Philadelphia Super Network Buick-GMC Dealers Fund New Backpacks Filled with School Supplies for 850 Students at Lewis Elkin Elementary School

Philadelphia, PA., September 9, 2013 /3BL Media/ – Students at Lewis Elkin Elementary School in Philadelphia received a surprise visit on their first day of school today from the Philadelphia Super Network Buick GMC dealers who personally delivered new backpacks filled with essential school supplies for each of them.  The backpacks were made possible through the Buick-GMC dealers’ participation in CBS EcoMedia’s innovative EducationAd program.

Lewis Elkin Elementary is one of seven schools in the Philadelphia-area receiving new school supplies from the Philadelphia Super Network Buick GMC’s EducationAd funding.  Jefferson Elementary School in Trenton, NJ; Walnut Street Elementary School in Darby, PA; McKinley Elementary School in Allentown, PA; North Main Elementary School in Pleasantville, NJ; Ebert-Palmer Elementary School in Wilmington, DE and Sixteenth and Haak Elementary School in Reading, PA are each receiving school supplies. 

In all over 3,200 elementary school students will be receiving School Ready Supplies in either bulk form or individual student backpacks.

EcoMedia’s national nonprofit partner, Kids In Need Foundation, provided the much-needed school supplies for all seven schools.  The funding for the supplies was included in the Buick-GMC Dealers’ EducationAd advertising on CBS, which allows advertisers to support community projects like the backpacks filled with folders, notebooks, crayons, pens and pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, glue sticks, scissors, rulers and highlighters. 

Philadelphia Super Network Buick-GMC dealers participated in a special assembly for today’s backpack giveaway at Lewis Elkin Elementary, passing out individual student backpacks filled with school supplies to every student who attended the opening day of school.  Geoff Penske of Penske Buick GMC hosted the giveaway portion of the event along with Mary Sanchez, Principal of Lewis Elkin Elementary; Dave Smith, Executive Director of Kids In Need Foundation and Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia Inc. Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Cheryl Logan, was also on hand to celebrate the new school supplies and thank the Buick-GMC dealers for their generosity.

“This is such a wonderful opportunity for the families of Lewis Elkin Elementary School, said principal, Mary Sanchez.  “All of our students will have the supplies they need to start the year and continue towards a successful year.  We really appreciate GMC-Buick and Kids In Need helping our students who may not have had school supplies.”

“If we want to prosper in the future we must invest in the education of our children,” said Geoff Penske of Penske Buick GMC. “With seemingly endless budget cuts it becomes crucial for our community members to join together to be sure our children are prepared for and are receiving the best education we can possibly provide. By providing these students with their own backpacks full of supplies we will be able to impact their education as well as their self-esteem as they enter this new school year. Hopefully with this assistance from CBS EcoMedia, The Kids in Need Foundation and the Philadelphia Buick GMC Super Network of dealers we can help our most valuable asset, our children.”

"We commend EcoMedia and the Philadelphia Super Network Buick GMC Dealers for understanding how important it is for students to have school supplies," said Dave Smith, executive director of the Kids In Need Foundation. "Having the school supplies means these Philadelphia students will not have to worry about how they will fully participate in classroom activities or how they will get their homework done.  To eliminate this barrier for the kids and alleviate the burden teachers often assume of providing supplies to students out of their own pockets are the reasons the Kids In Need Foundation exists. But we can't do it without the support of our partners."  

“At thousands of schools across the country today, students will arrive from home without the most basic supplies.  So often, our teachers step in to fill that gap, paying for paper, pencils -- even textbooks! – out of their own pockets.  But it shouldn’t be teachers’ burden to bear, “ said Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia.  "Today, thanks to generous financial support provided by the Philadelphia Super Network Buick-GMC Dealers to the Kids in Need Foundation through our EducationAd Program, 850 students at Lewis Elkin Elementary School will each receive a backpack filled with school supplies; at six other area schools, more than 3,200 students will receive School Ready Supplies. This project is a powerful reminder of the positive impact we can make when we all work together -- the philosophy behind the public-private partnership business model at the core of our EducationAd, WellnessAd, and EcoAd Programs.”  

About Philadelphia Super Network Buick-GMC Dealers

The Super Network Buick GMC Local Marketing Association (LMA) is comprised of dealers in the Tri-State Philadelphia area, spanning Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  As local representatives of both the Buick and GMC brands, we offer a large selection of new and used Buick and GMC models. Our dealers are pleased to have the opportunity to help promote educational needs in our community and provide much needed resources to young students.

About Buick & GMC

GMC, committed to manufacturing performance vehicles since 1902, and is one of the industry's healthiest brands and we are proud to represent them. Through innovation and engineering excellence, GMC has evolved and now offers fuel-efficient trucks and crossovers, including the Terrain small SUV and Acadia crossover.

Buick, a modern luxury brand, offers vehicles with sculpted designs, luxurious interiors with thoughtful personal technologies, along with responsive-yet-efficient performance.

The Kids In Need Foundation

is a national 501(c)(3) charitable organization with offices in Dayton, Ohio, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Founded in 1995, the Foundation’s mission is to ensure that every child is prepared to learn and succeed by providing free school supplies nationally to students most in need. The Kids In Need National Network of Resource Centers includes 29 facilities where teachers from low-income schools go to obtain free school supplies for their students. In addition, two Kids In Need Teacher Grant programs provide

 K-12 educators with funding to provide innovative learning experiences for students. The Kids In Need Foundation has distributed $450 million in school supplies since its founding, directly benefiting 2.4 million students and 100,000 teachers annually, and has awarded $1.4 million in grants to teachers.  Kids In Need has received Charity Navigator’s highest four-star rating for four years, indicating that it operates in a fiscally responsible way and outperforms most other charities in America, and has earned the GuideStar Exchange Seal, demonstrating its commitment to transparency.  For more information, visit www.kinf.org.

Join Kids In Need Foundation on Twitter at twitter.com/kidsinneed and Facebook at facebook.com/kidsinneed.

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 2010, 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.