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First Annual LEGO Creativity Awards

LEGO® Creation Nation Recruiting Young Creative Geniuses With First Annual LEGO Creativity Awards - Ten children, ages 6 to 13, will each win $5,000 to fund personal creative pursuits

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2007 -- Whether to fund guitar lessons, subsidize after-school art instruction, produce an invention or to solve a community problem, LEGO Systems, Inc. is calling all 6-13 year olds who consider themselves curious, imaginative and creative to apply for one of its debut LEGO® Creativity Awards. Beginning today through September 17, 2007, children from across the U.S. and Canada are invited to submit essay responses that showcase their diverse creative talent and demonstrate how one of the ten $5,000 awards would contribute to their creative development for the future. LEGO Systems announced the awards today to culminate its sponsorship of and presence at the World Children's Festival, the largest celebration of children's creativity, hosted by the International Child Art Foundation, on the National Mall in Washington, DC, June 23- 25, 2007.

LEGO Master Builders were on hand to help festival attendees construct a new monument to creativity on the National Mall, reflecting the individual personality of 10,000 children from around the world and made from 1.16 million LEGO bricks. Children and families alike were invited to express themselves -- LEGO style -- with a personal mosaic creation they built and added to a basketball-court sized (40 x 60 foot) map of the United States -- a physical representation of individual creativity unified: Creation Nation. 3-D models of national landmarks were contributed as regions of the map were completed.

LEGO Creation Nation unearths, celebrates and cultivates people who embrace lifelong creativity and through its online web presence, events, and LEGO Creativity Awards, seeks to encourage children to become creative problem solvers and builders of tomorrow. To read profiles of creativity in action, test the strength of your inner creator and find tips for bringing creativity to home and work visit http://www.LEGOcreationnation.com, which launches today.

"We have seen countless examples of children who grew up playing with LEGO bricks who now are contributing their problem solving skills, innovative minds, and creative perspectives to communities and businesses around the world," said Soren Torp Laursen, President, LEGO Systems, Inc. "Creativity has always been the core of the LEGO brand experience and serves as the compass for every decision we make. Through our annual LEGO Creativity Awards we can demonstrate our passion for the importance of creativity among children to shape the future by fostering the creative potential of the builders of tomorrow, just as other programs and genius grants recognize and contribute to the creative capacity of adults."

More about LEGO Creativity Awards

The essay contest encourages children to think of creativity as more than practicing art or music; it is also about taking a new approach to everyday challenges. To submit for the award, LEGO Systems asks children in the U.S. and Canada to share a way in which they have been creative at home, at school or in the community, and how it made them feel. Entrants will also be asked what they will do if they receive a LEGO Creativity Award.

Entries will be preliminarily judged based on adherence to directions and originality of essay response in each of two age categories (6-9, 10-13) in order to determine 20 finalists (10 per age category). Those 20 finalists will then be judged by the LEGO Creativity Awards Jury, comprised of leading creative thinkers from around the U.S. and Canada, and chaired by LEGO Systems to determine 10 award recipients. Official rules regarding entry and prizing can be found at http://www.legocreationnation.com.

In a related release, LEGO Systems also announced the formation of the LEGO Children's Fund, a nonprofit foundation established to support organizations and programs dedicated to inspiring and encouraging youth creativity.

LEGO Systems Inc. (LSI) is the Americas (North America and Latin America) division of the LEGO Group, a privately-held firm based in Billund, Denmark. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children's creative and imaginative abilities through high-quality, creatively educational play materials, and its employees are guided by the motto adopted in the 1930s by founder Ole Kirk Christiansen: "Only the best is good enough." For more information, visit http://www.LEGO.com

LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of The LEGO Group. (C) 2007 The LEGO Group.

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