LOS ANGELES, Calif., February 11, 2009 – The Hero Initiative happily announced today it has hired a new employee to maintain and develop new programs to raise funds for the organization, oversee public relations, handle convention appearances and perform other key duties. Effective immediately, Christina Zietsman is The Hero Initiative’s newest Development Associate and will be working out of Los Angeles, California.

The Hero Initiative creates a monetary safety net for yesterday’s creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life and an avenue back into paying work. It’s a chance for fans to give something back to the people who have given them so much enjoyment. For more information, visit www.heroinitiative.org or call 818-997-6114.

Zietsman has non-profit experience working with the Kidspace Children’s Museum, Chandler School and the Foothill Family Service, all in Pasadena, California, where she solicited donations, conceptualized fundraising events and coordinated volunteers. She learned her skills in media and public relations from the University of Southern California, where she earned a B.A. in Sports Information with an emphasis on Broadcasting. Zietsman also has extensive sales experience, having spent the last five years selling real estate, creating extensive marketing tools, utilizing and creating databases and tapping into her interpersonal people skills. But most importantly, Zietsman is a comic book fan!

“My first experience in the comic book world was reading Spider-Man: Blue, written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale,” remembered Zietsman. “I was blown away and fell in love. How could you not?”

Since then, she has attended many comic book conventions throughout the United States and Europe, and during that time she discovered The Hero Initiative and its noble mission. “Some friends and I were just kicking around some ideas on how to raise money for The Hero Initiative,” she related. “We came up with some great stuff, I called Hero, had a meeting…and I guess I said something right.”

Zietsman is eager to start helping raise funds for Hero. “I am very excited and proud to be involved with The Hero Initiative,” she beamed. “It is a charity that has truly helped some most creative people in the world, people who have brought hope into our lives, and helped form what entertainment is all about today.”

“Christina has an amazing array of skills that I’m sure will be a great asset to Hero,” said Hero Initiative President Jim McLauchlin. “I’m very confident that with Christina’s help, we’ll continue to do the great work that we do, and expand our mission and reach as well.”

About The Hero Initiative

In late 2000, a consortium of comic publishers came up with the idea to create a financial safety net for comic creators, much in the same fashion that exists in almost any other trade from plumbing to pottery. By March of 2001, the federal government approved The Hero Initiative as a publicly supported not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3).

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative (formerly known as A.C.T.O.R., A Commitment To Our Roots) has had the good fortune to grant over $400,000 to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today.

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterday’s creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It’s a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.