6.09.2003 ET

(CSRwire) PORTLAND, OR – Nike USA Operations President Gary DeStefano and Multnomah County Commissioner Serena Cruz participated in a celebration today at the Portland Factory Store on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to reflect on the Nike Factory Store’s nearly two-decade history in Northeast Portland, and to honor this year’s Factory Store Grant Program recipients.

Since Nike opened its Factory Store 19 years ago on what was then named Grand Avenue, the company has given more than $900,000 of the profits back to the community, including this year’s grants totaling $50,000. Today, 10 community organizations, each based in North or Northeast Portland and committed to serving the N/NE Portland community, each received a $5,000 grant to further their services and programs.

“Today is about celebrating community, and we are here to celebrate the fact that 19 years ago, Nike opened its first factory store ever—right here on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.,” said DeStefano, at the ceremony honoring this year’s grant recipients. “This is a special community and we’re proud to be a resident. We also want to give back, to help inspire the kind of entrepreneurship, economic growth, and access to youth physical activity that the organizations here today have helped create.”

Each year, the Portland Factory Store Grant Program honors non-profit, community-based organizations that serve the N/NE Portland area with programs that focus on the following areas: youth sports and recreational/physical activities, education and mentoring opportunities, and economic development opportunities focusing on minorities, women and youth. This year’s grant recipients are:

· Albertina Kerr Centers
· Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Portland
· Boise Elliot School
· Camp Caldera
· Inner City Steppers
· OAME Youth Entrepreneurship Program
· Portland Youth Golf Association
· A.C. Green Basketball Day Camp
· Urban League of Portland
· Tender Loving Care

“I am encouraged and inspired by Nike’s collaboration with organizations in the community,” said Multnomah County Commissioner Serena Cruz, who serves the N/NE Portland community. “I look forward to seeing the continued benefit that this year’s grantees will bring to the families, children and businesspeople who choose to make their home and livelihood here.”

Nike opened its Portland Factory Store in 1984 and pledged to donate a portion of the store’s sales to community-based non-profit organizations. Since that time, the Portland Factory Store has donated more than $900,000 to N/NE Portland organizations. Last year Nike renewed its commitment to donate $50,000 a year through 2007. The store has been located in its current location at 2650 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. since December of 1999.

“Nike has been a supporter of the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs (OAME) for nearly 15 years, and each year their support—be it as an in-kind service or product donation, or cash grant—affords our organization the opportunity to expand a little further, to reach a few more of our community’s youth, or to improve a program just a bit more,” said Sam Brooks, OAME’s Founder, President and Chair of the Board, who accepted one of this year’s $5,000 cash grants.

About Nike: Nike targets to contribute 3% of its pre-tax earnings annually to non-profit organizations around the world. In its last fiscal year, Nike and the Nike Foundation contributed more than $29 million in cash, product and in-kind services, representing 3.2 percent of its pretax profits. Of that, more than $4.6 million in cash grants and product donations went to hundreds of nonprofits in Oregon, including individual employee contributions of more than $1.2 million, and more than 52,000 volunteer hours in support of causes our employees care about passionately. Nike matches each employee contribution to eligible charities dollar-for-dollar, and volunteer time at $10 an hour—twice that if the programs help increase physical activity among youth.

For more information about Nike’s community involvement, visit www.Nikeresponsibility.com.

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