Stewart and Office Depot Foundation Giving Away Backpacks to Needy Children in Charlotte Area

Charlotte, N.C. – Office Depot®, a leading global provider of office products and services, and the Office Depot Foundation announced today that NASCAR star Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™, will join the Foundation on Wednesday, October 14, to donate 5,000 backpacks to non-profit organizations and schools in the Charlotte area.

The donations will be made during a special “Backpack Celebration” event beginning at 4 p.m. local time at the Office Depot store located at 9610 Pineville Matthews Road in Pineville, N.C. In addition to Stewart, special guests include Pineville Mayor George Fowler and Mayor Pro Tem Libby Boatwright; Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess, representing Mayor Patrick McCrory; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter C. Gorman; Carrie B. Cook, Charlotte Regional Liaison for U.S. Senator Kay R. Hagan; North Carolina State Representative Kelly Alexander; and Mark Manning, chief financial officer for the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

This year, the Office Depot Foundation is celebrating an extraordinary milestone as it donates its 2-millionth backpack since the inception of the National Backpack Program in 2001. “The Office Depot Foundation believes strongly that we are helping children to build self-confidence, boost self-esteem and achieve greater success in the classroom – all as a result of being well-prepared for school,” said Foundation President Mary Wong. “We are extremely pleased to be able to donate our 2-millionth backpack at a time when so many children and families are dealing with the impact of the economic downturn.”

Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ champion, will help host the event as he prepares for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ NASCAR Banking 500 race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C. (Saturday, Oct. 17, 7 p.m. EDT, ABC). He is currently competing in the season-ending “Chase for the Sprint Cup” and won the Sprint All-Star race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway earlier this year.

“I am so proud to partner with Office Depot and the Office Depot Foundation to donate thousands of backpacks to Charlotte-area kids in need and give them an extra boost of confidence at school,” said Stewart, who has taken on the role of driver/team owner with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009.“Every kid deserves to go to school with the supplies they need to succeed, and it means a lot to me to help make that possible.”

The non-profit organizations and schools selected to participate in the October 14 backpack donation event include:
* A Child’s Place of Charlotte
* Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Athletic League
* Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
* NeXus Urban Serve
* Trips for Kids
* YMCA of Greater Charlotte

To distribute its backpacks in 2009, the Foundation has hosted 25 “Back-to-School Backpack Celebrations” in cities across the U.S. and Canada – five of which featured Tony Stewart.

Thousands of backpacks also have been donated by Office Depot stores in hundreds of local communities and in collaboration with Office Depot’s Business Solutions Division in select cities. Thousands more backpacks have been distributed through the Office Depot Foundation’s partnerships with several national non-profit organizations – including the Tony Stewart Foundation, the National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association, City Year, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), Feed The Children, the Kids In Need Foundation, Nourish America and the National Foundation for Women Legislators, whose members are giving backpacks to children in all 50 states. For the second consecutive year, backpack donations are being made to children of the Navajo Nation in Arizona and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

For more information on the Office Depot Foundation, go to www.officedepotfoundation.org/.

Editors Note: I erroneously listed Home Depot instead of Office Depot in the headline for this article. To my knowlege, it’s the first time the Home Depot has gotten through, although I’ve typed it many times. Thanks to all the alert readers who notice and let me know about it. Glad to see you are out there.