Celebrating 10 Years of Home Owners Helping SickKids Foundation

Annual Charity Calendar Has Raised More Than $1 Million

ST. JACOBS, ON, Dec. 1 /CNW/ - As national sponsors of SickKids Foundation, Home Hardware Dealers coast-to-coast-to coast have proudly stocked their store shelves with a special charity calendar for the past ten years. In 1999, the Home Hardware Charity calendar in support of SickKids Foundation was first introduced and since that time has raised more than $1 million for SickKids Foundation. The $128,000 raised through sales of the 2010 Calendar was presented as a charitable donation to president and CEO of SickKids Foundation, Ted Garrard , on Monday, November 16 .

SickKids Foundation was founded in 1973 and helps fund ground breaking improvements in research and treatment of paediatric care. With 16 per cent of the Foundation's revenue coming from corporate partnerships, the year-round fundraising efforts of Home Hardware Dealers across Canada play a significant role supporting the continued success of SickKids.

"Home Hardware is proud to support the world-renowned paediatric research at SickKids which is improving the lives of children across Canada everyday," said Paul Straus , Vice-President and CEO of Home Hardware Stores Limited. "Through our cross country network, the annual Charity Calendar reaches communities large and small and provides Canadians with an opportunity to help ensure children's health and well-being remains a national priority. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the SickKids Foundation and many more years of the Charity Calendar to come."

"We appreciate the tremendous contributions Home Hardware has made to the SickKids Foundation through the calendar program since 1999," said Ted Garrard , president and CEO of SickKids Foundation. "Having strong, Canadian partners is crucial to our success in paediatric research. We'd like to thank the Home Hardware Dealers for putting this calendar front and centre in their stores each year to help support the innovative and groundbreaking research of SickKids."

Home Hardware Charity 2010 calendars are available at more than 1,000 Home Hardware stores across Canada . Proceeds will be donated to the Sick Kids Foundation.

About Home Hardware

Home Hardware Stores Limited is Canada's largest independent hardware, lumber and building materials and furniture retailer with more than 1,000 stores across Canada , under the Home Hardware, Home Building Centre, Home Hardware Building Centre and Home Furniture banners. Dealers have access to 100,000 quality brand name and private label products and the company has annual retail sales of $4.85 billion . The cooperative was founded on January 1, 1964 by 122 independent hardware dealers.

/NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: A photo accompanying this release is available at http://photos.newswire.ca. Images are free to accredited members of the media/

For further information: Claire Trainor, Public Relations Coordinator, Home Hardware Stores Limited at [phone] x6676 or [email protected]