NASCAR® Driver Tony Stewart And The Office Depot Foundation Team Up To Give 6,000 Sackpacks To Kids In The Chicagoland Area

Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE:ODP), a leading global provider of office supplies and services, and the Office Depot Foundation today announced that Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet in the NASCAR® Sprint Cup Series™, will join the Foundation to donate 6,000 new sackpacks to non-profit organizations, schools, and agencies in and around the Chicagoland area.

The Office Depot Foundation will present the sackpacks, which contain essential school supplies, during a special “Back-to-School Celebration” beginning at 3:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, September 13, at the Office Depot store located at 392 E. Rand Road in Arlington Heights. In addition to Stewart, special guests scheduled to attend include Chicago City Clerk Susan Mendoza and Village of Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene J. Mulder.

Stewart is partnering with the Office Depot Foundation for the fourth consecutive year to support the Foundation’s National Backpack Program, which is donating 400,000 sackpacks throughout the 2012 back-to-school season – the most given out in a single year. By the end of this year, the National Backpack Program will have helped more than 2.9 million kids worldwide since 2001.

“With a new school year in full swing, I’m really looking forward to capping off our back to school season celebrations with a visit to Arlington Heights,” said Stewart, the three-time and reigning NASCAR® Sprint Cup Series™ champion. “The Office Depot Foundation continues to do a great job with this program and I’m very proud to be a part of something that continues to help so many kids feel confident about heading back to school with the tools they need to succeed inside the classroom.”

The non-profit organizations, schools and agencies scheduled to receive sackpacks during the “Back-to-School Celebration” on September 13 include:

• Arlington Heights School District 25
• Casa Central
• Chicago Communities in Schools
• Chicago Public Schools
• Chicago Youth Programs
• Community Unit School District 200
• Kids In Need Foundation
• Latino Organization of the Southwest
• Lighthouse Youth Center
• Monarch Awards Foundation
• Rainbow PUSH Coalition

National Backpack Program

Through the National Backpack Program, which is now in its 12 ^th year, the Office Depot Foundation helps deserving children prepare for school by donating specially designed sackpacks throughout the United States and internationally. The sackpacks, which come in seven colorful designs, reflect and respond to changes in the ways that children are taking their materials to school.

During the past five years, the Office Depot Foundation has donated more than 22,000 backpacks and sackpacks in the Chicagoland area.

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