The Sallie Mae Fund announced the following news release:

WILKES-BARRE, Pa, March 23, 2012- The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, announced a $15,000 donation to the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre to support the library's early literacy outreach program. Grant funds will purchase books and literature, as well as advance outreach efforts.

The Osterhout Free Library outreach program enhances early literacy skills for preschool-aged children, families, and caregivers and helps struggling young readers improve their reading habits and skills. The library works with 10 child care facilities, offering educational programming and a rotating book collection. The Sallie Mae Fund has supported the library and Sallie Mae employees have volunteered their time at the library since 1994.

"The Sallie Mae Fund supports programs, like Osterhout's, that foster improved reading performance and provide a firm foundation to help remove many of the barriers that may arise on a child's journey to academic success," said Linda Gramlich, a Sallie Mae employee and volunteer library board president-elect. "Our employees love to put the Fund's mission into action by seeing the happy faces when they help read stories and assist with the library's special events."

Sallie Mae is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Wilkes-Barre this April. As one of the largest employers in Northeastern Pennsylvania, employee contribution programs have raised more than $2.5 million for Pennsylvania charities.

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The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, achieves its mission - to increase college access for America's students - by supporting programs and initiatives that help open doors to higher education. The Fund also supports employee volunteerism and community service in the communities where Sallie Mae employees live and work. For more information, visit www.salliemaefund.org.

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CONTACT:

Jennifer Zeberkiewicz, (302) 283-8206


Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) is the nation's No. 1 financial services company specializing in education. Whether college is a long way off or just around the corner, Sallie Mae turns education dreams into reality for its 25 million customers. With products and services that include college savings programs, scholarship search tools, education loans, tuition insurance, and online banking, Sallie Mae offers solutions that help families save, plan, and pay for college. Sallie Mae also provides financial services to hundreds of college campuses as well as to federal and state governments. Learn more at SallieMae.com. Commonly known as Sallie Mae, SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.


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This press release was issued by SLM Corporation and was initially posted at http://www1.salliemae.com/about/news_info/newsreleases/The+Sallie+Mae+Fund+awards+grant+to+Osterhout +Library+in+Wilkes+Barre.htm . It was distributed, unedited and unaltered, by noodls on 2012-03-23 16:58:08 PM. The issuer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the information contained therein.