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A Back-to-School sweepstakes offered by The Office Depot is helping reverse the fate of a Hattiesburg elementary school hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. Chosen randomly from 2 million entries, the school won the $100,000 "Great Tools for Your School" sweepstakes that is part of the office supply giant’s 5% Back to Schools program.
 "Our school has been through so much in the past 15 months," said Christopher Furdge, Principal of Earl Travillion Attendance Center. "Fate simply hasn't been on our side. I don't have the words to describe how lucky we feel to win. Thanks to Office Depot, we now have a great start to help our students succeed and develop the skills to achieve their dreams."
As part of the contest, the school also got a visit from NASCAR star Carl Edwards, who helped deliver the technology and classroom supplies. Edwards drove up to the school—Earl Travillion Attendance Center—behind the wheel of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion. He also spoke to the 250 kindergarten through sixth grade students at a school assembly and visited classrooms to meet and take pictures with students and teachers.
"When I heard about what these kids and this school have gone through since Hurricane Katrina, it really put things in perspective," said Edwards, a former substitute teacher and current Ambassador for Youth for National PTA.
The prize package included a new backpack for each child, a $9,999 school scholarship, 35 Sauder desks, $99 merchandise cards and Foray messenger bags for the school's teachers, laptop computers from Toshiba, and other products from Microsoft, Sanford writing products, Paper Mate, and 3M.
Office Depot, a leading global provider of office products and services, has annual sales of nearly $15 billion, and employs approximately 50,000 associates around the world.
"Office Depot has an unwavering commitment to supporting schools, teachers and education," said Tony Ueber, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Office Depot. "Our '5% Back to Schools' program provides much-needed supplies for schools across the country, and our National Backpack Program reached a milestone this year when we donated our one-millionth backpack. Through these programs, we've seen first-hand how providing some basic supplies for students helps boost their self-esteem, confidence and pride."
Schools were automatically entered into the national "Great Tools for Your School" sweepstakes through Office Depot's 5% Back to Schools program that turns purchases into credits that schools can use for classroom supplies year-round. Any time a parent, teacher or student buys school supplies at Office Depot, they can give their school's 5% Back to Schools ID at the register and 5% of their qualified purchase will be donated back to the school of their choice on a quarterly basis. Any school that participated in the program from July through September was eligible for a chance to win this promotion.
Since the program began in 1999, the Office Depot 5% Back to Schools program has granted millions of dollars in merchandise credits each year to more than 35,000 schools in the U.S. and Canada.
Edwards and Office Depot also honored the winning school by featuring the "ETAC Tigers" name on the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion during the November 5, 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
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