Grant will support Community Disaster Education presentations for 20,000 people
St. Louis, Thursday, August 10, 2006 - The American Red Cross St. Louis Area Chapter has received a $10,000 grant from The Home Depot®, the world's largest home improvement retailer, to support staff and volunteer efforts in Community Disaster Education for children and young adults. This grant will support the Chapter's goal to reach 20,000 St. Louis area residents through community disaster education presentations by November 31, 2006. The primary focus is to teach elementary school-aged children the importance of being prepared for disasters such as fires, floods, earthquakes and tornadoes.
"The St. Louis Area Chapter has set the goal to educate 80,000 people by 2008 through disaster education workshops," said Joseph C. White, chief executive officer for the St. Louis Area Chapter. "The Home Depot grant will help achieve this goal, while supporting the Red Cross mission to help people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies."
The grant is part of a three-year initiative between The Home Depot and the American National Red Cross to educate one million people across the country in disaster preparedness. In addition to providing grants to forty select Red Cross chapters for local preparedness projects, the partnership also calls for the dissemination of disaster preparedness information and tips through a series of national and market-specific educational clinics and in-store collateral materials.
"The Home Depot has a history of being a champion for its communities and providing significant relief and recovery support immediately following a disaster," said Kevin Martinez, director of community affairs for The Home Depot. "At the same time, we also work to educate our neighbors on the importance of disaster preparedness and to minimize the loss associated with these devastating events. By partnering with the Red Cross, we are providing our communities with additional tools to help them rebound quickly and completely."
The Home Depot's Rebuilding Hope & Homes disaster relief program offers communities an ongoing cycle of support, characterized by engagement with local leaders and investment in local programs. The Home Depot prepares its communities through local and national awareness programs, responds with needed supplies and store support in the wake of the disasters, and assists in recovery efforts through volunteerism, financial support and in-kind contributions.
About The Home Depot:
The Home Depot® is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,081 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. Through its HD SupplySM businesses, The Home Depot is also one of the largest diversified wholesale distributors in the United States, with more than 900 locations in the United States and Canada offering products and services for building, improving and maintaining homes, businesses and municipal infrastructures. In fiscal 2005, The Home Depot had sales of $81.5 billion and earnings of $5.8 billion. The Company employs approximately 355,000 associates and has been recognized by FORTUNE magazine as the No. 1 Most Admired Specialty Retailer and the No. 13 Most Admired Corporation in America for 2006. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.
About the American National Red Cross:
The American National Red Cross has helped people mobilize to help their neighbors for 125 years. Last year, victims of a record 72,883 disasters, most of them fires, turned to the nearly 1 million volunteers and 35,000 employees of the Red Cross for help and hope. Through more than 800 locally supported chapters, more than 15 million people each year gain the skills they need to prepare for and respond to emergencies in their homes, communities and world. Almost 4 million people give blood-the gift of life-through the Red Cross, making it the largest supplier of blood and blood products in the United States. The Red Cross helps thousands of U.S. service members separated from their families by military duty stay connected. As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, a global network of more than 180 national societies, the Red Cross helps restore hope and dignity to the world's most vulnerable people. An average of 91 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends is invested in humanitarian services and programs. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies on donations of time, money and blood to do its work.
About the American Red Cross St. Louis Area Chapter:
Founded in 1917, the American Red Cross St. Louis Area Chapter provides emergency and preparedness assistance more than 407,000 times each year. The Red Cross depends on the efforts of thousands of volunteers and 100 staff to provide a wide range of community support services, including disaster relief, first aid and CPR training, water safety, services to military personnel and support for blood services. The Chapter, a United Way agency, provides programs and services to St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles County and Jefferson County in Missouri, as well as Monroe, St. Clair (including Scott Air Force Base) and part of Madison County in Illinois.
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