Mercedes-Benz USA Invests in Area Youth

Car Maker Partners with FIRST Robotics, Teach For America, Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Reading Is Fundamental to Educate and Empower

MONTVALE, N.J., March 5 -- As part of its strategic philanthropic focus, Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) is supporting a select group of organizations dedicated to educating and empowering future generations, particularly those who are underserved. Committed to making a difference in the communities in which employees live and work, MBUSA has built alliances with a number of youth organizations in New Jersey, where MBUSA is headquartered, including: FIRST Robotics, Teach For America, Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF). Through these partnerships MBUSA hopes to have a targeted impact in local communities and involve more MBUSA employees in the process.

"With a leadership position in the industry comes a unique responsibility to give back -- to pass knowledge and leadership skills on to others," said Paul Halata, president & CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA. "We feel a special affinity to help children develop the tools they need to reach their full potential and become the leaders and success stories of tomorrow."

FIRST

As a company committed to supporting youth, MBUSA is sponsoring seven new FIRST (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology) Robotics teams including: Hackensack High School in Bergen County and Technology, Central, University, Science, Barringer and West Side High Schools in Essex County. This brings MBUSA's total support of FIRST to ten area teams.

Nine of the teams will compete in the Eighth Annual New Jersey FIRST Robotics Competition which tests high school students' design, engineering, strategy and teamwork. The competition will be held on March 5-6 at Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton. Through FIRST, students learn a wide range of skills, including communications, organization and management, while solving a sophisticated engineering project: building a competition-ready robot. MBUSA also supports FIRST teams at Mt. Olive High School in Mt. Olive, NJ, Bound Brook High School in Bound Brook, NJ and Automotive High School in Brooklyn, NY.

"The partnership with FIRST is a natural alliance for Mercedes-Benz USA," said Paul Halata. "Ours is a brand with a century-long heritage of excellence in technology, design and innovation - and that is something that we hope to inspire in children. Through our support of organizations like FIRST Robotics, Mercedes-Benz USA hopes to develop a passion for science and technology in young people."

"With Mercedes-Benz USA's new support of FIRST teams in Newark, we have the opportunity to reach nearly 100 children from the area; exposing them to problem solving, critical thinking, team work, computer science and engineering concepts," said Bahig Michaels, district FIRST Robotics coordinator. "This is a chance to awaken a desire to learn and to help students develop a new outlook on engineering, math and science. Being part of the team is an intense commitment that builds self-esteem and challenges students to continue to learn, experiment and succeed. The students' dedication to their projects is reflected in the design and function of their robots."

Teach For America

To make an impact in local communities, MBUSA donates resources to charitable organizations on a national and local basis and involves employees in hands-on volunteer activities. Another important initiative currently underway is MBUSA's support of Teach For America in Newark. The company is sponsoring ten Teach For America teachers in six Newark schools, including: Vailsburg Middle School, Arts High School, Maple Avenue Annex, Central High School, Dr. Horton School and Science High School. MBUSA is currently discussing ways to involve employees in Teach For America initiatives such as a dedicated MBUSA week where executives teach classes of their choice in Newark schools where Teach For America places teachers.

Boys & Girls Clubs

Further building upon its support of education in New Jersey, in May MBUSA will present the Mercedes-Benz USA Youth of the Year Scholarship to the New Jersey Youth of the Year - a Boys & Girls Clubs program. Candidates from local Boys & Girls Clubs will be interviewed by a panel of distinguished judges and each local winner will experience a day of educational activities culminating with a recognition dinner where the State Youth of the Year will be announced. The scholarships will be presented to the winners on May 26 at the PNC Arts Center. In addition to providing funds for the scholarship, MBUSA employees have worked with individual Boys & Girls Clubs on seasonal events such as a holiday party held at the club in Lodi.

Big Brothers Big Sisters

The company also worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters to develop the Mercedes-Benz USA School-Based Mentoring Program which encourages volunteers to meet their "little brother" or "little sister" on school grounds, during the school day or after school. The program currently serves 52 children in Bergenfield, NJ at five elementary schools in the area, including: Franklin, Hoover, Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington. The children are matched with Bergenfield High School students and the program is supervised by a Big Brothers Big Sisters social worker. Matches meet twice monthly after school in the children's respective elementary schools. Because the program is limited by the number of available mentors, MBUSA will invite employees to participate this spring.

Reading Is Fundamental

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) has been working with MBUSA on its Newark- area Family of Readers programs. MBUSA's grant will support Classroom Lending Libraries, which allow the children and their families to borrow books from a collection selected by program participants or a RIF coordinator. The libraries increase parents' exposure to quality children's literature, enhance their involvement in read-aloud activities, and provide children and families with access to high-quality books.

Mercedes-Benz USA will fund the purchase of more than 3,000 new lending library books for families. Newark Preschool Council, which serves 65 Head Start sites in Newark reaching more than 2,000 children ages 0-5, was selected as the literacy program to receive funding from MBUSA. Family of Readers helps parents develop the skills and self-confidence to support their children's reading and learning. The program focuses on educationally at-risk children, from birth through elementary school, and their families, by providing books for ownership, parent workshops, lending libraries and other literacy resources.

Mercedes-Benz USA

Mercedes-Benz USA, headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Mercedes-Benz and Maybach products in the United States. In 2003, MBUSA achieved an all-time sales record of 218,717 new vehicles, setting the highest sales volume ever in its history and achieving ten consecutive years of sales growth. More information on MBUSA and its products can be found on the Internet at www.mbusa.com and www.maybachusa.com.

FIRST

FIRST was founded in 1989 by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen. Student teams work with professional mentors from universities and corporations to design and build a winning robotic design. FIRST inspires in young people, their schools and communities, an appreciation and understanding of the importance of science and technology. For more information about the FIRST organization, visit www.usfirst.org

Teach For America

Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding college graduates who commit two years to teach in low-income urban and rural communities and become life-long advocates to expand opportunity for children. Corps members go above and beyond traditional expectations to impact the lives of children growing up in low-income communities. Beyond their two years, corps members take their insight and added commitment to assume leadership roles from inside education and from every other sector and work toward the fundamental changes necessary to provide more equal opportunities for all children in our nation. Since its first 500 corps members entered classrooms in 1990, Teach For America has recruited more than 10,000 outstanding college graduates of all academic majors. Corps members teach in 20 locations in underserved communities across the country. For more information on Teach For America, visit www.teachforamerica.org.

Boys & Girls Clubs

Boys & Girls Clubs in New Jersey (www.bgcnj.org) are part of a national network of more than 3,300 neighborhood-based facilities annually serving some 3.6 million young people, primarily from disadvantaged circumstances. Known as "The Positive Place for Kids," the Clubs provide guidance-oriented character development programs on a daily basis for children 6-18 years old, conducted by a full-time professional staff. Key Boys & Girls Clubs programs emphasize character and leadership development, education and career development, health and life skills, the arts, sports, fitness and recreation. There are 25 Boys & Girls Clubs in New Jersey, serving 57,000 children in 51 locations. For more information, please call the State Office at 973-765-9612.

Big Brothers Big Sisters

Big Brothers Big Sisters, founded in 1904, is the oldest and largest youth mentoring organization in the United States. In 2002, the organization served more than 200,000 youths, ages 6 through 18 in 5,000 communities across the country in one-to-one relationships. In 2003, Forbes magazine placed Big Brothers Big Sisters on its Gold-Star list of the top 10 charities for its excellence in efficiency and effectiveness. Big Brothers Big Sisters is conducting a year-long series of events to celebrate its 100th anniversary. On January 15 it launched the largest on-line reunion of former Big and Little Brothers and Sisters on Yahoo!, its centennial partner. It hopes to serve one million "at risk" children by 2010. The national headquarters is located in Philadelphia, PA. For additional information visit www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org.

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF)

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, works to build a literate nation by helping young people discover the joy of reading. RIF's highest priority is to serve the nation's neediest children and families through the development and delivery of literacy programs and campaigns that motivate youth to read regularly. Through a national, grassroots network of 450,000 community volunteers at 25,000 RIF program sites, 5.1 million children are provided with 16.5 million new, free books and other essential literacy resources each year. For more information and to access reading resources, visit RIF's website at www.rif.org.