1. The Home Depot Celebrates the Olympic Spirit With Special Kids Workshop
Olympic Athletes Will Appear at Local Stores to Bring Excitement of 2006 Winter Olympic Games to
Children Nationwide
ATLANTA, Oct 27, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- The Home Depot(R), the world's largest home
improvement retailer, today announced a special Olympic-theme Kids Workshop to get children excited about the upcoming
2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. The clinic, where children can build a wooden bobsled toy, will be held from 9 a.m.
to 12 p.m. on Saturday, November 5, 2005, at all U.S. The Home Depot stores. In select markets, The Home Depot's Olympic
athlete-associates will be present at local The Home Depot stores to help kids with the project and spread Olympic good will in
their local community.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030502/HOMEDEPOTLOGO )
The Home Depot started the workshops in 1997 to offer a kid-friendly version of the company's popular weekly clinic series and
has seen more than 13 million children build projects over the years.
As the world's leading employer of Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls through its sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic
Committee's Olympic Job Opportunities Program (OJOP), The Home Depot will use this workshop to demonstrate support of the
Olympic movement and sponsorship of the 2006 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams.
"A cornerstone of The Home Depot is to help empower our customers of all ages to learn how to do home improvement
projects themselves," said Tom Taylor, executive vice president of Merchandising and Marketing at The Home Depot. "The
workshops teach children do-it-yourself skills and tool safety, while at the same time help to instill in them a sense of
accomplishment and self-esteem."
Through the years, the projects have included the creation of toolboxes, fire trucks and mail organizers, as well as more
educational items such as a window birdhouse, bughouse or Declaration of Independence frame kit. Kids Workshop projects
have evolved from the basic picture frame and toolbox to a variety of kits. When The Home Depot began its sponsorship of a
race team, the company developed an orange #20 Home Depot race car that Workshop participants could build.
Many of the Kids Workshops have included a tie-in to a special occasion such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, motion picture
premieres, NASCAR and the Olympics.
The workshops are held once a month on a Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and are designed for children ages 5-12. Children,
accompanied by an adult, use their skills to create objects that can be used in and around their homes or communities. At each
workshop, along with a new project kit, each child receives a kid-sized orange apron, similar to The Home Depot associates'
aprons, an achievement pin and special giveaways.
Since 1997, the Kids Workshops have experienced many milestones, including the following:
- Nearly 800,000 children built their first toolbox at The Home Depot.
- More than 600,000 children constructed birdhouses at Kids Workshops.
- More than 500,000 children built a step stool at Kids Workshops.
- Approximately 120,000 children attend the clinics monthly.
Through OJOP, athletes work as regular store associates mixing paint, tending to plants, cutting lumber and helping customers.
The program allows athletes to work part time in exchange for full-time pay and benefits, giving them time off to focus on
training, travel and competition schedules while earning a steady paycheck. Since 1992, The Home Depot has employed more
than 500 athlete-associates in OJOP and nearly 300 have competed in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, earning a total of
171 medals, including 75 gold, 59 silver and 37 bronze. The Home Depot will continue its sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic and
Paralympic teams through the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
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 2004 sales of $73.1 billion. The company employs approximately 325,000 associates
and has 1,972 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The company has

2. announced plans for retail expansion into China. The Home Depot has been recognized by Fortune as the No. 1 Most Admired
Specialty Retailer for 2005. 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. HDG
SOURCE The Home Depot
Jen King of The Home Depot, +1-770-384-4390, or jennifer_king@homedepot.com; or Craig
Hodges of MS & L, +1-404-870-6843, or craig.hodges@mslpr.com
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