Winner: Leslie Brunt, Program Director, The Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program
In 2001, Leslie Brunt took over day-to-day operations for Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT! National Reading Incentive Program, but in the last two years she’s brought the program to more schools than ever before: the six-month reading program was used in 1.4 million classrooms in 80,000 schools, reaching an estimated 35 million students.
Most importantly, she raised the profile of the program by forging a partnership with actor and children’s author John Lithgow. In 2010, Lithgow read his book Carnival of the Animals in a webcast that challenged readers to beat the number of views of the previous year’s reading of a Lithgow book, and thus guarantee that BOOK IT! and Pizza Hut would donate funds for 50,000 meals to Haiti Relief.
Also in 2010, Brunt led Pizza Hut’s efforts in the annual World Hunger Relief fundraiser, using new packaging, social media outreach, print and MTV integration to raise $1.9 in funds to provide 7.6 million meals to the hungry—the most raised by any of parent company’s YUM! Brand groups. —SG
Honorable Mention:
Jack McFadden, Communications Director, Deloitte: Jack McFadden is the creative force behind Deloitte’s CR team. In 2010 he conceived, wrote messaging and directed Deloitte’s “Greening the Next Generation” toolkit used to show young people how they can have a positive impact on the environment.