, Pihl & Associates; Jim Henderson, President of the Okanagan College Foundation; Al Tiller, President of the TELUS Community Ambassadors, Okanagan Chapter; Josh Dueck , professional skier and motivational speaker and Rudy Morelli, managing partner, Morelli Chertknow Lawyers. These community leaders are joined by TELUS team members Steve Jenkins (General Manager for the Interior South), Andrew Devlin (Director, Business Solutions), and Colleen Luttman (Reputation Manager, Corporate Communications).



TELUS Community Boards have been established across Canada in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Rimouski, Atlantic Canada and now the Thompson Okanagan. The boards enhance TELUS’ ongoing support of key charitable partners by supporting smaller, grassroots community initiatives. Since their inception in 2005, the TELUS Community Boards have contributed $27.7 million to both national and regional charities and non-profit organizations and supported more than 1,888 community projects. The TELUS Community Board model was a contributing factor to TELUS receiving the Association of Fundraising Professionals 2010 Freeman Philanthropic Services Award for Outstanding Corporation.



For more information about the TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board or to apply for funding, visit about.telus.com/community.



Since 2000, TELUS has invested more than $24 billion in infrastructure and operations in British Columbia. TELUS is investing $1.8 billion across Canada this year, including $670 million in B.C., to further expand and enhance its advanced wireless and wireline networks. The TELUS team is passionate about the company’s philanthropic philosophy –


we give where we live – and since 2000, TELUS and its 15,000 team members and retirees in B.C. have contributed $92 million and 2.1 million volunteer hours to charitable organizations across the province. Building upon this proud tradition of community giving, TELUS is contributing an additional $10 million to community initiatives throughout B.C. in 2011.



About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.1 billion of annual revenue and 12.4 million customer connections including 7.1 million wireless subscribers, 3.7 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers and more than 400,000 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 will, by year-end 2011, have contributed $245 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Eleven TELUS Community Boards across Canada, including the newly launched TELUS Thompson Okanagan Community Board, lead TELUS’ local philanthropic initiatives.



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