Furniture for Schools has now delivered more than 10,000 items to schools in need to help them prepare for students returning this school year. This week the Furniture for Schools project will make another delivery of surplus furniture and equipment to schools along the Gulf Coast that were heavily damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The most recent delivery will benefit Harrison County Schools in Gulfport, Miss.

"The Furniture for Schools project is a great success, and I applaud the generosity of all those who have helped these much needed resources reach Gulf Coast schools," said U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. "With students preparing to head back to school, this project will help ensure that classrooms are equipped to serve them in the upcoming school year."

The Furniture for Schools project was created by the U.S. Department of Education in the weeks immediately after Hurricane Katrina. The Department collaborated with the General Services Administration (GSA) to reach out to other federal agencies and state surplus offices throughout the country to locate student desks and ship them quickly to school districts in Mississippi and Louisiana. What began as a limited objective to locate only student desks turned into a large-scale project to send federal surplus furniture and equipment—including computers, printers, filing cabinets, bookcases, room dividers, tables, chairs, teacher desks, and student desks—to the impacted school districts.

Nearly a year after it was established, the Furniture for Schools project is stronger and busier than ever. The U.S. Department of Education and GSA are still sending new shipments to schools in Mississippi and Louisiana every week. School Districts across the country have also heard about the Furniture for Schools Project and have donated thousands of pieces of school furniture. Most recently, the Furniture for Schools project received a donation of over 3,700 pieces of elementary school furniture from the Middletown School District in Middletown, Ohio.

Since the project began in October 2005, Furniture For Schools has shipped over 10,000 pieces of furniture and equipment totaling over $3.8 million to schools in Mississippi and Louisiana.

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