NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Aug. 18, 2021) – LP Building Solutions (LP), a leading manufacturer of high-performance building products, has been chosen as the 2021 recipient of the PENCIL Foundation’s prestigious Ingram Award. PENCIL (Public Education Needs Community Involvement & Leadership) is the premier nonprofit organization linking community resources to Nashville public schools.
The Ingram Award is given each year to a community partner or volunteer who provides outstanding support and engagement to Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) through PENCIL. Named for the late E. Bronson Ingram, a founding board member of PENCIL, the Ingram Award was presented at PENCIL's Back to School Breakfast on Aug. 18, 2021 by Hank Ingram (Ingram Industries) to LP Building Solutions Chair and Chief Executive Officer Brad Southern.
LP has been a dedicated PENCIL partner since 2006, shortly after relocating its headquarters to Nashville. That year, company leaders approached PENCIL to create a teacher resource center similar to one that operated in Portland, Oregon, where the company had previously been headquartered. From LP's seed investment, the LP PENCIL Box was launched to provide Nashville public school teachers with school supplies, free of cost.
Since 2006, with annual investments from LP, the LP PENCIL Box has grown exponentially. In January of this year, the LP PENCIL Box surpassed $10 million worth of all-time supply distributions to Nashville teachers, a remarkable milestone considering the program's humble beginning.
"Helping to create the LP PENCIL Box is one of the LP Foundation's proudest achievements," said Southern. "For 15 years, we have been honored to help teachers across the city prepare Nashville's young people for the future. LP invests in the communities where our employees live and work because people are our most important asset. From high-quality building solutions and job opportunities to volunteerism and philanthropy, LP's enduring purpose is to build a better world."
On average, Nashville teachers pay $410 out of pocket each year to bridge the gap between what families can provide and what is needed in the classroom. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when MNPS students were learning remotely, the LP PENCIL Box was needed more than ever to supply them with the tools they needed to learn from home. PENCIL collaborated with MNPS procurement and logistics teams, along with scores of socially-distanced volunteers, to source, package, and distribute 71,000 individual student supply kits. Throughout the 2020-21 school year, PENCIL also distributed 200,000 reusable cloth masks, and hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of PPE and cleaning products to schools through the LP PENCIL Box program.
"Without LP Building Solutions stepping up at the start, there would be no PENCIL Box," said PENCIL President and CEO Angie Adams. "Company leaders at the time understood that our community needed a collective effort to ensure that no student is hindered by a lack of supplies. Teachers tell us how incredibly valuable it is to access brand-new essentials like pencils, copy paper, and crayons on a regular basis, and how cared for and safe that makes their students feel."
“Now we’re in a wonderful position to continue growing this program to reach every teacher in MNPS, every year.”
In its first year, LP PENCIL Box distributions totaled more than $25,000 worth of supplies to teachers. By the end of the 2020-21 year, distributions reached $2.5 million annually. PENCIL is the largest distributer of school supplies to teachers in Nashville and the LP PENCIL Box is the largest teacher resource center in the state of Tennessee.
Acerca de LP Building Solutions
Como líder en soluciones de construcción de alto rendimiento, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LP Building Solutions, que cotiza en la bolsa de valores de New York como LPX) fabrica productos de construcción con madera de ingeniería que satisfacen las exigencias de constructores, remodeladores y propietarios de viviendas en todo el mundo. LP’s extensive offerings include innovative and dependable building products and accessories, such as Siding Solutions (LP® SmartSide® Trim & Siding, LP® SmartSide® ExpertFinish® Trim & Siding, LP® BuilderSeries® Lap Siding, and LP® Outdoor Building Solutions®), LP Structural Solutions (LP® TechShield® Radiant Barrier, LP WeatherLogic® Air & Water Barrier, LP Legacy® Premium Sub-Flooring, and LP® FlameBlock® Fire-Rated Sheathing and more), LP® TopNotch® Sub-Flooring, and oriented strand board (OSB). Además de soluciones de productos, LP brinda un servicio al cliente y garantías líderes de la industria. Desde su fundación en 1972, LP ha estado construyendo un mundo mejor bajo su lema Building a Better World™ al brindar ayuda a los clientes para construir viviendas hermosas y duraderas, a la vez que nuestros accionistas construyen un valor duradero. Con sede en Nashville, Tennessee, LP opera 25 plantas en los EE. UU., Canadá, Chile y Brasil. Para obtener más información, visite LPCorp.com.
Acerca de PENCIL
Founded in 1982, PENCIL (www.pencilforschools.org) links community resources to Metro Nashville Public Schools to help young people achieve academic success and prepare for life. PENCIL’s work is guided by the needs of MNPS, is student-centric, and is achieved through partnerships and tangible engagements. PENCIL envisions a world where access and opportunities are equitable for all students to have a successful future.