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Huffman Family Foundation Commits $2 Million+ to Philanthropic Efforts Across Maryland

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Investments Support Students & Families Through Education, Community Partnerships, and Access to Opportunity

BALTIMORE, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Huffman Family Brands, a unified umbrella company dedicated to social development, innovation, and empowerment, has donated over $2 million to support schools, universities and community organizations across Maryland through the Huffman Family Foundation. The investments reflect the organization’s ongoing commitment to expanding educational opportunities, strengthening student experiences, and supporting families throughout Maryland.  

“Success isn’t measured only by what we build as an organization, but by the opportunities we help create for others,” said Richard Huffman, Founder & CEO of Huffman Family Brands. “Supporting education and community organizations is a responsibility we take seriously because those investments shape future leaders, strengthen families, and create a ripple effect that benefits entire communities for generations.”

Investing in Student Experiences Across Maryland

Calvert Hall College High School: The Huffman Family Foundation recently committed $800,000 toward the creation of The Huffman Family Sports Performance Center at the high school. The project, expected to finish before the start of the 2026-2027 school year, will transform the existing space into a multi-purpose facility designed to support both academic and athletic development, with a lecture hall, athletic training and film review areas, as well as upgraded locker rooms, bathrooms, and team meeting spaces.Notre Dame Preparatory School: The Huffman Family Foundation made a historic $1 million gift to the school’s Common Ground: Building NDP’s Future campaign. The $7.5 million initiative will fund a new Student Commons designed to foster connection, collaboration and a stronger sense of community among students.Salisbury University: The foundation recently supported the development of The Huffman Family Sports Performance Center, a dedicated facility that enhances student-athlete training while reinforcing the university’s holistic approach to education by supporting academic, athletic, and personal development.

Expanding Access to High-Quality Early Childhood Education
Education and community impact remain at the core of Huffman Family Brands’ mission. Through the Huffman Family Foundation and Celebree School, the organization continues to expand access to high-quality learning opportunities while supporting programs that strengthen children, families, and local communities.

Celebree School has grown into a franchise leader in early childhood education, providing infant and toddler care, preschool, and summer camp programs for families across the nation. The brand was recently selected as the largest authorized provider of Maryland’s Pre-K Expansion Grant Program.

Through this partnership, qualifying families may access FREE, high-quality Pre-K education in a safe, nurturing, and holistic learning environment designed to prepare children for kindergarten and beyond.

Strengthened Support for Families Though Ronald McDonald House Charities
Huffman Family Brands’ commitment to families extends beyond education.

After Huffman joined the Board of Directors of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maryland in 2023, Huffman Family Brands expanded its partnership through financial support and volunteer engagement.

Building on that commitment, participating Celebree School locations will donate $50 to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maryland for every new student registered and started by August 31.

“Strong communities are built when schools, families, and organizations work together,” added Huffman. “We are proud to support initiatives that create lasting opportunities for students and provide meaningful support for families throughout Maryland.”

Huffman Family Brands is deeply committed to empowering communities through its platform, leveraging expertise and resources to drive meaningful change.

For more information on Huffman Family Brands, please visit: https://huffmanfamilybrands.com/

About Huffman Family Brands
Huffman Family Brands (HFB) is a unified platform company dedicated to fostering social development, innovation, and community empowerment through its portfolio of powerful and beloved brands. Led by founder Richard Huffman, HFB builds on decades of success with brands like Celebree School, Caliday School Age Programs, Celebree Enterprise, and more. Together, all operating brands under HFB provide early childhood education, enrichment programs, franchise opportunities, and philanthropic support to communities across the United States. With over 150 locations open or in development in 15 states, Huffman Family Brands continues to lead the way in supporting families, entrepreneurs, and communities. For more information, visit huffmanfamilybrands.com.

About Celebree School
Founded in 1994, Celebree School is a leader in early childhood education that provides infant and toddler care, preschool, before and aftercare, and summer camp programs. With a mission to Grow People Big and Small™, Celebree School believes success in early childhood development is equal parts curriculum and connection. Each school employs a customized program that addresses the physical, social, emotional, and academic needs of children and follows applicable state guidelines. In 2019, Celebree School launched its franchise offering. In 2024, Celebree School’s founder, Richard Huffman, launched a new parent company called Huffman Family Brands, merging Celebree affiliated concepts under one multi-brand company structure. Learn more about how we grow confident children who are prepared for school and life at Celebree.com. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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SOURCE Celebree School

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SABRE Launches Smart Pepper Spray With GPS Alerts to Instantly Notify Emergency Contacts

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Connected personal safety device combines maximum-strength protection with real-time location sharing for faster response in critical situations

CHICAGO, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SABRE, a leader in personal safety solutions, announced the launch of the SABRE Smart Pepper Spray, a connected personal safety device that combines maximum-strength pepper spray with real-time GPS alert technology. Designed to enhance personal protection, the device automatically notifies trusted contacts with the user’s live location when the alert button or pepper spray is deployed, helping ensure faster awareness and response in emergencies.

The SABRE Smart Pepper Spray represents a new category of self-defense technology—bridging the gap between physical protection and immediate communication.

A Smarter Approach to Personal Safety

Unlike traditional pepper sprays, the SABRE Smart Pepper Spray integrates with a companion mobile app to provide automatic emergency alerting. When the spray is deployed—or when the in-app panic button is activated—the system sends real-time GPS location alerts to preselected contacts, enabling them to quickly understand the situation and take action.

There is no need to unlock a phone, make a call, or send a message. The alert is triggered instantly—helping ensure users are never alone in a critical moment.

How It Works

User activates the spray, presses the detachable button or in-app panic buttonDevice triggers an automatic alert through the mobile appReal-time GPS location is shared immediatelyEmergency contacts receive a notification and live location tracking

Built for Real-World Safety Situations

The SABRE Smart Pepper Spray is designed to support users in everyday scenarios where personal safety is a concern, including:

Walking alone at nightCollege campus environmentsRunning or outdoor activitiesCommuting or rideshare travelVisiting unfamiliar areas

Powerful Protection Meets Smart Connectivity

In addition to its connected features, the SABRE Smart Pepper Spray delivers professional-grade defense:

Maximum-strength pepper spray trusted by law enforcement12–14 foot range for safer distance from threatsUp to 10 seconds of spray time for extended defenseFast Flip Top safety for quick, one-handed deploymentErgonomic finger grip for improved aim and controlCompact, discreet design for everyday carryLong-lasting battery designed for reliability without frequent charging

Bringing Peace of Mind to Users and Their Loved Ones

The Smart Pepper Spray expands the impact of personal protection beyond the individual carrying it. By instantly notifying trusted contacts, the device provides additional reassurance to family members and friends—helping reduce uncertainty and enabling faster response when it matters most.

“Safety isn’t just about stopping a threat,” said David Nance, CEO of SABRE. “It’s about making sure help is notified instantly—so users are never alone in an emergency. When every second matters, immediate awareness can make all the difference.”

Redefining Personal Safety

The SABRE Smart Pepper Spray reflects a broader shift in personal safety—from standalone self-defense tools to connected safety systems that prioritize awareness, communication, and preparedness.

By combining proven defensive technology with smart connectivity, SABRE is helping redefine what it means to feel protected in everyday life.

Availability

The SABRE Smart Pepper Spray is available now at www.sabrered.com and on Amazon.

For more information, visit www.sabrered.com.

About SABRE

SABRE is a global leader in personal safety solutions, trusted by professionals and consumers worldwide. As the most used brand by police and public safety officers, SABRE combines proven defensive technology with innovative smart features to help people stay safe, connected, and in control in any situation.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sabre-launches-smart-pepper-spray-with-gps-alerts-to-instantly-notify-emergency-contacts-302818424.html

SOURCE SABRE- Security Equipment Corporation

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RapidScale Launches Infrastructure Intelligence Practice as Pricing Volatility Disrupts IT Planning and Operations

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With 88% of businesses experiencing rising costs and extended delivery timelines, RapidScale delivers cost predictability, workload flexibility and procurement reliability.

RALEIGH, N.C., July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — RapidScale, a leading provider of enterprise managed and professional services for public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, today announced its new Infrastructure Intelligence practice. Built upon five existing solution areas, the new offering enables organizations to clearly understand and prioritize technology decision making across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments, improving infrastructure cost visibility, optimizing technology resources in deployment, reducing planning risk, and making more confident decisions.

88% of technology leaders responding to RapidScale’s inaugural Infrastructure Intelligence Index survey reported they’ve experienced at least one disruption resulting from extended lead times, pricing changes, and capacity events in the first six months of 2026. As the global memory and storage supply chain cautiously adapts to spiking demand, overcoming volatility, strategically timing investments, and navigating how a business’s technology needs map to impact will be increasingly critical to organizational growth.

“Companies typically assume that if they have the budget, they can scale infrastructure whenever they need it. That assumption no longer holds,” said Duane Barnes, president of RapidScale. “Lagging access to infrastructure is forcing technology and finance leaders to rethink how they plan, fund and modernize systems. Organizations need a more agile, long-term approach that gives them confidence that the capacity and resources required to support critical operations will be available when they need them.”

To understand how supply chain constraints are impacting businesses in real time, RapidScale surveyed 300 technology leaders, identifying three key trends shaping the current environment:

Nearly all organizations’ tech operations are actively experiencing disruption: Only 12% of organizations reported no meaningful change to operations and planning over the last 90 days. Most IT leaders are actively managing pricing increases during procurement (59%); delivery and lead time delays (48%); and capacity challenges (34%). With manufacturing facilities that will alleviate strain at least 2-5 years from production, adapting to this structural shift will be an ongoing priority.

Organizations are stretching existing infrastructure, but few are delaying projects: Only 26% of respondents noted they were cancelling or delaying projects as a result of volatility, instead opting to shift workloads across their environment (48%) or increase focus on cost governance or consumption optimization (51%). Prioritizing how critical workloads run across existing infrastructure is critical to negating operational issues that may arise from technology headwinds.

The impact now extends beyond IT operations: 84% of respondents are concerned about supply chain volatility’s long-term impact, with most concerned about implications for tech roadmap planning (61%) and budget predictability (53%). While these board-level operational issues cause concern, nearly half of respondents (46%) flag these constraints could impact their organization’s ability to implement and execute AI initiatives.

RapidScale’s Infrastructure Intelligence practice helps organizations establish a fact-based view of current infrastructure spend, identify cost and capacity trade-offs, and build an executive-ready roadmap for modernization. The offering brings together RapidScale’s capabilities in cost transparency, hybrid optimization, VMware strategy, multi-cloud re-platforming and FinOps into a single operating model for aligning infrastructure decisions with business priorities. Combined with RapidScale’s one-to-one approach to partnership, these services enable businesses to thoughtfully and sequentially tackle their most pressing needs.

“It’s critical for businesses to treat infrastructure challenges as interconnected business issues, rather than isolated technology decisions,” said Jason McKay, chief solutions officer at RapidScale. “RapidScale’s Infrastructure Intelligence practice addresses these issues directly, giving technology, finance and executive leaders the visibility needed to strategically evaluate cost, capacity and modernization trade-offs with greater confidence.”

To learn more about Infrastructure Intelligence and how RapidScale helps organizations improve cost predictability and modernization planning, visit https://www.rapidscale.com/infrastructure-intelligence-assessment. To review the findings of RapidScale’s Infrastructure Intelligence Index report, visit https://www.rapidscale.com/blog/cloud/new-rapidscale-research-shows-infrastructure-volatility-is-reshaping-it-roadmaps

About RapidScale

RapidScale empowers business innovation through secure, scalable cloud solutions—driven by exceptional talent. We deliver managed, professional, and advisory services across private, public, and hybrid environments, enabling mid-market and enterprise organizations to extend their technology reach, activate change, and accelerate growth. Whether hosted, on-premises, or hybrid, our solutions are designed to meet the needs of our clients’ business outcomes—not just their infrastructure needs—ensuring each solution is bespoke, unbiased, and precisely aligned with client goals.

As a Broadcom Pinnacle Partner, AWS Premier Partner, Microsoft Azure Expert MSP, and certified Google Cloud Partner, RapidScale transforms complexity into agility. Our services span the full cloud lifecycle—from strategy to execution—with embedded cyber resiliency and AI-powered data insights that protect today’s operations and enable tomorrow’s competitive edge.

Through RapidScale, Cox Business, Segra, and Hospitality Network, Cox Communications provides a broad commercial solutions portfolio including advanced cloud and managed IT solutions and fiber-based network solutions that create connected environments, unique hospitality experiences and support diverse applications for nearly 370,000 businesses nationwide.

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SOURCE RapidScale

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CPSC Implements Mandatory eFiling for Certificates of Compliance, Targeting Dangerous Foreign Imports

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WASHINGTON, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that the Commission’s eFiling program is now in effect, requiring importers of regulated consumer products to submit compliance certificates electronically before products enter U.S. commerce.

The eFiling program enables CPSC to identify and target high-risk imported products more efficiently while reducing unnecessary inspections and delays for compliant importers. By allowing the agency to focus enforcement resources where they are most needed, eFiling helps keep unsafe products out of the U.S. marketplace while facilitating legitimate trade.

Today’s implementation represents one of the most significant modernization efforts in CPSC’s import surveillance program since the agency was established, providing CPSC with certificate information before products enter U.S. commerce. The program also supports closer coordination between CPSC and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, reinforcing a whole-of-government approach to protecting American consumers at the border.

“America faces an unprecedented surge in imported consumer products entering through increasingly complex global supply chains, including millions of direct-to-consumer shipments that often bypass traditional retail distribution. CPSC faces significant enforcement challenges, particularly where products originate from countries that do not comply with U.S. safety laws. eFiling brings CPSC’s import surveillance and targeting capabilities into the 21st century, enabling the agency to identify and interdict high-risk shipments earlier, keeping unsafe foreign-made products out of American homes, and leveling the playing field for American manufacturers and importers that follow the rules,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Peter A. Feldman.

“Let me be clear: eFiling does not apply to domestic manufacturers, including small businesses manufacturing in the United States. It creates no new testing, certification, or compliance obligations. Importers are already required by law to create and maintain this information. eFiling simply modernizes how the data is transmitted to CPSC,” he said.

The eFiling program is the culmination of more than a decade of development, including extensive industry testing through alpha and beta pilots conducted between 2016 and 2024, followed by a voluntary implementation period that allowed importers to develop and test their systems before today’s effective date.

Requirements applicable to consumer products imported into Foreign Trade Zones and later entered for consumption or warehousing will take effect on January 8, 2027.

More detailed information on the eFiling program is available at the links below:

eFiling – CPSC’s Modern Approach for Filing Certificate DataFinal Rule Implementing eFiling for Certificates of Compliance

About CPSC
CPSC is the federal agency charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury associated with thousands of types of consumer products. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product-related incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. Since the agency was established more than 50 years ago, CPSC has worked to ensure the safety of consumer products, contributing to a decline in related injuries.

Federal law prohibits any person from selling products subject to a Commission-ordered recall or to a voluntary recall undertaken in consultation with CPSC.

For lifesaving information:
– Visit CPSC.gov.
– Sign up to receive our e-mail alerts.
– Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, Threads, LinkedIn and Truth Social.
– Report a dangerous product or a product-related injury on www.SaferProducts.gov.
– Call CPSC’s Hotline at 800-638-2772 (TTY 800-638-8270).
– Contact a media specialist.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cpsc-implements-mandatory-efiling-for-certificates-of-compliance-targeting-dangerous-foreign-imports-302820872.html

SOURCE U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

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