OMX Officemax Incorporated

Celebrities Take Part in National Event to Surprise and Support Teachers NAPERVILLE, Ill., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, thousands of OfficeMax associates will be joined by their local community and some of the nation's most popular celebrities as they surprise each teacher with a classroom gift worth more than $1000 including a supply cart, swivel chair, digital camera and other classroom materials as part of the 'A Day Made Better' national event. OfficeMax conducts this annual event in schools across the country, including Alaska, Hawaii, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, to draw national support for teachers. This year, 'A Day Made Better' has attracted participation from leading celebrities. Kicking off on October 1, celebrities including Penny Marshall, renowned actress and director, Stacey Keibler, 'Dancing with the Stars' contestant and former WWE standout, and Audrina Patridge from 'The Hills' will visit Los Angeles area schools to surprise and recognize a special teacher. More celebrities are showing their support by sending a special gift to their favorite teacher including Cindy Crawford, Jimmy Fallon, Dakota Fanning, Marcia Gay Harden, Dustin Hoffman, Felicity Huffman, Ashton Kutcher, Julianne Moore, Jeremy Piven, Jeff Probst, Dennis Quaid, Molly Simms, Jessica Simpson, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Keisha Whitaker. "Teachers inspire and shape our country's greatest asset, our children, and it is astounding that they are left to cover the cost of doing a good job," said Bob Thacker, senior vice president of marketing for OfficeMax. "Today, OfficeMax is taking action to inspire a national movement of grassroots support for teachers." According to a 2005 National Education Association (NEA) online survey of more than 3 million members, teachers spend about $1,200 of their own money each year -- collectively nearly $4 billion annually -- to offset school budget shortfalls and ensure that children have necessary classroom resources to learn effectively. "Recent school budget cuts come at a time when our school is making academic progress, and the resources made available to our teachers through 'A Day Made Better' are critical to the continued success of our students," said Kathleen John-Louissaint, Principal of Morningside Elementary School in Miami, Florida. "'A Day Made Better' improves teacher morale, provides more supplies for our children and our classrooms, and ultimately impacts the quality of education we offer our students." OfficeMax partners with Adopt-A-Classroom, an innovative not-for-profit organization supporting teachers in the classroom (http://www.adoptaclassroom.org/), to drive national support direct to teachers. "Outside of the home, the teacher is the primary influence on our children," said Jamie Rosenberg, Founder and Executive Director of Adopt-A-Classroom, which has raised more than $8 million on behalf of classrooms since its inception, and will celebrate its tenth anniversary this November. "Despite the fact that our country will need up to 2.4 million more teachers by 2010, we continue to lose half of our teachers within their first five years primarily due to lack of support. Today, 'A Day Made Better' events serve as a wake-up call to the country to show our teachers need support now." OfficeMax first launched 'A Day Made Better' events in October 2007, conducting 1,000 nearly simultaneous classroom surprises all across the country on a single day. Emphasizing community action, the 2007 campaign attracted media headlines nationwide and helped Adopt-A-Classroom increase the number of classrooms adopted for donation by more than 1,400 percent. About OfficeMax OfficeMax Incorporated (NYSE:OMX) is a leader in both business-to- business office products solutions and retail office products. The OfficeMax mission is simple. We help our customers do their best work. The company provides office supplies and paper, in-store print and document services through OfficeMax ImPress(R), technology products and solutions, and furniture to consumers and to large, medium and small businesses. OfficeMax customers are served by approximately 32,000 associates through direct sales, catalogs, e-commerce and nearly 1,000 stores. To find the nearest OfficeMax, call 1-877-OFFICEMAX. For more information, visit http://www.officemax.com/. OfficeMax Media Contacts OfficeMax Investor Contact Bill Bonner Jennifer Rook John Jennings 630 864 6066 630 864 6057 630 864 6820 DATASOURCE: OfficeMax CONTACT: Media, Bill Bonner, +1-630-864-6066, or Jennifer Rook, +1-630-864-6057, or Investors, John Jennings, +1-630-864-6820, all of OfficeMax Web site: http://www.officemax.com/ http://www.adoptaclassroom.org/

Copyright