OfficeMax donates more than $1.7M for teacher supplies

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — OfficeMax announced that, together with its retail customers, it has donated more than $1.7 million in classroom supplies to teachers nationwide through OfficeMax's annual A Day Made Better classroom surprise events, which help provide economic relief and encourage national support for teachers.

Wednesday marked the fifth year of the A Day Made Better program, in which OfficeMax associates surprise 1,000 teachers in their classrooms with $1,000 each worth of school supplies – $1 million in sum.

New this year was an in-store school supply drive, in which customers contributed more than an additional $700,000 in back-to-school supplies across OfficeMax's approximately 900 stores nationwide. Classroom supplies collected through the in-store supply drive were donated today to schools in each community where OfficeMax has stores.

"We are excited to support teachers with much-needed school supplies, and we couldn't be more proud to work with our customers this year to grow this support even further," said Carolynn Brooks, OfficeMax chief diversity officer. "Education is an important cause for OfficeMax because, as a leading office products supplier, we interact with the education community on a daily basis. When we work together to provide tools to help improve education, we can help improve entire communities."