Press Release

Operation Homefront Launches Nationwide Donation Campaign

7/8/2010

 SAN ANTONIO -- Operation Homefront and Dollar Tree team up to collect new school supplies for children of all ages.  More than 3,800 Dollar Tree and Deal$ stores around the nation will be collecting school supplies from July 11 through August 2, with a goal of collecting enough school supplies to fill 21,000 backpacks during the campaign.

Dollar Tree customers will be provided the opportunity to purchase school supplies for military families.  Once the items are purchased, they may be placed into a drop box located near the checkout counters.

“Dollar Tree is proud to continue its national sponsorship of Operation Homefront,” said Chelle Davis, Dollar Tree spokesperson. “The ‘Back-to-School Brigade’ is a fun and rewarding program. We are honored to participate and support our military neighbors who sacrifice so much.”

Operation Homefront volunteers will collect and distribute all donated items. In locations where Operation Homefront does not have a chapter, volunteers will provide local Family Readiness Groups with school supplies for their command families.  Items needed for donation include: spiral notebooks, pens, pencils, markers, crayons, notebook paper, rulers, colored pencils, calculators, erasers, etc. The program saves military families a major education expense, especially those experiencing financial hardships.  Last year was a very good year, back-to-school backpack distributions increased 132% in 2009, with approximately 19,000 distributed nationally.  The 2009 program resulted in more than $1.2 million in education supply savings to military families.

For general information on how to participate in the Back-to-School Brigade program, please contact a local Operation Homefront chapter.  A list of OH chapters is located at www.operationhomefront.net/chapters.asp.  Persons interested in contributing to the program, but short on time to shop for items to donate, may sponsor a child’s back pack for $35.00.  This can be done by visiting www.operationhomefront.net/donate.aspxand clicking on the “Donate Now!” button.  Specify “Back-to-School Brigade program” in the comments.