For Further Information, Please Contact Dee Andrews 770-548-5810

For further information, please contact Dee Andrews – 770-548-5810 – [email protected]

GRIFFIN-SPALDING BACK TO SCHOOL EVENT LARGEST IN NATION

Norcom, Inc. and other community sponsors will hold the largest Back-To-School event in the nation on July 28 providing every teacher in the county with free school supplies to support their students who are unable to afford school necessities. Called the Education Celebration, last year’s event yielded 11 tractor-trailer loads of products that lasted many Spalding County students the entire year.

Event organizers expect even more instructional supplies ranging from envelopes to dry erase markers for the 2010 Education Celebration, and teachers will be able to come in and select what they need for their classrooms, including basic supplies like pens, copy paper, pencils, notebooks, erasers, notebook paper, art and activity items, crayons and much more for distribution to their students.

The event was conceived by Hal Rahn, president of Griffin-based school supply manufacturer Norcom, Inc. Rahn’s objective is to ease the financial burden on teachers who voluntarily provide supplies to their students and to ensure that needy children have all the tools they need to learn and succeed.

Although spearheaded by Norcom, the event - that is now in its fourth year - involves every facet of the Spalding community plus Kids In Need (a project of the Atlanta Community Food Bank). The Education Celebration relies on community support such as from the Griffin Wal-Mart SuperCenter, Griffin Rotary Club, Griffin-Spalding Education Foundation, Griffin-Spalding Partners in Education, Nickell Equipment Rental & Sales, Georgia Banking Company, and many more sponsors.

Money donated by sponsors goes toward purchasing products not manufactured by Norcom such as pocket prong folders, rulers and scissors for the Kids In Need Store.

While other school districts have been the recipients of donated instructional supplies, the Griffin event will be the nation’s largest. Founded in 1995, The Kids In Need Foundation has distributed more than $300 million in free school supplies to low-income schools. It serves more than 1.6 million students and 100,000 teachers annually, as a resource to reduce the need for teachers having to spend their own money on instructional materials.

Over 900 teachers, community leaders and sponsors will assemble in the Griffin Auditorium the morning of July 28. for the Education Celebration ribbon-cutting program featuring guest speakers. After the program, teachers are scheduled to shop at the Free Store for Teachers in Spalding High School where they will pile their shopping baskets with so many supplies that volunteers from Griffin and Spalding High School’s JROTC and football programs will be needed to help load the teachers’ vehicles.