Stefanie Powers
Actress and President of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation
National Press Club - May 21, 2001

Choose any show business-related title for Stefanie Powers, and you´re likely to come up with one that fits. Possibly best-known for her role as Jennifer in Hart to Hart, the television detective series that spawned a cult following, Powers has also made a name as a dancer, stage actress, producer, film star, singer and exercise video guru since being cast in West Side Story at the age of 15.

Powers now splits her life between her professional activities and a series of philanthropic commitments. She is president of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation, a charity dedicated to the preservation of wild animals that Powers founded in honor of the Oscar-winning actor and her close companion, who died in 1981.

The William Holden Wildlife Education Center in Kenya teaches some 10,000 students a year about wildlife preservation, environmental studies and resource conservation. It may be worlds away from Jennifer Hart´s high-class surroundings, but the emphasis on resourcefulness is similar as students at the center learn to better their situation using methods and materials that are available, such as solar heating for water, a tree nursery that provides a fast-growing fuel source, and a bio-gas system producing supplemental electric energy and high-grade fertilizer.

In the United States, Powers is involved with the Cincinnati Zoo and Zoo Atlanta, where she works with species survival programs. She is also the celebrity spokesperson for the HomeAgain Companion Animal Retrieval System, which features a microchip implant designed to get lost pets back to their owners.

Born Stefania Zofia Federkiewicz to parents of Polish origin, travel and exposure to different cultures are important parts of Powers´ life -– so important, in fact, that she has taught herself to speak seven languages. One of the Web sites dedicated to her says she´d love to trade places with an astronaut -– a fanciful dream that may not be so far-fetched now that the first tourist has taken a trip to the international space station.

During her career, which spans more than four decades, Powers has worked with the likes of John Wayne, Maureen O´Hara, Bing Crosby, Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Lana Turner and Claudia Cardinale. She has to her credit 27 feature films, several television series (remember The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.?) and mini-series, and plays and musicals such as Oliver, Annie Get Your Gun and My Fair Lady.

Powers runs her own production company, and has released a home video on horseback riding, a passion since childhood. She runs, plays polo, does aerobics and practices yoga. There are also two fitness workout videos with her name on them, and a perfume called Rare Orchid she helped create. Now if she could just bottle some of that energy for sale...

If anyone's interested, and I hope you are, I'll make you a custom 3D screen saver for a $5.00 (or more) donation to the William Holden Wildlife Foundation.

All you need to do is e-mail me your six favorite pix, and I'll make you a 3D screen saver featuring those pix on cool, rotating picture cubes. I'll deliver your screen saver and instructions on how to install it on any machine running Windows 98 or above via e-mail.

You can be assured that every cent that comes to me will go straight to the William Holden Wildlife Foundation.

Please contact me @ . I accept cashier's checks, personal checks, or money orders made out to the William Holden Wildlife Foundation, or PayPal. PayPal is not preferred because of fees charged.

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