Donny and Marie Osmond Crown Winning Mom on NBC’s Mother’s Day Special, Sunday, May 11 at 7pm EST

NEW YORK - April 30, 2008 – NBC and Teleflora today revealed the 15 semi-finalists in the nationwide search for “America’s Favorite Mom.” The inspirational stories of the three top moms in each of the five categories – military moms, working moms, single moms, “Non-mom” moms and “Chairman of Everything” moms – will be featured on NBC’s “Today” show May 5 through May 9. Each day, America will vote on who will continue into the final round. The winning mom will be crowned by Donny and Marie Osmond during the NBC primetime special, “Teleflora presents America’s Favorite Mom,” airing on Mother’s Day Sunday, May 11 at 7 p.m. EST.

“Moms all over can relate to the hard work and sacrifices that go into raising a family, and we want to tell their stories through this television tribute to moms,” said Doug Vaughan, Senior Vice President, Special Programs and Alternative Development, NBC Entertainment. “Through uplifting stories and great performances, this special is bound to tug at your heart strings.”

“We were just in awe of the thousands of amazing moms nominated on AmericasFavoriteMom.com – there were so many inspirational and heartfelt submissions,” said Lynda Resnick, Chairman, Teleflora. Now it’s time for America to decide who among these incredible mothers should be crowned ‘America’s Favorite Mom.’”

The 15 “America’s Favorite Mom” semi-finalists include:

Military Moms
· Melinda Gintilas (Fountain, CO): Gintilas is a soldier who survived two trips to Iraq, a tumor in her breast and long intervals and distances from her husband and three children
· Patti Patton-Bader (Pasadena, CA): Patton-Bader is a mother who founded Soldiers Angels Network, an organization that sends care packages to over 200,000 troops overseas
· Rosanna Vasquez-Brown (Harker Heights, TX): Vasquez-Brown’s duties to her family include caring for her daughter and husband; she is currently deployed as a physician assistant in Iraq.

Working Moms
· Lisa Druxman (San Marcos, CA): With two children in tote, Druxman started “Stroller Strides” a business catering to mom specific exercises
· Patricia Griffith (Pittsburg, CA): Griffith’s entrepreneurial spirit led her to open the successful “Southern Oven Foods” while also raising two children
· Stacy Horn Koch (New Orleans, LA): The head of a household of two boys, Koch also runs a center for at-risk youth, “Covenant House New Orleans” and heads a project to restore a community devastated by Hurricane Katrina

Single Moms
· Lena Ledford (Atlanta, GA): A mother of five, Ledford never lets anything stop her which is why she’s also a part-time vocal, basketball and cheerleading coach as well as a teacher, counselor and cook
· Betty Yerks (Denville, NJ): If there was a popularity contest in Denville, NJ, Yerks would win it. As an active leader for school, community and church volunteer activities, Yerks also raised two daughters while founding “BirthRight,” an organization that assists pregnant teenagers
· Shawna Ray (Mount Pleasant, SC): Ray is a “teacher” to two kids and a “teacher” to others through a book she wrote about educating kids on diversity

“Non-mom” Moms
· Bernice Burch (Sanford, FL): From taking care of her siblings when she was younger to raising four children and now a large extended family, Burch will always be known as the “neighborhood” mom
· Nora Leon (Casper, WY): Leon is a “mom to many,” as she runs an orphanage in Haiti and finds sick children medical attention and even homes with families in the United States
· Jennifer Keller (Home, KS): Keller has seven children, six of which were adopted, who were exposed to methamphetamines. She also is an activist working to make the act of abusing controlled substances during a pregnancy illegal in Kansas

“Chairman of Everything” Moms
· Gwendolyn Beauchamp (Lancaster, TX): A stay-at-home mom for ten years, this mother of five went back to work when her children were young and still managed to do it all. Beauchamp has supported her family through hard times despite being diagnosed with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC).
· Lisa Couture (Wesley Chapel, FL): Although she is blind, Couture manages to run the household and even achieve her MBA while caring for her three children
Courtnee Stevenson (Bremerton, WA): A mother of six including a set of quintuplets, Stevenson is a mom who clearly can juggle it all

The 15 semi-finalists were selected from more than 15,000 online nominations collected at AmericasFavoriteMom.com. A panel of experts that included Stacy Morrison, editor-in-chief of Redbook Magazine, Sally Lee, editor-in-chief of Parents Magazine, and Sabrina Weill, founder of Momlogic.com, helped to narrow the pool. Semi-finalists were notified when Teleflora personally all delivered a specially designed America’s Favorite Mom bouquet to each of their homes.

Viewers can tune into the “Today” show, the week of May 5 to learn more about these semi-finalists and vote for their favorite one each day on www.NBC.com. A different category will be highlighted each day: military moms, Monday, May 5; working moms, Tuesday, May 6; single moms, Wednesday, May 7; “non-mom” moms, Thursday, May 8; and “chairman of everything” moms, Friday, May 9. Hosts Donny and Marie Osmond will appear on the May 5 show to kick-off the competition.

The five mothers with the greatest percentage of votes will take part in the NBC prime-time television event hosted by Donny and Marie Osmond. The one-hour show will feature an exclusive duet by the celebrity siblings and a special performance by Sony/Epic artists The D.E.Y. singing their new single “She said,” a heartfelt ode to mothers. There will also be a special tribute to 100 year-old Opal Trundle, who was born on the first Mother’s Day, May 11, 1908. Opal raised six children during the great depression and has 96 grandchildren. Also, there will be special cameo appearances by Christina Aguilera, Tony Hawk, Alicia Keys, Hulk Hogan (NBC’s “American Gladiators”), Naomi Judd, Amy Poehler (NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”) and more throughout the broadcast. At the end of the special, the Osmonds will crown one lucky winner, “America’s Favorite Mom.”

Teleflora will present the grand prize winner with $250,000, an “America’s Favorite Mom” diamond encrusted pendant and a year’s worth of Teleflora flower arrangements. The winning mom will also receive a Redbook “Love Your Life” all-expense paid trip to New York City, including a beauty makeover and spa treatment, courtesy of Redbook Magazine, a family vacation package to St. Lucia, courtesy of Coconut Bay and all-new General Electric kitchen and laundry appliances. Teleflora will present the four runners-up with $25,000, a gold pendant, a year’s worth of Teleflora flower arrangements and a General Electric washer and dryer.

Executive producers of the primetime special include Lynda Resnick, Teleflora, Al Berman, Berman Productions and Marc Koops, Reveille.