Pete Ziegler, service center director of Averitt's Cookeville facility, proudly stands with the 'Employee Giving Partner of the Year' award from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (August 3, 2010) – Averitt Express, a leading provider of freight transportation and supply chain management, was recently recognized as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's Employee Giving Partner of the Year during the presentation of the ALSAC/St. Jude Volunteer Appreciation Awards at a ceremony held on June 25 in Memphis, Tenn.

The award was presented to Averitt in recognition of its associates' support of St. Jude throughout the past twenty years.

Since 1990, Averitt associates have made more than $2.8 million in donations to St. Jude through Averitt Cares for Kids, the company's 100 percent associate-funded charity. Through this charity, Averitt associates completed an endowment to fund the initial construction of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Clinic at St. Jude, and they continue to provide financial support with annual donations to the hospital. Averitt Cares for Kids presented St. Jude with a donation of $350,000 in 2009.

"Averitt associates have always placed the utmost importance on giving back to the communities in which we live and work," said Gary Sasser, Averitt's president and CEO. "We truly believe that there is no better way for us to accomplish that than through our support of St. Jude. Being recognized as the Employee Giving Partner of the Year is an extraordinary honor for us."

"We are so blessed to have compassionate champions of the St. Jude mission who are dedicated to helping our doctors and researchers find cures and save children battling catastrophic diseases," said Richard C. Shadyac Jr., CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising organization of St. Jude. "Their generous support brings us closer to achieving our founder Danny Thomas' dream of a day when 'no child will die in the dawn of life.' On behalf of everyone at St. Jude, congratulations and thank you to all of our award winners."

About St. Jude

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family's inability to pay. St. Jude is financially supported by ALSAC, its fundraising organization. In 2010, St. Jude was ranked the most trusted charity in the nation in a public survey conducted by Harris Interactive, a highly respected international polling and research firm. St. Jude was also named the nation's top children's cancer hospital in the 2010-11 Best Children's Hospitals rankings published by U.S. News & World Report. For more information, go to www.stjude.org.

About Averitt Express

Established in 1971, Averitt Express is a leading provider of freight transportation and supply chain management with international reach to more than 100 countries. The company specializes in delivering customized solutions with a single source of accountability for service offerings that include cross border/domestic offshore, dedicated, expedited, intermodal, international ocean/air, local customization, less-than-truckload, PortSide™, transportation management, truckload (dry van, flatbed, brokerage), warehousing and value-added services, including a centralized call center, strict performance metrics and an ongoing focus on green/sustainability efforts. Averitt's technology offerings include a full suite of web-based shipping tools, electronic data interchange (EDI) and transportation and operations management systems. For more information, please call 1-800-AVERITT (283-7488) or visit www.averittexpress.com.