FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Degussa Corporation Supports
Focus America Free School Supply Initiative

August 15, 2003-CONVENT STATION, NJ: Focus America, a NJ Non-Profit Corporation, received financial assistance from Degussa Corporation in Parsippany, NJ to help fund a community-based initiative to provide school supplies to children of low-income families in Morris, Passaic, and Essex county. During the summer, Focus America ran numerous donation drives to acquire school supplies for distribution during the last two weeks of August. The funding from Degussa will be used to purchase additional supplies so that children in need can receive new backpacks, notebooks, calculators, pens, math kits, and dictionaries.

"Education is the first step in escaping poverty,” says Shelly Zimmerman, Founder and President of Focus America. “We want to insure that no child returns to school without the proper tools for the chance to perform well.”

Distribution of the school supplies will begin over the next few weeks in the Morristown, NJ community through churches. Additional supplies will be given to children in Paterson and Passaic based upon request via the Focus America website.

ABOUT DEGUSSA

Degussa Corporation, located in Parsippany, New Jersey, is the North American subsidiary of Degussa, which is a multinational company consistently aligned to highly profitable specialty chemistry. With sales of $12.3 billion and a workforce of some 48,000, Degussa is Germany’s third largest chemical company and world market leader in specialty chemicals. In fiscal 2002, the company generated operating profits (EBIT) of more than $900 million. Degussa’s core strength lies in highly effective system solutions that are tailored to the requirements of its customers in over 100 countries throughout the world. Degussa’s activities are led by the vision “Everybody benefits from a Degussa product – every day and everywhere.” The company also owns and operates production facilities,R&D and applied technology centers throughout Nafta.

For more information, visit their website at http://www.degussa.com or call

ABOUT FOCUS AMERICA

Founded in October 2002, Focus America is a 100% volunteer non-profit corporation that provides various levels of community support through the talents, skills, and dedication of an extensive network of volunteers, mostly college students from Northern New Jersey as well as a few out-of-state universities. The volunteers work specifically with destitute and underserved communities, focusing on addressing basic needs (shelter, food, and clothing) then introducing mentor programs to help improve the self-esteem of the hardest hit members of these communities: the children. Their ultimate goal is to help eliminate poverty in these underdeveloped communities while developing the business skills of the college-aged volunteers who create, implement, and manage the projects.

For more information about Focus America or how to donate items, contact Shelly Zimmerman at szimmerman@focusamerica.org or visit their website at http://www.focusamerica.org.

CONTACT: Shelly Zimmerman, President and Founder
PO Box 267
Convent Station, NJ 07961
862-812-0648 (cell) or 973-993-8639 (home)
szimmerman@focusamerica.org