Bob’s Discount Furniture Announces its Eighth Annual ‘Celebrate the Arts’ Contest

MANCHESTER, Conn. – October  1, 2013 – Bob’s Discount Furniture today announced that it will award $45,000 in cultural grants to schools across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states through its eighth annual Celebrate the Arts contest. The Celebrate the Arts contest, led by the company’s Outreach Program, is designed to support and maintain visual, creative and performing arts in schools. Bob’s Outreach is accepting contest entries from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31, after which it will select nine schools to receive $5,000 grants to support cultural arts contests during the current school year.

Each year, Bob’s Outreach receives thousands of submissions and randomly selects one K-12 school in each of the nine states (Conn., Maine, Mass., Md., N.H., N.J., N.Y., R.I. and Va.) where the company’s furniture stores are located. Following the schools’ selection, the Bob’s Outreach team visits each winning school to award the grant and visit with students and faculty.

Bob’s Discount Furniture started the Celebrate the Arts contest in 2006 after observing school districts in many of the communities it serves scaling back their fine arts programs and cultural arts assemblies.

“Cultural arts programs are all too often the first targets for elimination when schools must make budget cuts,” said Cathy Poulin, public relations director, Bob’s Discount Furniture. “Bob’s wants to keep the arts in schools, which is why we are so pleased to continue hosting the annual Celebrate the Arts grant contest.”

“We are incredibly grateful to Bob’s Discount Furniture for the $5,000 grant we received in support of cultural arts at East Catholic High School,” said Jay Hartling, Principal of East Catholic High School in Manchester, CT, one of last year’s contest winners. “This grant allows East Catholic to provide excellence in all that we do and really showcase our Fine Arts programming at the school.”

Beginning Oct. 1, applicants can enter the contest by filling out a form with their personal contact information, as well as their school’s information. Entry forms can be found on Bob’s Discount Furniture’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mybobs.  No purchase is necessary. All entries must be submitted by Oct. 31.

About Bob’s Discount Furniture

Bob’s Discount Furniture provides a wide variety of quality furnishings – including living room furniture, bedroom furniture, dining room furniture, office furniture and home accents – at everyday low prices. The stores also offer a unique and enjoyable shopping experience featuring cafes in each store with free gourmet coffee, ice cream, cookies and candy. Since 1991, Bob’s has built strong customer loyalty by offering the highest-value home furnishings at the lowest possible prices. With 47 stores located throughout New England, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Virginia, the Manchester, Conn.-based company has become the 15th-largest U.S. furniture chain. Bob’s is committed to supporting communities where its stores are located through a variety of charitable giving efforts. Bob’s Discount Furniture Charitable Foundation has anchored the company’s philanthropic work for more than 15 years. In addition, the Bob’s Outreach program was created as a separate entity to help schools and children-related charities. Every year the company donates more than $100,000 to schools and more than $1.5 million to charities through these programs. For more information on Bob’s charitable programs, visit www.BobsCares.org, and follow us on Twitter @MyBobs and @MyBobs_Charity and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MyBobs.