FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Focus America Ships School Supplies to Poor in Pembroke, IL

August 10, 2003-CONVENT STATION, NJ: Focus America, a NJ Non-Profit Corporation, announced that they have collected and shipped hundreds of items to the Pembroke Community Consolidated Schools in Hopkins Park, IL.

During the summer, Focus America ran a donation drive to acquire school supplies and uniforms for the children attending the K-8 public school in Hopkins Park, IL. Degussa Corporation in Parsippany, NJ provided financial assistance toward the purchase of new clothing (navy pants and skirts, white collared shirts) for the students.

In addition, the Madison Baptist Church (Madison, NJ) ran a donation drive to collect school supplies for the Pembroke community during their Vacation Bible School program during the summer. Hundreds of items, including notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, crayons, scissors, folders, and other supplies were collected and shipped to Pembroke from their efforts.

“Our role is to motivate the kids to put what we learn each day into action,” says Jennifer Ranck of the Madison Baptist Church. Ranck also noted that she was pleased with the response to the drives and that although the camp has finished, the church continues to accept donations.

Founded in October 2002, Focus America selected Pembroke as their flagship project, adopting the community after reading about their plight in The New York Times. The first project was collecting and shipping 50 uniforms to Pembroke, an extremely poverty-stricken community in Kankakee County, Illinois, in order to help students return to the classroom after a uniform dress code was implemented. Volunteers also collected and distributed food, coats, hats, and Christmas presents during the 2002-2003 winter.

Focus America provides 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 focus 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 eliminate poverty in these communities while developing the business skills of the volunteers who create, implement, and manage the projects.

For more information, 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