NASCAR Driver Tony Stewart and the Office Depot Foundation Team up to Donate 3,700 Backpacks to Chicagoland Children in Need

Office Depot® (NYSE:ODP), a leading global provider of office products and services, and the Office Depot Foundation announced today that Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™, will join the Foundation on Wednesday, July 8 to donate 3,700 backpacks to non-profit organizations and schools in the Chicagoland area.

The donations will be made during a special "Back-to-School Backpack Celebration” beginning at 4 p.m. local time at the Office Depot store located at 2928 North Ashland Ave. in Chicago. In addition to Stewart, special guests scheduled to attend include Chicago Alderman Toni Preckwinkle and Dave Kornecki, Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. John Fritchey.

This year, the Office Depot Foundation celebrates an extraordinary milestone as it donates its 2-millionth backpack since the inception of the National Backpack Program in 2001.

"The Foundation believes strongly that we are helping children to build self-confidence, boost self-esteem and achieve greater success in the classroom – all as a result of being well-prepared for school,” stated Foundation President Mary Wong. "We are extremely pleased to be able to donate our 2-millionth backpack at a time when so many children and families are dealing with the impact of the economic downturn.”

This Chicago event marks the first time that Stewart, who joined forces with Office Depot in 2009 as his primary sponsor in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™, will host a backpack event with the Office Depot Foundation. He is scheduled to host several more events across the country throughout the year, and this weekend, his No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevy will feature a special back-to-school paint scheme during the July 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ Lifelock.com 400 race at Chicagoland Speedway (Saturday, July 11, 7:30 p.m. EST, TNT). The colorful paint scheme will feature images of many essential school supplies kids need in the classroom, including crayons, pencils, highlighters, a composition book, scissors and more.

"It’s great to team up with Office Depot and the Office Depot Foundation for the first backpack donation event of the year,” said Stewart, who has taken on the role of driver/owner in 2009 with his own team, Stewart-Haas Racing. "It’s humbling for me to be part of such a terrific program that truly makes a difference in the lives of so many kids by providing them with the tools they need to succeed at school.”

Stewart also said he was looking forward to sporting a special back-to-school paint scheme on his No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevy at Chicagoland Speedway.

"I know a lot of kids probably don’t want to hear it, as it is the middle of July, but back-to-school time is right around the corner. The paint scheme we’ll run at Chicagoland reflects that, as it shows off all the products Office Depot has for parents to get their kids ready to go back to school,” Stewart said. "It’s like your shopping list is right on the race car.”

The non-profit organizations and schools selected to participate in the July 8 backpack donation event include:

• Chicago Public Schools
• PUSH for Excellence
• Chicago Youth Programs
• Casa Central
• Jane Addams Hull House Association
• Latino Organization of the Southwest
• Jewish Child & Family Services
• Communities In Schools of Chicago
• Speedway Children’s Charities

While the scale of the Office Depot Foundation National Backpack Program is global, it makes a difference on an individual level for every child it reaches. "We have thousands of clients who can’t afford book bags and end up bringing their school supplies in a plastic grocery bag,” says Mark Tisdahl, In-Kind Manager and Group Volunteer Coordinator for the Jane Addams Hull House Association in Chicago. "The plastic grocery bag is ineffective in carrying school supplies and books, but it is also humiliating. Due to these generous donations, we have been able to end the humiliation of hundreds of students scared to go to school without a backpack.”

To distribute the backpacks, the Foundation is hosting 25 "Back-to-School Backpack Celebrations” in cities across the United States and Canada – five of which will also feature Stewart. Thousands of backpacks also are being donated by Office Depot stores in hundreds of local communities and in collaboration with Office Depot’s Business Solutions Division in select cities.

Thousands more backpacks will be distributed through the Office Depot Foundation’s partnerships with several national non-profit organizations – including the Tony Stewart Foundation, the National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association, City Year, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), Feed The Children, the Kids In Need Foundation, Nourish America and the National Foundation for Women Legislators, whose members will give backpacks to children in all 50 states. For the second consecutive year, backpack donations will be made to children of the Navajo Nation in Arizona and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.For Office Depot store locations, please click on Office Depot: Your Local Office Supply Store to find locations near you.

For more information on the Office Depot Foundation, go to www.officedepotfoundation.org/.

About the Office Depot Foundation

The Office Depot Foundation is an independent foundation (tax exempt under IRC Sec. 501(c)(3)) that serves as the independent charitable giving arm of Office Depot, Inc. In keeping with its mission, Listen Learn Care^®, the Foundation supports a variety of programs that help children succeed in school and in life; enable civil society (non-profit) organizations to become more efficient and effective; help people and businesses prepare for disasters, then recover and rebuild afterwards; strengthen local communities through grants, product donations and volunteerism; and encourage community development through entrepreneurship and economic innovation. For more information, visit www.officedepotfoundation.org.

About Office Depot

Every day, Office Depot is Taking Care of Business for millions of customers around the globe. For the local corner store as well as Fortune 500 companies, Office Depot provides products and services to its customers through 1,604 worldwide retail stores, a dedicated sales force, top-rated catalogs and a $4.6 billion e-commerce operation. Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $14.5 billion, and employs about 42,000 associates around the world. The Company provides more office products and services to more customers in more countries than any other company, and currently sells to customers directly or through affiliates in 48 countries.

Office Depot’s common stock is listed 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.

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