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We all have the power to effect change—we just need to find the strength to harness it. With every good deed done and helping hand offered, we are making the world a better place. The dedicated women selected as this year’s recipients of Harlequin’s More Than Words award have changed many lives for the better, through their compassionate hearts and unshakable commitment. To celebrate their accomplishments, bestselling authors have written stories inspired by these real-life heroines.

In this book, Michele Hauf honors the work of the Barta sisters—Berni, Romi, Lexi and Marni Barta—and the not-for-profit organization that they founded, Kid Flicks.

We hope More Than Words inspires you to look inside your heart and get in touch with the heroine inside you.

Dear Reader,

For many years Harlequin has been a leader in supporting and promoting women’s charitable efforts. Through Harlequin More Than Words, each year we celebrate three women who make extraordinary differences in the lives of others, and Harlequin donates $15,000 each to their chosen causes.

We are proud to highlight the current Harlequin More Than Words recipients with the help of some of the biggest names in women’s fiction, Harlequin authors, who created fictional stories inspired by these women and the charities they support. Within the following pages you will find a touching story written by Michele Hauf—one of three ebooks available at www.HarlequinMoreThanWords.com. Be sure to look for Betina Krahn’s Hooked, and Jillian Hart’s No One But You—also available online. A book with three additional stories, written by Debbie Macomber, Brenda Novak and Meryl Sawyer, can be found on the shelves of your favorite bookstore in More Than Words, Stories of the Heart. All six of these stories are beautiful tributes to the Harlequin More Than Words recipients and we hope they will ignite the real-life heroine in you.

Thank you for your support; all proceeds from the sale of the print edition will be returned to the Harlequin More Than Words program. For more information on how you can get involved, please visit our website at www.HarlequinMoreThanWords.com.

Together we can make a difference!

Sincerely,

Donna Hayes

Publisher and CEO

Harlequin

Berni, Romi, Lexi and Marni Barta

How the Barta sisters inspire others:

Walk into the backyard pool house at the Bartas’ family home in Los Angeles, and there’s a good chance you’ll find more than bottles of chlorine, towels and a place to change. Instead, be prepared to step over piles of DVDs.

That’s because sisters Berni, Romi, Lexi and Marni Barta are the force behind Kid Flicks, a not-for-profit organization that collects and donates new and gently used kids’ DVDs to children’s hospitals and pediatric departments across the U.S. They started Kid Flicks when they were just kids themselves.

“Movies are not going to cure cancer, but Kid Flicks offers one extra step to making a child’s stay more enjoyable,” says Marni Barta, now a twenty-year-old student at Northwestern University outside Chicago. “Having a distraction can definitely help.”

Any pediatric nurse or hospital child life specialist would agree that Kid Flicks offers more than just a way to pass the time. Movies can act as a balm to soothe scared or bored children who have undergone surgery, are fighting cancer and other diseases, or are recuperating after an injury. Children in intensive care or cancer wards for lengthy stays often feel the world is going on without them, and watching DVDs can help them feel connected to “normal life.”

As one hospital professional from Washakie Medical Center in Wyoming wrote to Kid Flicks, “Having these movies to keep the children occupied helps in so many ways. The more children can be distracted from their illnesses, the quicker they can heal.”

New uses for old movies

Kid Flicks started as a simple idea that grew. In the spring of 2002, as the Bartas were doing their spring cleaning, they came across piles of childhood videos the girls, then in their teen and preteen years, no longer watched. But what should they do with all those Sesame Street shows and Disney flicks?

Lexi, then the oldest, at sixteen, came up with a plan: they’d donate their old movies to a pediatric oncology department at a local Los Angeles hospital where their friend had once been successfully treated for leukemia.

“We hated the idea of just throwing them away, especially because they were movies we loved so much as kids,” says Lexi, who now works for a creative agency in L.A. “We needed a way to make good use of them and share them with others.”

The girls and their mother drove to the hospital with a box of their VHS videos, and passed them over to the child-life specialist on staff, who was more than a little surprised by the donation. She had no idea it was coming. But she was also thrilled. “Movies are the first thing kids ask for when they are in the hospital,” she told them.