Weyerhaeuser Company's disaster response efforts -- documented in a guide to helping employees in a crisis and anchored by an on-site liaison and unprecedented loaned-employee program -- earned a national corporate leadership award at a White House ceremony this week.

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The Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership recognizes outstanding employee and community relations and was presented to Weyerhaeuser Company for its disaster relief efforts following the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes, specifically its guide, Rebuilding a Community: An Employer's Guide to Assisting Employees in a Disaster. The guide, praised by one national homeland security official as the gold standard for disaster relief programs, has been used as a benchmark by relief organizations and is available at www.weyerhaeuser.com/katrina/.

Also receiving the Ron Brown Award at the Nov. 29 ceremony was Sallie Mae, the nation's leading provider of education funding, for specific student loan programs. The award is sponsored and managed by The Conference Board, a global research and business membership organization. President Bill Clinton established this Presidential Award in honor of the late U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, who firmly believed that businesses do well by doing good.

During a ceremony at the White House Indian Treaty Room, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez presented the Ron Brown Award to Steven R. Rogel, Weyerhaeuser Company chairman, president and chief executive officer. Rogel dedicated the award to Weyerhaeuser's disaster coordinator, partners and volunteers who attended the afternoon ceremony, saying, "I thank you all for being such inspirational examples to me and other Weyerhaeuser employees, of what it means to live one's values."

Recognized at the ceremony were Weyerhaeuser disaster coordinator Katy Taylor of Olympia, Wash. and her family members, impacted Gulf Coast employees and volunteer employees and retiree participants in the loaned employee program and leaders of North Carolina Baptist Builders, the faith-based group and key partner in Weyerhaeuser's relief and rebuilding efforts.

In the days following Hurricane Katrina, which became the nation's worst national disaster after it hit the Gulf Coast Aug. 29, 2005, Weyerhaeuser established a senior management committee, authorized donations of cash and building materials and appointed an experienced disaster coordinator. More than a year after the disaster, Weyerhaeuser is still at work helping Gulf Coast communities with combined disaster relief and support to date totaling more than $2.8 million.

Called a "force of nature" by one Gulf Coast reporter, disaster coordinator Taylor was in coastal Mississippi within days of the disaster to begin advocating for impacted employees and retirees, acting as liaison with relief agencies and insurance companies. The company soon established its unique loaned-employee program -- which covers salaries plus the costs of travel and up to 60 days of living and meal expenses for employees (and costs for retirees and spouses) who participate in rebuilding projects for employees, retirees and community members. Other more standard programs were established to help the 128 impacted Weyerhaeuser families, including professional counseling, an adopt-a-family and employee-to-employee donation fund. This multi-faceted disaster approach is detailed in Weyerhaeuser's Rebuilding a Community guide.

Working with North Carolina Baptist Builders, Weyerhaeuser's loaned- employee rebuilding work has centered around three Mississippi communities where the company has operations: Long Beach/Gulfport, McComb and Magnolia, Miss., plus the New Orleans area, where retirees suffered damage. To date, nearly 300 employees and retirees from across the United States and Canada have volunteered more than 42,000 hours and helped rebuild 50 homes as part of the loaned-employee program.

Aside from Taylor, participants who visited Washington D.C. and were recognized during the Ron Brown Award program included:

  -- Ernesta Ballard, Weyerhaeuser senior vice president for corporate
     affairs, who led the company's efforts;
  -- Employee Alan Pace and his wife Polly of Long Beach, Miss., Sunday
     night fish-fry hosts of Weyerhaeuser's loaned employee volunteers;
  -- Employee Ivy Pittman and his wife Betty of McComb, Miss., who lost
     their home to Katrina but will soon move into a new home being built by
     Weyerhaeuser volunteers;
  -- Employee Ken Smith of Federal Way, Wash., who was a frequent team
     leader of Weyerhaeuser's volunteers;
  -- Employee-volunteer Alvere Savard of New Brunswick, Canada;
  -- Employee-volunteer Carrie Langham of Evergreen, Ala.;
  -- Employee-volunteer Ken Marshall of Titusville, Pa.;
  -- Employee John Sonnamaker, manager of Weyerhaeuser's iLevel building
     materials service center in the Long Beach-Gulfport, Miss. area, where
     many of the impacted employees work;
  -- North Carolina Baptist Builders president Richard Brunson of Cary, N.C.
  -- Taylor's family members and volunteers: daughter Brittany Taylor,
     Weyerhaeuser employee and husband Mark Hahn, and father Stan Fairhurst,
     all of Olympia, Wash.

Weyerhaeuser employs almost 5,000 people at more than 40 locations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including heavily impacted communities in south Mississippi and Louisiana. The company manages more than 2.4 million acres of timberlands in the three states.

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world's largest integrated forest products companies, was incorporated in 1900. In 2005, sales were $22.6 billion. Headquartered in Federal Way, Wash., It has offices or operations in 18 countries, with customers worldwide. Weyerhaeuser is principally engaged in the growing and harvesting of timber; the manufacture, distribution and sale of forest products; and real estate construction, development and related activities. Additional information about Weyerhaeuser's businesses, products and practices is available at http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/ .

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SOURCE: Weyerhaeuser Company

CONTACT: media, Jackie Walburn of Weyerhaeuser Company, +1-334-636-7753
(cell), or +1-205-987-3299

Web site: http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/
http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/katrina