The Home Depot Launches Project Homefront to Support Military Families

    ATLANTA, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The Home Depot today announced Project
 Homefront, a national program it has created to help military families repair
 and maintain their homes while a family member is deployed during Operation
 Iraqi Freedom.  In coordination with Rebuilding Together, the country's
 largest volunteer home rehabilitation organization, The Home Depot will commit
 $1 million to the project and one million hours of service through its Team
 Depot volunteer corps.
     "With Project Homefront we are reinforcing a long-standing commitment to
 servicemen and women by lending a helping hand to the families of deployed
 personnel.  In addition to supporting the loved ones of more than 1,700 Home
 Depot associates who have been deployed in this conflict, Project Homefront
 will channel support for thousands of other military personnel who have
 pressing projects related to their homes," said Bob Nardelli, chairman,
 president & CEO of The Home Depot.
     Team Depot volunteers will dedicate one million hours of community
 service, including general household repairs.  The $1 million pledged by The
 Home Depot will provide cash and materials to support Rebuilding Together in
 meeting the home improvement needs of military families.  To learn more, log
 on to www.ProjectHomefront.org beginning Friday, April 4.  The Web site
 contains instructions for how to volunteer time and make financial donations
 to help sustain the project.
     "Our organization has partnered with The Home Depot for many years in
 rehabilitating homes for those in need.  With volunteers from The Home Depot
 and others committed to this cause, we hope to meet the most pressing home
 improvement needs military families may have during these trying times," said
 Patricia R. Johnson, president & CEO of Rebuilding Together.
     In addition to its participation with Rebuilding Together, The Home Depot
 will provide other assistance to military families in the coming weeks through
 its Team Depot volunteers.  The company will host special Kids Workshops in
 its stores that operate in military base communities.  These events will
 provide children and their families with a project to make their own picture
 frame for deployed family members.  In addition, the company will host store
 clinics to teach military spouses the "how-to's" of homefront maintenance.
 Information about the times and locations of these events will be made
 available in each community soon.
     The company also announced that it has commissioned and will display
 service star banners to recognize each of the more than 1,700 company
 associates who are deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  All the banners will
 be displayed at the company's headquarters in Atlanta and each store will
 receive a banner for the number of associates who are engaged in active duty.
 The company also will provide a banner to each family of its deployed
 associates.  Service star banners first were introduced in World War I.  The
 blue star on the banner represents a service member in active duty.
     Project Homefront is a continuation of The Home Depot's support for the
 military community.  To recognize our longstanding efforts, The Home Depot was
 the recent recipient of the "Corporate Patriotism Award" from the American
 Veteran Awards.  This prestigious honor recognized the company's support of
 the military by providing pay and benefits to associates and their families
 who serve in the armed forces and launching a corporate outreach policy to
 employ service members when they exit the military.
 
     About The Home Depot
     Founded in 1978, The Home Depot(R) is the world's largest home improvement
 specialty retailer and the second largest retailer in the United States, with
 fiscal 2002 sales of $58.2 billion.  The company employs approximately 300,000
 associates and has 1,554 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto
 Rico, seven Canadian provinces, and Mexico.  Its 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.
     Formalized in 1989, Team Depot, the company's associate volunteer corps,
 has contributed more than $175 million and tens of millions of hours to
 worthwhile causes in communities across North America.  Last year alone, Team
 Depot volunteered approximately 7 million hours to community services.
 
     About Rebuilding Together
     Rebuilding Together is the nation's leading non-profit volunteer
 organization, restoring and revitalizing America's low-income houses and
 communities.  With the support of leading corporations such as The Home Depot,
 more than 70,000 homes and non-profit facilities have been rehabilitated by
 Rebuilding Together since 1988.  Home Depot and Rebuilding Together partnered
 to repair the roof of the Pentagon following the terrorist attack on September
 11, 2001.
 
 

SOURCE  The Home Depot