Domtar Corporation & Nonprofit Partner, First Book, Give Grant to Ashdown Elementary School for New Books
Domtar Corporation (NYSE: UFS) (TSX: UFS) today announced that employee volunteers from the company’s pulp and paper manufacturing mill in Ashdown, AR will visit Ashdown Elementary School today from 9:00-10:00AM to donate and read new books to the school’s children as part of its partnership with First Book. Domtar makes a wide variety of everyday products from sustainable wood fiber, and is one of the world’s largest producers of a complete line of absorbent hygiene solutions and an innovator in absorbent technology. Domtar’s pulp and paper mill in Ashdown employs 800 people in the local community.
Employees from Domtar will read to the Kindergarteners of Ashdown Elementary School, located at 1323 Foster Drive, Ashdown, Arkansas. The grant provided by Domtar funded the purchase of 175 books for the school. Each of the Kindergarteners will be able to take home one of the books donated by Domtar, and the remaining books will go into the classroom libraries.
This is the second grant that Domtar has provided to Ashdown Elementary School in the last year. Last April, Domtar provided a grant that enabled the school to purchase 150 books from First Book for students to read and enjoy.
“Domtar is so grateful for the wonderful relationship that we’ve developed with the students and teachers of Ashdown Elementary School through our book grants and volunteer reading events,” said Domtar Corporate Responsibility Manager, Heather Alverson Stowe. “We’re committed to promoting literacy, one of Domtar’s core corporate giving pillars, by continuing to put books in the hands of children in the Ashdown community—it’s a cause that is close to our hearts and core to our business.”
As part of its Powerful Pages campaign, Domtar has partnered with First Book, a nonprofit social enterprise that provides books to children in need, since 2012 to provide more than half a million dollars in grants to schools and programs in towns that are home to Domtar facilities. Domtar’s grants provide funding to educators to purchase books through the First Book Marketplace, a website available exclusively to First Book programs, and then the school’s children are able to bring home the new books.
“Access to books is transformational in the lives of our children and the educators who serve them,” said Kyle Zimmer, First Book president and CEO. “Domtar’s work with First Book has opened up a world of opportunities to children who might not otherwise have books at home.”
About Domtar
Domtar is a leading provider of a wide variety of fiber-based products including communication, specialty and packaging papers, market pulp and absorbent hygiene products. With approximately 10,000 employees serving more than 50 countries around the world, Domtar is driven by a commitment to turn sustainable wood fiber into useful products that people rely on every day. Domtar’s annual sales are approximately $5.1 billion, and its common stock is traded on the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges. Domtar’s principal executive office is in Fort Mill, South Carolina. To learn more, visit www.domtar.com.
About First Book
First Book is a nonprofit social enterprise that has distributed more than 100 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the United States and Canada. By making new, high-quality books available on an ongoing basis, First Book is transforming the lives of children in need and elevating the quality of education. For more information, please visit us online or follow our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.
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