Sleep Country USA Helps Foster Kids With School Supplies Drive

Furniture World Magazine

For more than 23,000 foster kids in Oregon and Washington, keeping up in school is a challenge. To help them get a good start, Sleep Country USA, the Northwest’s largest seller of premium mattresses, announced that it has donated nearly 20,000 school supplies as a result of the tremendous success of its second annual School Supplies Drive. These items included new gifts of pencils, pens, erasers, paper, notebooks, backpacks, binders, and pocket dictionaries. This year’s Sleep Country Foster Kids School Supplies Drive generated donations that exceeded last year’s drive by a whopping twenty-percent. The company attributes this increase to continued community support and an outpouring of donations from area businesses, specifically Celebration Church, the Department of Agriculture, VTM, Inc. and Washington Mutual. Sleep Country USA recently stepped up its outreach efforts to get support from local business, recognizing the impact of the results, and emphasizing to business the ease of participation and the importance for companies to give back to the community through charitable contributions. “Each year, we work to continue to raise awareness about our efforts to help the foster children in our community,” said Terry Horsley, executive vice president marketing & merchandising, Sleep Country USA. “Through targeted advertising, public relations and marketing, we’ve been successful in getting support from individuals and businesses in collecting donations for such an important social cause. As we move into year three of our Foster Kids giving initiative, we’ll strive to significantly increase these donations and deepen the impact of our joint efforts with individuals and corporations.” The School Supplies Drive occurs every August in an effort to prepare foster children for their return to school, a time that can be incredibly challenging. The company is currently conducting its New Coat Drive to help keep foster children warm this winter, and encourages residents and businesses in both Washington and Oregon to bring new coats in every shape and size to any one of the company’s more than 55 stores. The New Coat Drive began on October 2, 2006 and will run through November 19, 2006. About Sleep Country USA Sleep Country USA is the No. 1 mattress seller in the Northwestern United States, with more than 55 retail stores throughout Washington and Oregon. The company was founded in 1991 and features top-quality brand-name mattresses and premium adjustable beds, futons, and wood and metal accent beds. An industry visionary, Sleep Country USA strives to help every customer “choose well to live well.” The company is active in its communities, hosting ongoing events that benefit the areas more than 23,000 foster children. For more information about Sleep Country USA or Sleep Country Foster Kids, please visit www.sleepcountry.com.