ODP Foundation donates 300,000 backpacks to kids across the U.S. and Canada

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. The Office Depot foundation is donating 300,000 backpacks this year to help get kids ready to go back to school. The backpacks are being provided to non-profit organizations and schools across the United States and Canada through the 2008 Office Depot Foundation National Backpack Program, who, in turn, will give the backpacks to children. This year marks the eighth year of the program through which nearly 1.8 million backpacks have been donated.

To distribute the backpacks, the Foundation is hosting 25 “Backpack Donation Day” events across the United States and Canada. Presentations are scheduled for four South Florida cities on Aug. 6--Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami--and will be followed by events in other cities across the country.

The Miami event will feature Office Depot-sponsored NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, a former substitute teacher in Columbia, Mo. Edwards has already hosted events in Chicago and Indianapolis.

Thousands of backpacks also are being donated by Office Depot stores in hundreds of local communities and in collaboration with the Office Depot Business Solutions Division in selected cities. Thousands more will be distributed through the Office Depot Foundation’s partnerships with eight national non-profit organizations, including the National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association, City Year, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, Feed The Children, the Kids In Need Foundation, Nourish America, Teach for America and the National Foundation for Women Legislators (NFWL).

The 2008 backpacks come in five different color schemes and are designed primarily to meet the needs of students in grades K-5. Each backpack contains a pencil pouch containing a ruler, four crayons, a glue stick, a pen, a pencil, a pencil sharpener and an eraser.