AT&T Provides Funding For New Community Learning Garden At Kipp Charlotte Through EcoMedia’s EducationAd Advertising Program

(3BL Media) Charlotte, NC - September 11, 2012 – Students, teachers, parents and community volunteers cut the green ribbon to celebrate the dedication of the new learning garden at KIPP Charlotte today.  “The Faruq Asaad Memorial Learning Garden,” named in honor of the late, beloved seventh grade math teacher at KIPP Charlotte, was built with funding from AT&T through the unique EducationAd advertising program offered by CBS EcoMedia. 

AT&T’s Area Leader for External Affairs, Carlos Sanchez, KIPP Charlotte co-founder and school leader, Tiffany Flowers, KIPP Charlotte Board Secretary and founding Board member, Alice Schulte, Executive Director of Sow Much Good, Robin Emmons, and CBS EcoMedia Inc. President and Founder, Paul Polizzotto, hosted the ribbon cutting on the school campus.  The KIPP Charlotte Honors Chorus performed “Lean on Me,” one of Mr. Asaad’s favorite songs.

With AT&T’s financial support paying for the garden materials and infrastructure, the construction of the garden was spearheaded by Sow Much Good, Inc. in collaboration with volunteer support from community partners Goodwill Industries and Central Piedmont Community College. The garden now enables KIPP Charlotte students to provide community service and address local hunger and nutrition issues by donating the fruits and vegetables they grow to local Charlotte-area shelters and other community agencies.

“As we begin another successful school year at KIPP Charlotte, we aim to build a better tomorrow through service to the community,” said Tiffany Flowers, KIPP Charlotte co-founder and school leader. “The new learning garden will enable us to honor a great man and an amazing educator. Mr. Asaad was well loved by students, families and co-workers.  We miss him dearly and we are pleased that the learning garden will leave a legacy of growth, experiential learning, empowerment and community service. We are very grateful to AT&T, Sow Much Good, CBS EcoMedia and the EducationAd program for making this beautiful learning garden a reality.”

EcoMedia launched the EducationAd program in April 2012, and AT&T quickly became the first CBS Outdoor advertising client to take advantage of the opportunity to fund educational projects through EcoMedia’s nonprofit partners. In July 2012, AT&T financial support provided 18 new scholarships for students in the Charlotte area from Ronald McDonald House Charities^® of North Carolina, and in August 2012, AT&T funding provided science lab equipment and furnishings at Channelside Academy of Math and Science in Tampa, Florida.

“We’re delighted to help make the new learning garden at KIPP Charlotte a reality,” said Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia Inc. “Thanks to AT&T’s generous financial support and the local volunteers who helped build the gardens, students at KIPP now have the opportunity to apply their knowledge of botany and nutrition in the real world. And there are no more important lessons to practice than those related to a healthy diet!  But not only will the KIPP garden benefit the children; the harvest will be donated to needy folks in the surrounding community.  This multi-faceted approach is at the heart of our EducationAd, WellnessAd and EcoAd Programs.  Through our unique public-private partnership paradigm, our corporate clients wring extra value from their advertising dollars, while our non-profit partners and communities across America see tangible, meaningful quality of life improvements. It’s the classic win-win.”

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About AT&T Inc.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse^® and AT&T |DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world.

About KIPP Charlotte  

KIPP Charlotte is a free, open-enrollment, college preparatory public school serving 360 students in grades five through eight. 94 percent of KIPP Charlotte students are African American, 5 percent Latino/Hispanic, and over 70 percent qualify for the free and reduced meal program. KIPP Charlotte serves communities that are traditionally underserved and marginalized in education.

KIPP Charlotte is a member of KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life. There are currently 125 KIPP schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia serving more than 39,000 students.

The mission of KIPP Charlotte is to prepare all of our students to excel in the nation’s finest high schools and colleges by cultivating the habits of mind, character skills, and knowledge necessary for their success. We provide an education that will enable our students to lead full lives and empower our graduates to be the future leaders of Charlotte and agents of change in the world beyond.

About Sow Much Good, Inc.

Sow Much Good, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization that connects with communities to increase access, awareness, solutions and education relative to the link between our environment, health disparities and nutrition. Through organic micro farming, community partnerships and direct education initiatives, Sow Much Good, Inc. provides organic foods at no cost to marginalized populations and creates opportunities for individuals to take part in the development of local, sustainable food source creation. Our core goals focus on creating healthy foods, healthy people and healthy communities through education, diet, nutrition and environmental sustainability. These core goals are intended to address the disproportionate incidence of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hypertension and other preventable diseases that are most markedly seen in low income, under served and under represented populations.

About CBS EcoMedia Inc.

At EcoMedia, we're propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that's been our mission since we founded the company in 2002.  In 2008, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media. 

Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide.  In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change.  Please visit ecomedia.cbs.com to learn more. 

By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities.  EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.