The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced this month that they will be providing $1 million in funding for its 2010 Pro Trade Scholarship Program. The Home Depot Foundation has now more than tripled a $300,000 scholarship fund it first established in 2009 to support students attending professional building and construction trade schools.
Scholarship Breakdown
This year's program will not only support individual students, but also the schools they are attending. Specifically, $1,000 scholarships will be made available to 500 trade school students to help them offset various educational costs of tuition, books and tools needed for their chosen trade. The schools of the scholarship recipients will also receive additional funds for classroom tools from The Home Depot Foundation through matching gifts of $1,000 for each scholarship that is awarded to one or more of their students.
Home Depot Leaders Speak
"Professional contractors are important customers of The Home Depot, and their future is vital to the American dream of home ownership and economic growth," said Chris Waits, vice president of The Home Depot Sales & Services, who is pleased with such a huge growth in the program, which tripled from $300,000 to $1 million in just a year. "Now, more than ever, we want to help our current and future pros build successful businesses."
Scholarship Applications Being Accepted
Scholarship applications will be accepted through April 30, 2010 online at www.homedepot.com/tradescholarship, and are also available in a downloadable Spanish language format. The scholarship program is open to all students nationwide who are currently enrolled in a building and construction trade school program at a vocational/technical school, college or university. Winners will be selected based on a combination of academic performance, leadership and work experience.
About The Home Depot Corporation
The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,245 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces, Mexico and China. In fiscal 2008, The Home Depot had sales of $71.3 billion and earnings from continuing operations of $2.3 billion. The Company employs more than 300,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index
The new, expanded Home Depot scholarship program will ensure that future home builders of America will be able have the tools they need to strive for success.
Mary McCarthy - Mary T. McCarthy is the blogger at pajamasandcoffee.com and Editor of Chesapeake Family magazine.
