DELRAY BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2004--
First House to be Sponsored by a Fortune 500 Company in
Palm Beach County
Office Depot, Inc., (NYSE:ODP), today announced that it will
present a $50,000 donation to Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach
County to help fund the construction of a new home in Boynton Beach
for N'Dai Tawale, a widowed mother of three who came to the U.S. from
Zimbabwe. The family currently resides in a one-bedroom apartment in
Boynton Beach.
This represents the tenth house to be built in Boynton Beach by
Habitat for Humanity, but it is the first house to be sponsored by a
Fortune 500 company in Palm Beach County.
A gift donation and groundbreaking ceremony will take place on
Tuesday, May 25th at 10:00 a.m. at 529 NW 11th Avenue in Boynton
Beach. Bruce Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Office Depot, will host the
event with Paul Johnson, President of Habitat for Humanity of South
Palm Beach County. In addition, several city officials and community
leaders will also attend including:
-- Danielle Coin, District Legislative Assistant to
Representative Anne Gannon
-- City Commissioner Mack McCray
-- Glenn Jergensen, Past Chair from Boynton Beach Chamber of
Commerce
In addition to sponsoring the construction of the house for the
Tawales, Office Depot employees from its corporate headquarters and
local stores will volunteer every weekend for the next 4-5 months to
help build the house.
"Office Depot seeks to enhance the quality of life in the
communities where our customers and employees live and work," said
Mary Wong, Director of Community Relations for Office Depot. "We are
pleased to partner with Habitat for Humanity and support an
organization that has such a profound social impact in our community."
Tawale, a native of Zimbabwe lived in nothing more than a hut with
only a mud floor, but now she and her children will have a home of
their own - a three-bedroom ranch-style house with a yard and a
garage.
The Tawale family will join the more than 750,000 people living in
150,000 houses constructed around the world by Habitat for Humanity
International since it was founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda
Fuller.
Office Depot's relationship with Habitat for Humanity began two
years ago, when Office Depot executives met founder Linda Fuller who
received the company's Visionary Award for Non-Profit at its 2003
Success Strategies for Businesswomen's conference.
"We have never owned a real home with electricity, running water
or a backyard for my children to play in. We are so very grateful to
Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County and Office Depot for
helping me fulfill my lifelong dream of being a homeowner," said
Tawale.
"I am so overwhelmed with joy and thankful for the support of so
many people in the Boynton Beach community including my family at
Faith United Methodist Church. We can't wait to get started working on
building our new home."
About Habitat for Humanity
Through volunteer labor and donations of money and materials,
Habitat for Humanity builds and rehabilitates simple, decent houses
with the help of the homeowner (partner) families. Habitat houses are
sold to partner families at no profit, financed with affordable,
no-interest loans. The homeowners' monthly mortgage payments are used
to build still more Habitat houses.
Habitat is not a giveaway program. In addition to a down payment
and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours
of their own labor - sweat equity - into building their Habitat house
and the houses of others.
Habitat for Humanity works in partnership with God and people
everywhere, from all walks of life, to develop communities with people
in need by building simple decent affordable homes. For every house
built by the South Palm Beach County affiliate, it donates $1000 to
the Haitian affiliate, which builds a home in their community.
About Office Depot
With annual sales of nearly $12 billion, no one sells more office
supplies to more customers in more countries than Office Depot.
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Delray Beach, FL, the company
conducts business in 23 countries and employs nearly 50,000 people
worldwide.
Office Depot is an industry leader in every distribution channel -
from retail stores and contract delivery to catalogs and e-commerce.
The company is the world's number two online retailer - on target to
generate $2.6B in sales for FY'03. In North America, Office Depot has
more than 900 retail stores in addition to a national
business-to-business delivery network supported by 22 delivery
centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call
centers.
Recently, Office Depot was recognized in BusinessWeek as the
country's 11th most generous in-kind giver as a percentage of
revenues. Also, the company was one of twelve companies included in
the Companies That Care Honor Roll.
The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.
Additional press information can be found at:
http://mediarelations.officedepot.com.
CONTACT: Office Depot, Delray Beach
Alison Lynch, 561-438-4276
alynch2@officedepot.com
or
Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County
Paul Johnson, 561-819-6070
ke4nnk@msn.com
SOURCE: Office Depot, Inc.
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