Baltimore Buick-GMC Dealers Fund School Ready Supplies From Kids In Need Foundation For Brehms Lane Elementary School

BALTIMORE, MD., September 13, 2013 /3BL Media/ – Baltimore Buick GMC Dealers made a surprise visit to Brehms Lane Elementary School yesterday to delight the students and staff with their delivery of essential school supplies for the year ahead.  The Baltimore Buick-GMC dealers dramatically revealed the dozens of cartons worth of supplies at a special assembly held Thursday morning at Brehms Lane.  The unveiling of the of assorted pens, pencils, glue sticks, crayons, markers and notebooks was made possible through the Buick-GMC dealers’ participation in CBS EcoMedia’s innovative EducationAd program.

EcoMedia’s national nonprofit partner, Kids In Need Foundation, provided the much-needed school supplies for Brehms Lane Elementary.  The funding for the bulk supplies was included in the Buick-GMC Dealers’ EducationAd advertising on CBS, which allows advertisers to support community projects like providing underserved schools and their students with free school supplies. 

Baltimore Buick-GMC dealers participated in a special assembly in which they literally pulled the curtains back to reveal the stacks of cartons filled with the School Ready Supplies for the start of the new school year.  Tom Williams of Anchor Buick GMC and President of the Baltimore Buick-GMC, and Fred Whitt, Zone Manager of General Motors, hosted the event along with Wendy Hamlin, Principal of Brehms Lane Elementary School; Jay Newman, vice president and general manager of WJZ-TV and Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia Inc. 

“When we, the Baltimore Buick-GMC dealers, were presented with this idea, we jumped at the chance to offer students the tools they need to get off to get a great start in the new school year, said Tom Williams,President of the Baltimore Buick-GMC. “Education is the most important tool we can provide today’s youth to allow for a bright future.”

"We commend EcoMedia and the Baltimore 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 Baltimore 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."  

“The donations will take the burden off families who are unable to purchase school supplies,” said Brehms Lane Elementary School Principal, Wendy Hamlin. “The students and staff are honored to be recipients of these gifts.”

“At thousands of schools across the country today, students will arrive from home without the most basic supplies. And so often, it is our teachers who 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 Baltimore Buick-GMC Dealers to School Ready Supplies through our EducationAd Program, the students at Brehms Lane Elementary School will receive the supplies they need. This project is a powerful reminder of the positive impact we can make when we all work together and an illustration of the tangible and meaningful results accomplished by our EducationAd, WellnessAd, and EcoAd Programs.”

About Baltimore Buick-GMC Local Marketing Association
The Baltimore Buick GMC Local Marketing Association (LMA) is comprised of six dealers that span across the state of Maryland; Anchor Buick GMC (Elkton, MD), Anderson of Hunt Valley Buick GMC (Hunt Valley, MD), Boyle Buick GMC (Abingdon, MD), Heritage Buick (Owings Mills, MD), Wilkins Buick GMC (Glen Burnie, MD), and Win Kelly Buick GMC (Clarksville, MD). As local representatives of both the Buick and GMC brands, each dealer strives to make a positive impact in their communities as well as the greater Baltimore area. We are committed to serving our community through excellence and dedication and are pleased to 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.