FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Focus America Partners with Christmas is for Children

August 30, 2003-CONVENT STATION, NJ: Focus America, a NJ Non-Profit Corporation, announced that they will be partnering with Christmas is for Children, a 501c3 non-profit corporation that distributes holiday gifts to children from impoverished communities throughout New Jersey.

In the past years, Christmas is for Children have distributed holiday gifts to over 1500 children. Each child receives three gifts: one article of clothing, one educational toy, and one fun toy. The collection and distribution of gifts is managed through an extensive network of volunteers, developed over the past 12 years since Christmas is for Children was established by Trisha Murphy Rae in the basement of her former home in Basking Ridge, NJ.

Last year, Focus America adopted numerous children from the Christmas is for Children program when they realized they had more donors than children needing gifts. "Our role is to provide additional help to Christmas is for Children," Shelly Zimmerman, founder of Focus America states. "We will still be collecting and distributing gifts to our adopted children in Pembroke, IL as well as the immigrant population in Morristown, NJ. But our volunteers are quite giving and want to help more children this year so the partnership is a perfect match."

About Focus America

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