January 27, 2005

Damon Stoudamire and the Trail Blazers will host a school supply drive on Friday, February 4 and Saturday, February 5 when the Trail Blazers take on the Charlotte Bobcats and the Sacramento Kings at the Rose Garden. Collection barrels will be set up at the main entrances to the arena and fans are asked to donate new school supplies to help out Portland Public Schools.

All the supplies collected will be given to Schoolhouse Supplies to support their mission to assist with the educational needs of students in Portland Public Schools. Schoolhouse Supplies is sponsored by the Portland Schools Foundation and provides the community’s surplus products, at no cost, to teachers and children in need. New and surplus products are collected from businesses for teachers working in Portland Public Schools. The free store provides supplies for over 50,000 children in the community.

The supplies needed most include glue sticks, children's scissors, pencils, markers, crayons, backpacks and loose-leaf paper.

If you are unable to attend the Trail Blazers games on February 4 and 5 but would like to help out Portland Public Schools by donating to Schoolhouse Supplies, please call the Trail Blazers office at 503.234.9291, log onto www.blazers.com or www.schoolhousesupplies.org to find out how to donate.