Today Nicor announced the results of its 2010 philanthropy commitments, which resulted in more than $2 million in corporate and employee financial donations - and thousands of volunteer hours - benefiting more than 1,200 worthy causes in communities throughout northern Illinois.

"In 2010, Nicor and its employees continued to demonstrate our unyielding commitment to strengthening our communities. Working together, we helped reinforce the commendable goals of many charitable organizations by making financial contributions and giving thousands of volunteer hours to worthy causes," said Claudia Colalillo, Senior Vice President Human Resources and Corporate Philanthropy for Nicor Inc. & Nicor Gas.

United Way
For the second year in a row, moving from 25th to 19th, Nicor has been included in United Way's Metropolitan Chicago's Top 25 Corporate Citizens list. Nicor also received the Employee Support Pillar Award for providing employees the best opportunity to invest in their community. Achieving an employee participation rate of 77%, Nicor and its employees donated more than $1 million - exceeding last year's donation.

Adventures in Reading with Nicor
The company's signature philanthropic program is designed to foster a life-long love of reading among children. Nicor provides free books to students and parents, professional development training for teachers, special coaching sessions for parents, and motivational prizes and activities with assembly presentations featuring Super Reader, Nicor's costumed superhero, at participating schools. The program launched in 2006, and since then it has encouraged students to read nearly 200,000 books. The Adventures in Reading with Nicor program continued to flourish and students at participating schools read approximately 60,000 books during the 2009-2010 school year.

Nicor and its employees also demonstrated their generosity throughout 2010 by helping to enrich the communities in which they live and serve in a variety of additional ways:

• Nicor's 14th Annual Volunteer Day
  Nearly 1,000 employees, friends, and family members participated in our annual Volunteer Day, completing 23 service projects in 21 communities. In addition to the volunteers performing a variety of community service activities, including landscape renovation, outdoor cleaning activities, sorting food and household goods for families in need, painting and river clean-up, Nicor also provided a $15,000 capital grant to the DuPage Habitat for Humanity and volunteers to help with construction and rehabilitation of homes in south Chicago.

• March of Dimes
  Nicor was honored with the March of Dimes' 2010 Crown Jewel Award and ranked 6th in the state for fundraising at the March for Babies event with employees raising $56,000 in donations to help save babies. As the site sponsor for the DuPage March for Babies walk site, more than 300 Nicor participants signed-up for the annual March of Dimes March for Babies walk.

• Nicor Gas Sharing Program
  Together in 2010, Nicor Gas, its employees, and customers helped nearly 1,300 customers keep people warm by contributing to the Sharing Program, a home heating assistance program administered by the Salvation Army. Since the program's inception in 1983, the program has raised nearly $14 million in assistance for more than 79,000 families who did not qualify for government assistance but needed financial support to help pay their gas bills.

• Illinois Dollars for Scholars
  Nicor Gas is proud to be a founding corporate sponsor of Illinois Dollars for Scholars and in 2010 donated $53,000 towards scholarship and incentive grants. Since 1997, Nicor Gas has granted more than $550,000 in incentive grants to also help establish Dollars for Scholars foundations in Illinois. As a result, over the last decade, Illinois Dollars for Scholars foundations have distributed more than $2.9 million to over 4,000 students.

• Coats for Kids
  In 2010, Nicor National continued to sponsor "Coats for Kids" in cooperation with the Urban Youth Ministry division of Wayside Cross Ministries of Aurora. Company employees donated more than 100 coats this year. Since the program began in 2005, Nicor National's employees have given more than 700 winter coats to children in need throughout Kane, Kendall, and DuPage Counties.

• Matching Gift and Volunteer in Partnership Grants
  Nicor employees utilized the corporation's Matching Gifts program to double their gifts and generate a combined $124,000 in donations to support various local and national non-profit organizations. In support of its employee volunteer efforts, Nicor gave more than $18,600 in Volunteer in Partnership grants. These grants support nonprofit organizations that have Nicor employees as volunteers.

• Chicagovolunteer.net
  Nicor is the founding corporate sponsor of Community Resource Network's chicagovolunteer.net, a Web site that brings together volunteers with more than 4,200 volunteer opportunities posted each day. With Nicor's support, the website received more than 1.2 million hits in 2010.

"At Nicor, we are committed to working together to achieve our shared goal of building a better community," said Colalillo. Over the past year we took a leadership role by sponsoring and participating in philanthropic efforts that provided community service, financial assistance, and promoted education and volunteerism, exactly what we plan on continuing to do in 2011.

To learn more about Nicor's philanthropic programs, visit www.nicor.com or contact Julian Brown, Manager of Corporate Contributions at 630-388-2763.

Nicor Inc. (NYSE: GAS) is a holding company and is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Its primary business is Nicor Gas, one of the nation's largest natural gas distribution companies. Nicor owns Tropical Shipping, a containerized shipping business serving the Caribbean region and the Bahamas. In addition, the company owns and has an equity interest in several energy-related businesses. For more information, visit the Nicor website at www.nicor.com.

NICOR Inc.

NICOR Inc.

Nicor Inc. (NYSE: GAS) is a holding company and is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Its primary business is Nicor Gas, one of the nation's largest natural gas distribution companies. Nicor owns Tropical Shipping, a containerized shipping business serving the Caribbean region and the Bahamas. In addition, the company owns and has an equity interest in several energy-related businesses.

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