Bloomingdale’s & Mentoring USA Celebrate 12 Years of Partnership

13:59PM on April 08 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                CONTACTS:       Liz McGovern / Marissa Vitagliano

                                                                                                Bloomingdale’s National Media Relations

                                                                                                212-705-2443 / 212-705-2439

                                                                                                liz.mcgovern@bloomingdales.com

                                                                                                marissa.vitagliano@bloomingdales.com

Bloomingdale’s & Mentoring USA Celebrate 12 Years of Partnership

PS 59 Students Salute American Troops as They Help to

Unveil 9^th Annual Window Collaboration at 59^th Street

January 2010, New York, NY . . . To celebrate National Mentoring Month and the belief that mentoring expands children’s horizons, Bloomingdale’s will unveil a special window designed in collaboration with the students of New York’s P.S. 59 on Thursday, January 14 at 8:45 a.m. on Lexington Avenue at 60^th Street.

Bloomingdale’s volunteers have, for the past twelve years, mentored elementary school children at P.S. 59 through the Mentoring USA program. More than 70 store executives spend one hour each week with their mentees, talking, sharing, tutoring, and encouraging the kids to dream big for their future.

The corner window, to be unveiled by Bloomingdale’s chairman and CEO, Michael Gould, and Mentoring USA founder & chair, Matilda Raffa Cuomo, will be an homage to American troops protecting our country at home and overseas. The mentors and mentees worked together to write letters of support to our service men and women, and this year’s window will feature a collection of those heart-warming notes. The window will feature a collection of the letters as the backdrop to a scene in which a group of children welcome home two soldiers returning from war. The unveiling will be followed by a “thank you” breakfast for the children in the store’s famous Forty Carrots restaurant.

“People who give of their time to mentor a child are true heroes,” said Matilda Raffa Cuomo, Founder & Chair of Mentoring USA.  “Mentoring is an investment in a child’s future that reaps a lifetime of benefits.  We value our longstanding partnership with Bloomingdale’s and salute their commitment to this important mission.”

“A mentor can have a profound impact on a child and change his or her life for the better,” said Mr. Gould. “The team at Bloomingdale’s strives to give back to the children in our own community. We are proud to be entering our 12^th year in partnership with Mentoring USA.”

Bloomingdale’s is America’s only nationwide, full-line, upscale department store; and a division of Macy’s, Inc. It was founded in 1872 and currently operates 40 stores in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Minnesota, Georgia, Florida, Nevada and California. For more information, or to shop any time, visit www.bloomingdales.com.

Mentoring USA, a New York City-based nonprofit, is a structured, site-based, mentoring organization that began as the first state-sponsored, one-on-one mentoring program in the country back in 1987. The program was founded by then First Lady of the State of New York, Matilda Raffa Cuomo and became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 1995. Mentoring USA has provided mentors for more than 5,000 children since its inception.