A nonprofit women's group in Bethlehem is causing a stir by publishing a fundraising calendar that some think includes child pornography. All the attention is helping sales. Rebecca Brown reports from Littleton.
WREN CUT 1: The Women?s Rural Entrepreneurial Network, or WREN, as it?s called, helps women start and run businesses. It?s been very successful?but has found fundraising in the aftermath of 9-11 very difficult. So its board of directors decided to publish a calendar featuring nearly nude photographs of themselves as a money raiser.
But such calendars aren?t a new idea, and they didn?t exactly sell like hotcakes.
That all changed when the calendar was investigated for child pornography.
Executive director Natalie Woodroofe:
Natalie 1: We were aware there might be people who felt that women partially dressed was not an appropriate representation of a strong women?s organization, but that picture in particular we actually really felt sent a strong sense of three generations of women and an incredible story of these particular families. We felt only good about the picture and were shocked by the response.
WREN CUT 2: The photograph in question depicts six women, two grandmothers, their daughters, and their daughters? daughters. The toddlers sit in their mothers? laps, bare-chested, and beaming at the camera.
To Ray Bushway, a Bethlehem resident, the image seemed like child pornography.
Ray 1: It was advertised as a near nude calendar, near nude pictures, and maybe that implies something different than what they wanted to imply, so I wrote the attorney general about my concerns.
WREN CUT 3: The attorney general?s office referred the question to the Bethlehem police chief. He determined the image was not pornographic. But the local media quickly spread the story, and the calendar suddenly became a hot item.
Natalie Woodroofe explains:
Natalie 2: At first it was devastating to think that WREN and child pornography would be in the same sentence. But it did become an opportunity and clearly the community completely stood behind us in saying this is not child pornography or an inappropriate use of children in any way. So we took the situation and ran with it and are using it to try and get more attention for the calendar and more sales.
WREN CUT 4: Woodroofe says sales doubled in the week after the kiddie porn investigation, and are going strong. And Ray Bushway shrugs off this unintended consequence of his inquiry.
Ray 2: I think they?ll probably sell much more calendars than they would before. It will be fine; they?ll do well with it. I got no problems with that. I got my answer and I?m satisfied.
WREN CUT 5: Reporting from Littleton, I?m Rebecca Brown for NHPR News.
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