Carpet One Members Supporters of Local and Nationa

Manchester, NH, February 18--During the past year, Carpet One has made a strong commitment on both a national and local level to support a range of worthy causes. This year, the floor covering retail group launched two new cause-related campaigns – one to support breast cancer awareness and one to join USA Weekend magazine’s National "Make A Difference Day." Plus, they continued to contribute to the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation corporately and at a local level. "With over 1,000 locations across North America, we have the ability to help hundreds of communities and thousands of people," explained Evan Hackel, president of Carpet One. "Our stores have really embraced the campaigns Carpet One introduced this year – they are realizing how important it is to give back to the community that supports their business and how powerful Carpet One can be when we join forces." Carpet One kicked off their year of community service last spring, when they introduced the "Carpet One Makes A Difference" program to their retailers, in continuing support of children’s literacy and education. In July, Carpet One stores across the U.S. and Canada held elections, inviting customers to vote for their local elementary school library to receive a flooring makeover. Each store tallied their votes and announced their winning schools in August, just in time for the back-to-school season. The makeovers took place on October 23, 2004, which was USA Weekend magazine’s National Make A Difference Day – the largest national day of community service. Over 100 school libraries received makeovers courtesy of Carpet One stores. The makeovers included everything from installing new carpet to creating a reading area; from re-painting the walls to inviting a local artist to create a mural. Participating stores, volunteers and teachers agreed – these makeovers truly created a more positive learning environment for the students, which made all their hard work and efforts worthwhile. Carpet One stores donated and installed over 80,000 sq. feet of flooring to complete makeovers that together are worth more than $250,000! Approximately 30,000 school children from all over North America benefited from this campaign. October was a busy month for Carpet One – they also kicked-off their "Carpet One Welcomes Your Support" campaign for National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Over 800 Carpet One stores donated profits from sales of specially designed pink ribbon welcome mats to their local American Cancer Society chapters and Canadian Cancer Society community offices. All funds raised are going to support breast cancer research, advocacy, awareness and patient services. Carpet One is already looking forward to their spring "Carpet One Welcomes Your Support" campaign, which will officially begin in April. They will be introducing new welcome mat designs – profits from which will also support the fight against breast cancer. Patrice Case from Florcraft Carpet One in Anchorage and Fairbanks, AK reported that her store sold over 200 welcome mats in the fall. "We felt we needed to get the word out about the breast cancer welcome mats in as many forms of media as we could – and we were able to attract a lot of attention to this campaign," explained Case. "We are very excited to be able to offer such a wonderful product to help this worthy cause and we’re really looking forward to the spring program." Carpet One set a goal of raising $250,000 for the year in the U.S. alone. After the success of the fall program, they are well on their way to reaching that goal during the spring campaign. Carpet One Contributes to the Toys for Tots Foundation for the Seventh Year During the holiday season, Carpet One stores donated children’s books to kids in their communities through the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation.